How to lose Weight After 40
When we think about weight loss, we think about dieting. But dieting is only half of the equation. When I work with my coaching clients I have them focus on two distinct areas.
Eating 3 nutritious meals a day
Addressing their snacking issues
Eating 3 Nutritious Meals a Day
This is always the first thing I focus on. I get them to eat 3 filling and nutritious meals a day. Specifically, this means eating good-sized portions of homemade food and including protein with every meal. A typical daily meal plan might look like this:
Breakfast : 3 medium eggs & 1 slice of rye bread with butter
Lunch: A bowl of chunky vegetable soup made with approx half a tin each of lentils and chickpeas, with onions, carrots, garlic & peppers, topped with some grated cheese
Dinner: Chicken and vegetable coconut curry, with either no rice or just a couple of spoonfuls (made with approx 150g chicken breast, unlimited vegetables, spices and coconut milk) and served with a couple of microwave poppadoms
When you eat like this you will feel full and be satisfied afterwards. You’ll have fewer cravings and find it easier to get to your next meal without snacking. You’ll likely eat fewer calories than when you eat smaller meals and snack more often, and this simple change can be enough to kick-start weight loss.
However, for many people, it’s not that easy, because not feeling hungry doesn’t necessarily eliminate our desire to snack. So we have to address the second issue separately because changing your meals isn’t always enough to put a stop to snacking habits.
IS SNACKING THE PROBLEM?
For most people, it’s what we eat between meals that is the problem. Constant snacking and nibbling throughout the day can add up to significant amounts of calories. Often we don’t realise we’re doing it and are oblivious to how much it’s adding to our daily calorie totals.
I’m one of those people who loves snacking, so I know how easy it is to do, and how hard it is to manage. One tactic that helped me was counting how many calories I was eating a day, just through snacks. I don’t buy biscuits or crisps or have tempting snacks in the house. But I would have slices of cheese, a few nuts, an apple, the odd cracker with peanut butter, plus an extra spoonful (or two), then lots of samples of dinner while I was cooking it. All seemingly innocent and ‘healthy’ until I added it up and realised it accounted for around 750 calories in addition to my breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do that every day and you’ll steadily put on a pound a week.
But telling people not to snack or eat between meals doesn’t always solve the problem because breaking these habits can be incredibly hard.
PRIORITISE TACKLING THE SNACKING OVER EXERCISE
As a personal trainer, I am a huge fan of exercise and the many benefits it brings. However, I discourage most of my clients from thinking about exercise for weight loss. If weight loss is your primary goal then your priority should be your diet, because if you increase the amount of exercise you do, but won’t address your diet and snacking habits, you’ll be disappointed with the results.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
Being honest about how often you snack isn’t easy. I always snacked on my own or in secret, because I was ashamed of it. We imagine we’re the only ones with these bad habits or such terrible willpower, but the truth is it’s incredibly common.
Sometimes we kid ourselves. We don’t face up to the reality of what we are eating, how much and how often. We focus on our virtuous habits and turn a blind eye to our bad ones. But by ignoring the facts, we can’t address the root cause of the problem.
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT
When we can’t stick to 3 nutritious meals a day because we can’t stop snacking, we don’t get the results we’re after. In my experience, women usually blame themselves for not being able to stick to diets. They describe themselves as lazy or unmotivated. Yet there are many reasons we are tempted away from the simple, effective formula of three nutritious meals a day.
This is why I wrote my book, Why Women Over 40 Can’t Lose Weight. If we are really motivated to create healthier eating habits for good then we have to not only pay attention to what we eat, we have to figure out what makes us fail.
In my book, I discuss what I call the six diet blockers. These are factors in our lives which have a significant influence on how we eat;
Being under too much stress
Not having time for ourselves
Menopause
Bad eating habits and a poor relationship with food
Sabotage from family and friends
Food advertising
FIND YOUR TRIGGERS
If you try the simple, 3 meals a day approach but have trouble sticking to it, try and figure out which factors of your life are making it hard to stick with. Ask yourself these questions:
Are you making food you enjoy?
Do you have enough time to prepare and cook healthy meals for yourself?
Do you have emotional triggers or bad habits?
Do you feel too overwhelmed at the end of the day and don’t have the energy or drive to cook?
Is someone close to you making it hard for you to eat how you want?
Journaling is my favourite tool for uncovering your blockers, and becoming aware of the triggers is the first step to finding solutions to the problems that are holding you back.
DON’T COUNT CALORIES, WORK ON YOUR BLOCKERS
When you eat 3, homemade meals a day it is possible to lose weight without counting calories. Counting calories is useful and can work, but it can also encourage us to snack. We count our meals and save calories for snacks. When I’ve followed calorie counting diets, I’ve even ended up skimping on my main meals to give myself a bigger snacking allowance, so I end up eating all day and constantly thinking about food, obsessing about what I can and can’t eat.
EAT IT, FORGET ABOUT IT, AND GET ON WITH YOUR DAY
By contrast, the 3 meals a day approach is designed to stop you from thinking about food. When you are well-fed and enjoy your meals you stop feeling deprived and have fewer cravings, so you can get on with your day. Foods higher in protein are well-known for their ability to reduce hunger and keep us feeling fuller for longer and stabilise energy levels, which is why I recommend you include some with every meal.
When you do the work to free yourself from emotional eating patterns, constantly topping up your energy or searching for something to satisfy the cravings, you find freedom from food, and that’s an incredible feeling. You finally lose weight and find it easy to maintain, and you escape the tortuous cycle of hunger, cravings, guilt and deprivation.
When you’re not thinking about food all day you free up so much space in your brain to focus on other things. It makes you more productive and can make life so much more enjoyable.
So, tackle the real problems with your diet and find food freedom.
Find food freedom
Tackle your blockers and find food freedom for good.