{"id":35482,"date":"2022-04-09T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T07:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=35482"},"modified":"2026-06-06T09:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:35:17","slug":"too-old-to-lose-that-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/too-old-to-lose-that-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Too Old to Lose That Weight? My Doctor Says I Am"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"am<\/a>
At 143 plus pounds (today), I’m definitely in the overweight category. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m 80. I’m old. I’m also overweight. I weigh 140 pounds on a good day. I don’t think I’m too old to lose that weight.\u00a0But my doctor does.\u00a0And that worries me.<\/p>\n

Now that I’m an 80-something, is my doctor applying a new set of rules to my care? Is he assuming that at 80 I haven’t much longer to live, so why ask this poor old lady to go on a diet? Why not let her be plump for the measly years she has left?<\/p>\n

Worse, is my doctor applying those 80-something rules to other areas of my care? Will he assume that my heart, my lungs, my knees and my feet are also beyond repair and not worth bothering with?<\/p>\n

That’s what worries me. Given my family history, I could live another two decades. I’d like to feel good for those 20 years. But even if the time I have left on the planet is much less than that, I still have time<\/em>, and I want to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

Too Old to Lose That Weight?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I’m old, but I’m not feeble. Not yet. Right now, I feel like I expected to feel at age 60 — a little stiff in the joints, a little slow on the uptake (I was only mildly helpful during a visit to an escape room last weekend. The younger folks are so much quicker<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

But I’m all here.\u00a0 I’ve got most of my marbles. I Zumba and Spin with the 40-somethings. I sit down once a week to write a cogent missive to my readers. I remember to turn off the burner before taking my veggie burger off the stove.<\/p>\n

I’m not too old to lose that weight.<\/p>\n

\"am<\/a>
I like to stay at the back of the Zumba class. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three years ago that same doctor, my internist, wanted me to lose 15 pounds. Losing those extra pounds would do wonders, he said — for my knees, my feet, my slightly elevated A1c and cholesterol. It might even help the GERD I’ve been experiencing for the past few years. And the windedness.<\/p>\n

Several other doctors have told me the same thing — the endocrinologist weighed in on the A1c,<\/a> the cardiologist on my 220 cholesterol<\/a> levels, the podiatrist on the plantar fasciitis<\/a>, the physical therapist on the creaky knees<\/a>, the gastroenterologist on the GERD<\/a> and the windedness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This Old Age Thing<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Here’s my concern as I embark upon this old age thing. Will my doctors look at me and see that I haven’t as many years ahead of me as a 40-year-old or a 60-year-old? Will they calculate the cost-benefits and conclude that any new ailments aren’t worth treating?<\/p>\n

Will my doctors give up on me?\u00a0That worries me. So I’m sending my doctor a copy of this essay.<\/p>\n

More about that getting older thing at “The Shame of Aging.”<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Also,\u00a0\u00a0“A Child Is Born, and So Is a Grandpa.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"am<\/a>
We got out of this escape room alive last weekend in Vegas. Better yet, we got out in 55 minutes, 49 seconds, with only a clue or two to help us out. Yea us! That’s me on the right, with daughter Christina and her husband Tim. Photo by Escapology<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is my doctor giving up on me now that I’ve turned 80? Does he think I don’t have many good years left — and I’m too old to lose that weight?\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,187,2581,2556,34,2582,2583],"class_list":["post-35482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-aging","tag-death","tag-dieting","tag-doctors","tag-dont-miss","tag-escape-room","tag-overweight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49330,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35482\/revisions\/49330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}