Gain or Lose Weight At Retirement Start?

[meperki]

Now that retirement is 14 days away, I am wondering if how many people lost weight once they were unchained from a desk.

I commuted down the hall (telecommunted) for that last 8 years and worked an average of 10.5 hours a day. I promised my Dr. that once retired I will be more active.....so now I have to deliver.

I would love to hear others experiences.

 

[travelover]

I lost weight initially - stress induced eating while w*rking. After about 5 years, I started to gain weight and needed to reexamine my diet, which has worked quite well.

 

[martyp]

I joined a gym and work out with a trainer. Didn't lose weight. Didn't need to. I am much more fit now (3 yrs later) than I ever was during my w*rk yrs. Best thing I ever did.

 

[arky]

Six years into retirement, but my weight has held steady for the last 20 years. Now my muscle tone...., that's a different story !!

 

[W2R]

Like Travelover, I lost weight initially without even trying.

But that stopped at some point. Since I am still very much overweight, I have been attending Weight Watchers this year.

One really terrific thing about retirement, is that there is plenty of time to go to the gym. So I do exercise a lot more than I did when I was working.

 

[MBAustin]

No significant weight change for me. I thought I would exercise more but in reality I just upped my weekday morning walk from 1.5 to 2 miles.

 

[Walt34]

Not significantly except for once. We "got into" cooking for a while and both of us gained 20 lbs which took a while to shed. I mean, after we put all that work into making all this great food, we're not supposed to eat it? That's not fair!

We both hit the gym 3 or 4 days a week and we both feel a lot better.

 

[Khan]

I lost .5 pounds a week for 3 years, 80# (135). Put 10 back on in 2010/11 when I started some socializing. Have now lost 5 of that and will be using low carb and walking to get down to 125 or so. I'm 5'3" and small boned.

 

[MichaelB]

When I worked my main staples were coffee and cigarettes, and after leaving I started eating real food again. In the first year I gained 25 pounds and added 4 inches to my waist. Photos from them are painful to look at. I took it off the following year (well, really 2) and now weigh in at 5 lbs less than when I quit. Weight is not so evenly distributed as back then, but I'll take what I can get.

 

[Chuckanut]

Thanks to retirement I starting eating real food, the kind that takes some time to prepare. Out went the easy convenient foods high in sugar, highly processed and containing all sorts of odd sounding things. As a result I am down about 25 pounds and almost 4 inches off the old waistline.

I also exercise more. The main benefit is increased endurance and more 'energy' during the day. I do not attribute the weight loss to exercise, that is probably 90%+ the difference in the foods I eat.

 

[Midpack]

I'm essentially unchanged. I could go through the details, when most in and out of shape, but the bottom line is retirement doesn't correlate to weight change for me. However...

...a side observation, I found I was able to maintain really good physical condition up to about age 57, it's become noticeably harder since. Age is beginning to take some toll and I simply cannot push myself while working out like I could in my early 50's and before, though I'm still active and in very good condition for my age. And recovery times from muscle strains are longer now, so I have to be more careful with resistance/weight training, alas. I suspect the age threshold varies for each of us, but maybe we all really start to really feel our age at some number of years?

 

[Helen]

I moved into the city a year and a half before retiring. I went from driving an hour to work to walking an hour to work, I also cleaned up my diet. So, my weight change happened before I retired.

Since retiring in last May, I have dropped a few pounds but I think I've gained some muscle. I had to buy some smaller clothes. I have a lot more time for exercising now, I walk a lot, go hiking and started taking yoga classes.

Life is good.

 

[David1961]

Have been retired a little over a year. Have lost 10 lbs - mostly due to the fact that I am eating healthier (since I have more time to cook) and have cut way down on drinking soda.

 

[pb4uski]

It'll be 2 years for me in a couple days. I'm about 10 pounds heavier than when I retired. Not sure why. Could be natural growth. Something I need to work on in 2014.

 

[Katsmeow]

It has a been a bit of a mixed bag for me.

I semi-retired 3 1/2 years ago going from very full-time work to going into the office once a week (about 6 months ago that changed to not going in at all).

Overall, I've lost about 20 pounds since that time.

However, at one point I had lost about 40 pounds.

The good - in the early days after semi-retirement, I focused a lot on weight and fitness. I went to the gym regularly and had a personal trainer, worked on my diet with WW. I definitely had more time to do these things that I did while I was working.

The bad - When we downsized and were involved in buying our current house I didn't have time to do most of the above as we were looking about 60 miles from where we lived and we did a lot of driving to look at houses and ate out a lot. Then, when we moved the convenient gym wasn't convenient any more and I regained a lot of what I had lost.

