What are the best weight loss medications for seniors?

@sailor1750
You don't mention your age. From personal experience as we age our metabolism slows down and the number of calories we used to need to gain or lose weight changes.

I have been an avid exerciser all my life. My weight problem does not come from inactivity. I exercise 6 days a week for 1-2 hours.

What I have found, and this is just what I have found for me, is to concentrate on the types of food you eat. Eating protein really helps fill you up and last a long time. Easily digested food like snacks are quickly absorbed and if you are not exercising will go to fat storage. This comes from a Mayo dietician.

What works for me is what Ginger mentioned mindful eating. Know what you are eating. Why you are eating. And do not eat when distracted, like watching T.V., etc.

You are going to have to find a calorie in and calorie out for you specifically to lose weight. Statistics and weight charts are just statistics and do not address you specifically and your metabolism.

Last year I developed COVID for the first time even though I took all 8 shots. It knocked me down and I could not exercise and ate every comfort food I could find. Then the COVID moved to a sinus infection then to a bronchial infection. I was down for 3 months and then 3 months to get back to my routine. So, I gained 30 lbs. during that period.

Now my body does not to part with all that snacking weight and fights me like Mike Tyson. So back to mindful eating and yes is working but very slowly.
Good luck.

@sailor1750 Our bodies are miracle machines, truly. What works for one person may not be as successful for someone else.

The basic premise has been more calories burned [going out] than coming in. Beyond that is knowing what is best for you as an individual. In my situation, being on dialysis everyday for kidney problems, my protein intake is higher than someone else, but it needs to be good quality. My body also enjoys fruit and fresh vegetables. Few carbs. As much fluid intake as allowed for my situation, about 60 oz a day. Water, a cup of coffee, no dark colored sodas, very little fruit juice. My exercise is broken down into chunks of time.
Ginger

@gingerw
Agree!
Humans are very different it the way medications work, metabolisms, how much they can eat and not gain weight, and so many factors that affect weight.

It does some down to specifically your body in what goes in (food) and what goes out in terms of exercise and movement. But that ratio is different for every single person. So wathing a person eat this or that and thinking you can do the same is not correct.

You really have to find that balance of how much you can eat based on your lifestyle activity that creates a calorie deficit and you lose weight.

I found a simple technique mentioned many times of drinking a cold glass of water prior to eating helps reduce how much you eat due to stomach content of the water. The second one is to eat slowly and I meant chewing and chewing until completely chewed to slow down your eating. Putting down you spoon or fork between bites and eating to last at least 20 minutes to get to that time frame that your brain will say okay not hungry now.

Then on the other side. Find an exercise you like doing (check with doctor first). I love water aerobics as you use weights in the water for resistance and lots of aerobic activity. But that does not mean you will like it. Walking, biking, swimming, walking dog, gardening, hobbies, anything that burns calories and you like doing it.

Everything helps so doing a lot of different things helps for success versus drastic things like just diet or thinking exercise alone will do it.

"Best" depends on what we are looking for, right?

There is a reason that the new GLP-1 RA medications have made such a splash -- they reliably work for most (although not all) people, and do so pretty rapidly. Most other weight loss drugs either work poorly (if at all) or are actively dangerous. If you want to go with other drugs (especially over-the-counter, including herbals and supplements), check out the clinical trials first, and look at any FDA evidence of problems.

I started taking tirzepatide (zepbound) at age 72, and have posted about it before on these blogs. I knew from a lifetime's worth of experience that I would regain the weight I lost plus more doing anything resembling a combination of diet and exercise. Only two solutions have genuinely worked for me in the past, and even they eventually failed: (1) a medically-supervised fast (which really meant living off an extremely low calorie prescription beverage regime), which demonstrated that if I could entirely give up food, I had no difficulties, and (2) bariatric surgery, after which the weight came back very, very slowly.

If I were you, I would do none of those things if this is your first experience with weight loss -- learning new eating habits makes more sense than drugs as a first solution. Plus, learning to eat more healthily and mindfully will stand you in good stead if you do try any of the more serious options. If this is not your first rodeo...

From what I can tell, medically-supervised fasts are no longer available.

Bariatric surgery is a great alternative at pretty much any age, if you qualify and are ready for it. It was coupled with the best behavioral re-training experience I've ever had, which has helped me greatly in my latest use of the GLP-1 RAs. Some people do experience side effects, as I did, but any solution that reliably works risks those. The big advantage of surgery over the GLP-1s (or any drug) is that it's one-and-done. You really, really want to take the prep and follow-up seriously -- I've got a friend who essentially lied her way through the process, and it didn't end well.

Most recently, I lost all the weight I had regained since the surgery, using first tirzepatide (zepbound) and now semaglutide (ozempic). I've had a variety of side effects (as with the surgery, most people do not experience side effects, but some, like me, definitely do), and that was the primary reason that led me to switch drugs within the GLP-1 RA family. The big advantage of these drugs is that in most cases, the side effects go away if and when you stop the drugs -- you can't stop surgery (although the surgeries can be reversed if necessary). The big disadvantage is that no one has figured out a great way to get off of them -- usually, if you don't stick with the drugs, the weight comes right back. (And unlike the surgery, there's no systematic prep and follow-up, which means they just give you the drug with no wrap-around services to address our underlying issues.) Therefore, you may be on the drugs for life.

But age is not a problem with any of these.

@projfan Can these weight loss drugs be taken at any age as I’m a female age 83? Just need to lose 10/15lbs. I’m in reasonably good health.

Thanks so much for your detailed information. I don’t have a problem with needles but thinking pill form maybe easier for me. Your primary doctor didn’t have any hesitation in prescribing this drug for you? I’m type 2 diabetic & was on rebelsous but became in control my last blood work so doctor took me off it plus insurance wouldn’t pay if in control but kept my weight in check when I was taking that drug. Thanks so much again for your information & reply.