Good for you for the decision. I would like to weigh in on this, pun intended. Only 1% of us succeed at maintenance. I say "us" because I dumped 85 lbs 35 years ago and that puts me in with those who have found a way to keep it off. The plan to reach a goal weight will, especially at mid-life, turn out to be the single easiest aspect of this. What too many of us don't do is plan for what we are going to do post-weight loss. For that is far harder, full of potholes, as the body struggles to bring it all back. That is a lifetime battle. And trust me, after 35 years, I might have learned a few things.

Keto is tempting but the science doesn't back it. Diets are tempting but the science doesn't back them. THE ONLY APPROACH that works is a step by step, day by day reworking of your habits. Slowly enough so that you can embed them into your daily life. The yogurt vs. the donut or danish. The salad vs. the burrito. The occasional, and very small TREAT like a chunk of chocolate.

This whole process is a kindness. We mix up weight loss with whipping ourselves into shape. Nuthin' about that is kind. Learning to eat well for the body we have is kind. Respectful. As you approach sixty, and I'm 68, your body will likely shift again.

Your finest tool, and a lifetime tool, is a rich sense of humor. You will fail. You will fall off the wagon. You will hate yourself for it, which is not only unkind but brutally unfair. Plan to fail, then have a Plan B for when you do. For we often assume that after the first few pounds down it will be easy, no plateaus and we won't cheat. Yeah. There will be and we will.

So how can we plan to be kind to ourselves when the inevitable happens?

We treat weight gain like a moral failure. Nope. It's a season of the body, which is little more than a season of the soul. How we move through them speaks to our true health. Being slimmer won't change what's inside you. Change what's inside you and your body will change in concert with that. Slim doesn't mean fit. Fit means fit. Fit happens with movement. Lower body weight, if it indeed is meant for us, happens with self love and respect.

And just to be fair I am NOT a Noom fan. I just wrote an article slamming it. If it works for you fine, but it has a bad habit of creating disordered eating. I spent four decades with just that. We hardly need to be intensely focused on our food. We need to be intensely focused on the path to greater respect for the self. But that's just me. Noom is a diet. Diets do not work. Science backs me up. I would do my research on Noom. It's not pretty, and they manipulate their stats in the worst possible way. But you choose, and if you can make it sustainable without damaging your body have at it.