Your birthday is around the corner, you can’t help but think how old you’re getting. You start pondering:
“Am I really about to turn 50?”
“Who am I kidding, at this point I’ll probably never lose weight”
You start to give yourself every excuse in the book on why losing weight is pointless and to just accept your body as is. You justify those excuses, by saying things like:
“I mean I am getting older”
“All my friends my age has gained weight too, I shouldn’t feel bad”
“Getting bigger is a normal part of aging”
The cliché thought process that we all have within ourselves manifested in a variety of ways whenever we feel stuck, unsure or ready to quit because things aren’t going our way, be it fitness or anything else.
Self-doubt starts creeping in and it creeps in hard, to the point where it almost makes you forget why you ever started in the first place. Just because you’re going through menopause or will at some point doesn’t mean you should accept the status quo. You don’t have to let yourself go, you can still make progress: lose weight, get stronger, build muscle and feel better.
Will it take time?
Absolutely
Does it mean you should quit?
Absolutely not
The question isn’t whether you can lose weight during menopause, it’s you not knowing where to start. With so much information at your fingertips, it can be overwhelming to navigate the field of health and wellness. Marketers, influencers, “experts,” social and mainstream media alike can make it that much more difficult, spewing nonsense to drive their own agenda:
“Buy this pill to help you lose weight in 10 days”
“You can lose ____ number of pounds by doing this one exercise”
“If you wear this waist trainer for _____ number of day’s you can lose ____ # of pounds”
I am sure you’ve came across these marketing gimmicks at some point in your life. You probably fell for it yourself. Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone, most people have to. I am here to tell you, you don’t need pills, a waist trainer or a single exercise to lose weight. You simply need guidance. A basic nutrition and exercise program that caters to your lifestyle and it’s equally sustainable and enjoyable. That’s it.
Stay Active
You have to stay active, it should be an important part of your lifestyle, especially as you age. I am not recommending some fancy exercise that you see on Instagram for the sake of virality, a simple walk every-day is a great start. Walking is one of those exercises that gets overlooked, but yet can yield great benefits.
One of the quickest ways to hinder any weight loss progress is by being too sedentary. Your body is designed to move, and so you have to find ways to move more throughout the day. There is something called NEAT (non-exercise activity of thermogenesis), it accounts for any additional calories your body burns through movement. It can be anywhere between 200 to 900 extra calories burned. I implore you to move more, it’s that important.
If you’re curios how to get more movement throughout the day, click HERE. These simple hacks might be of use to you.
Eat In a Deficit
If you’ve read any of my previous articles, I’ve talked at nauseum on the importance of eating in a deficit to lose weight. If you haven’t, I would recommend you to give it a read, HERE. Whether you’re pre, post or currently on menopause, eating in a deficit is the only way, I mean the only way you will lose weight. Period. End of story. There is no hack, no magic pill, no magic exercise, no supplements or waist trainer, it’s simply eating less calories than the number of calories you’re burning. You can’t outsmart the law of thermodynamics, don’t even bother trying.
Your metabolism isn’t “broken,” as much as you may think it is. I promise you it’s not. If you don’t believe me, I want you to do the following:
Take a metabolic and thyroid blood test. It will tell you instantly whether things are abnormal or not. If it’s not, that’s great and if it is that is also great because you can then get on medication to fix it. One way or another one of us will have some apologizing to do, I can bet the farm, it wouldn’t be me, but I could be wrong.
(I genuinely don’t think I’ll be wrong lol)
Most people end up blaming there “broken metabolism” as the reason why they aren’t losing weight, instead of paying attention to their food intake, how often they exercise, whether their moving more throughout the day. You can’t continue eating the way you use to; you aren’t 20 anymore, you can’t just eat whatever you want and still expect to lose weight. Before blaming your metabolism, I recommend you to pay closer attention to other factors that could potentially hinder your fat loss progress.
Strength Train
Listen, we all need to have some of level of muscle, including yourself, only doing cardio isn’t going to cut it. You need to get strong for many reasons, a few being:
Bone health
Injury prevention
You burn more calories
Self confidence
Etc.
I don’t know if you caught what I previously just said, but you get to burn more calories!!!
Strength training allows you to build muscle, having more muscle on you, allows you to burn more calories. Your muscles burn roughly 6 calories per day at rest compared to fat at only 3 calories. Even when you are not exercising, you still end up burning calories throughout the day, which is great, because it helps boost metabolism, a boost in metabolism expedites the process of losing weight. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a great deal to me. Just saying.
You’re now probably asking yourself, what exactly constitutes as strength training, is it:
Lifting lighter weights to get tone?
Focusing on one body part?
Lifting weights every single day?
The body building thing?
What is it exactly?
Strength training is much more basic then that my friend. I know with social media at your fingertips you can easily find yourself lost in the abyss of fancy workouts, shirtless videos, perfuse sweating and see that as an effective way of building muscle, getting stronger and losing weight. I am here to tell you, it’s far from the actual truth.
You have to understand part of social media content be it fitness or anything else primary goal is to grab your attention. If that entails getting a paid influencer with ripped abs, spray him with baby oil and have him do some “cool” looking workout, that has no practical application to your lifestyle, needs or goal for the sake of going viral, then that is exactly what will be shown to you. Just keep that in mind the next time you start playing the comparison game.
Oh yes, strength training. A proper strength training program entails compound movements, lifting with intensity, proper set and rep counts, proper rest time, adding weights to the bar and recovery.
It isn’t doing 20 reps of bicep curl with a 5lb dumbbell combined that with a bunch of burpees and finishing it off with plank holds. The goal isn’t to get you sweaty, it’s to get you strong, mobile, tone, feel better and lose weight. A proper strength training program will do just that.
Don’t believe me?
Ask two of my previous clients
You too can do it. You may just need a simple road map to get you there. HERE, is a basic strength training program to get you started and HERE, is a FREE beginners guide to lose weight for those who are new to this fitness thing.
Fitness is my passion, it’s what I love doing more than anything else in the world. Believe me when I tell you, I want to help as many people as I can and that includes you. I don’t want anything from you, just three things:
Don’t quit on yourself
Stay committed even when things aren’t going your way
Stay patient because it will take time
Leave everything else to me
I wouldn’t disappoint
I promise