The ugly - Retirement does give you more time to exercise and eat in a healthy way. That said, I found that for me (and for my husband) we are much more sedentary. We now have a 1 story house that is not that large. Since I don't go to the office every day (or any day now), I can often go several days without leaving the house. We don't have a need to go out all that often, mostly to the grocery store a couple of times a week. So, the result is that even if I exercise (we have home equipment now), I still find that I spend the vast majority of every day sitting - mostly at the computer. Yes, I get up and do stuff around the house, but that doesn't take that long. I have a Fitbit and find that if I am home all day, I will only take about 1500 steps unless I make a concerted effort to take more (one reason we bought a treadmill). I am exercising more (treadmill, Concept2, weights), but to some extent that is balanced by the fact that I am more sedentary than I was when I was working full-time.

 

[Alan]

In preparation for retirement I started exercising and changed my diet so that by the time I ER'ed I was at the weight I wanted. In the 4 years since then I have maintained the weight and have definitely been exercising a lot more and feel much fitter.

 

[Cassie]

Like Travelover, I lost weight initially without even trying.

But that stopped at some point. Since I am still very much overweight, I have been attending Weight Watchers this year.

One really terrific thing about retirement, is that there is plenty of time to go to the gym. So I do exercise a lot more than I did when I was working.

Freedom for me in 16 days, yippee! I too attend WW and hope to try some of the recipes...like the split pea soup that was recently in the weekly. This weekend I was going to make the vegetable soup, because I attended too many Christmas parties at work! However, it's suppose to be warm so I probably won't be to motivated.

 

[Dash man]

I've been retired now for eight months and have lost 14 pounds. I worked as a telecommuter for the last seven years and raided the refrigerator a bit too much to get away from the stress of work. Once the stress was gone, I've cut out any snacking and am a little more active during the day. I haven't started a regular exercise program, but plan to start hiking in the spring, so maybe I'll get back to my college weight in another year or so.

 

[donheff]

First 7 years no change. My stress levels dropped, I continued exercising regularly, and I added in cycling (near 100 miles/week) but continued to add a pound a year which I had done for 35 years. Two years ago I dropped virtually all processed food, all low fat stuff, almost all sugar, and reduced bread and other carbs. I quickly dropped 35 pounds and have effortlessly stayed at my college weight ever since. Since I love meats, fish, eggs, bacon, and butter I am in dietary heaven. YMMV.

 

[DayDreaming]

After retiring, I gradually lost about 10 lbs without really trying. I attribute that to not having breakfast and/or lunch at the company cafeteria, and not going out to lunch so often - frequent lunch outings would be places like a nearby Chinese buffet, or a Mexican restaurant and beers, etc.

My weight was then steady at -10 lbs until I took a serious look at my health - I did not have any health problems and I felt fairly fit, but decided I really should eat better and exercise more consistently. So doing that for the past couple of years I lost another 20 lbs. Altogether, I'm down 30 lbs from the day I retired, and probably right about where I should be. I think this puts me in a good place to begin the next 50 years of my life.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

My all time high weight was in my retirement month 7 years ago. Since then I have lost steadily but very slowly, about 60 lbs so far, mainly from eating better. I still have a ways to go.

 

[Ozstache]

Only 2.5 months into ER here, but l have lost about 1kg and one belt notch in that time and am very near my ideal weight now. That and at least 30 mins walking a day plus a bit of a tan from the sun and people keep telling me I look great, and I feel it too!

 

[racy]

About 2 months before retiring, I focused on losing weight and lost 30 lbs. Mostly by choosing better food and avoiding second helpings. I've kept it off by hitting the treadmill in the morning and walking with my dog pal a couple of miles in the afternoon. Speaking of better food, here's a great recipe for homemade granola: Megan's Granola Recipe - Allrecipes.com

 

[jowi]

It all depends on your lifestyle. One person could sit at home 'bored' too much and if they tend to eat when they do that and if they aren't active, then they'd probably gain weight. If you keep busy so your eating doesn't increase and increase your activity, then you might lose weight. My DH retired last year and has hardly missed a day at the gym. That's not my cup of tea - I prefer to work out here at home (treadmill/TV is my daily workout and I like to hike or take walks with the dog). The stories he tells about the people at the gym ... don't know WHY he likes going! Other than that, he's either playing his guitar or working around the house - he keeps busy. Finding healthy hobbies that don't include eating or sitting around (for example, NOT baking combined with video gaming, lol) and you should be good

 

[Rena]

I've only been retired 2 months but I am surprised that I haven't lost weight. I really thought it would fall off once I stopped the stress eating and sitting at a desk all day. I'm more active and eating better ( I think ) but my weight has stayed the same. Hopefully after the holidays dh and I can both revamp our diet. I also plan to join a gym in the new year so that "should" help.