I would love to see some posts of 50 and 60-year-old people losing weight by fasting. This would motivate me like nothing else
I don’t find fasting any harder or easier at an older age but I do find weight loss to be somewhat harder. There are scientific reasons for this in the context of hormones and musculature. I seem to be having more luck with ADF.
I’m 52(m), and losing weight is quick and easy so far. 8kg in 2 weeks (≅500g per day).
I did a few alternate day 24hr fasts for a while several years ago, and this is no more difficult than those. And it beats the hell out of dieting and calorie counting, hoping to shave off 100g a day, and plateauing for weeks.
This time I am pushing a bit harder and ‘rolling’ sequential three-day fasts with just a one-small-meal break in between, and I’m finding it pretty easy. Having said that, I’m in a pretty determined mood right now, and have moved myself out of my comfort zone in more ways than just dieting. I wouldn’t have had the motivation to do this in any of the last four years, and definitely couldn’t do it without abstaining from alcohol first.
My wife 47(f) is fasting for the first time, and went straight into attempting rolling two-day fasts. However, she has more social and familial stuff going on, and has had to break some of them earlier than she wanted. But she seems to be doing fine. Let’s see if she can keep it up for six to eight weeks though.
I’m in my 50s and have been fasting for the last 5 months, have lost almost 40 pounds, down two pant sizes, and don’t feel like fasting is in any way tougher to do at my age. The key for me was motivation to lose weight and changing my eating habits. Once I cut out a lot of the junk food and substituted in fat, fasting became almost natural. Unlike calorie counting, this feels like something I can continue for the rest of my life.
I’d guess it’s a factor of changing behavior as you get older. Fasting is about 99% mental, every time I’ve broken a fast I felt I absolutely needed to and once I took the first bite of food that “need” feeling went away.
It’s harder to change your mental mindset the longer you stay in that mindset. Just jumping into extended fasts will likely lead to failure. If you have no experience fasting start with alternating 16 hour fasts for a month. That’ll be uncomfortable at first but it’ll get easier after the first week. Start to increase the length of your fasts after that.