Glenna Ganster has tussled for years with the unwanted 10 to 15 pounds she acquired after menopause.
She and her husband tried intermittent fasting, severely restricting calories three days a week and eating as they pleased the other four. It took the weight off, but after two years, “we both just got tired of it,” she said. The pounds returned.
Now Ms. Ganster, 72, a retired mental health counselor in Tucson, has ramped up her exercise routine, adding cardio and squats to her usual weight training and walking three to four miles daily. To appease her sweet tooth, she bakes brownies containing black beans and cookies with chickpeas.
She feels “a little tempted,” she said, by the GLP-1 medications so many people take to lose weight.
Her doctor insists her current body mass index of 25.7, barely above normal, indicates a healthy size and discourages her interest in obesity drugs. “He said: ‘You’re fine, you’re absolutely fine. Don’t worry about it,’” she said.
Still, hanging reproachfully in her closet are clothes she wore 30 years ago and wants to wear again. “I don’t want to look like my mother or my grandmother,” she said.
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