8 Women Who Successfully Lost Weight After Menopause

After her father passed away, Mary’s weight climbed up to 290 pounds. She was no longer able to tend to her flower beds, walk through the sand on the beach, clean her house, or even make it from her car to the door of her workplace without getting out of breath—and she was only 50 years old. “I used to lie awake at night wondering what I was going to do. Was I going to see retirement age at this rate?” she says. She decided to join an Anytime Fitness gym and started meeting with a personal trainer three times a week. 

At first, “I could not jump with both feet off the ground. I could not do the crab or bear crawl because my belly was so big. I could not do a full sit-up or push-up,” she says. She stuck with it and eventually lost over 100 pounds. After seeing her progress, several of Mary’s friends and family members joined the same gym, and they now enjoy working out together on Sunday mornings. They call themselves the Golden Girls, and have since started participating in races to raise money to support local community programs and charities.

MORE: How To Start Walking When You Have 50+ Pounds To Lose

At first, “I could not jump with both feet off the ground. I could not do the crab or bear crawl because my belly was so big. I could not do a full sit-up or push-up,” she says. She stuck with it and eventually lost over 100 pounds. After seeing her progress, several of Mary’s friends and family members joined the same gym, and they now enjoy working out together on Sunday mornings. They call themselves the Golden Girls, and have since started participating in races to raise money to support local community programs and charities.