Fed up of yo-yo dieting? Here are the five diet rebound traps to avoid as a woman over forty.
It’s super common for women over forty to experience weight regain after a successful fat loss phase. Many women we work with have been through this before; struggling to lose weight… only to regain it all and end up back to square one.
This situation can be incredibly frustrating, and so many women end up stuck in this situation. They’re putting in all the effort of dieting, only to undo the hard work when they go back to living ‘normally’. They’ll step on the scales after a hard few weeks of dieting, only to see the number creeping up…
Plus, it’s common for these women to cover up ‘problem areas’ rather than wearing what they like! This can cause a huge amount of stress and worry on a day-to-day basis.
The reason this happens is simple;
The process of losing weight is NOT the same as the process of keeping that weight off.
But with the right approach? It’s definitely possible to drop 1-2 dress sizes, fit back into all your clothes and feel INCREDIBLE wearing anything you like in just 12 weeks…
In our most recent podcast episode, we revealed the top five diet rebound traps which cause people to regain weight after dieting. Plus, we give you the tips and tricks that our clients use to see long term success!
What is the diet rebound trap?
Have you ever lost weight on a diet, only to regain it afterwards? It can be a massively demoralising feeling, having put in all that hard work for months… only to end up back at square one.
In our experience, this happens for 5 key diet rebound reasons. Here’s what we recommend to avoid this happening to you!
Knowing is different to doing
The majority of people get to their goal, or close enough, and then lose their motivation.
They ignore the things which helped them see success; accountability, support and community. When these key essential motivators are dropped, it’s incredibly easy to spiral back to where you started.
Knowledge is important in weight loss. For a woman, getting fit over 40 is much different to losing weight in your 20s or 30s. It’s important to understand what you need to do differently, and why you need to do it.
However, knowing something and doing something is a very different ballgame! You can know what to do, but still not do it consistently.
The reason this happens; it’s easy to fail alone.
Without the accountability, support and community, it all comes down to you. You need to motivate yourself. You need to come up with an effective LIST training program every month, and you need to figure out the problem when it doesn’t seem to be working. Doing all of this, on top of a stressful job, is a big ask!
For example, at Trinity, we don’t even write our own fitness programs! We’re too busy, and it’s much easier to write a program for someone else than it is for yourself.
We also don’t keep ourselves accountable. Accountability is all about having someone else keeping you accountable, so that’s why we still have fitness coaches keeping us accountable (even to this day)!
Missing the reframe or reverse dieting phase
In a recent blog post, we covered the four key phases to a Lifetime Transformation; reboot, reframe, reverse and maintain.
Most people will complete the first phase, reboot (a.k.a getting the weight moving), but they then skip the other three key phases. This means that, not only will their negative thought patterns always get the better of them, but their metabolism will also have slowed down.
Instead of simply reverse dieting to rebuild their metabolism (and enable them to eat more again) they jump straight back into eating ‘normally’. They end up eating way more than their body needs… leading to them gaining a lot of excess weight very quickly.
So, what’s the solution? You must follow all four phases in order to maintain your results… including mastering reframing your negative thought processes and rebuilding your metabolism by reverse dieting.
Stopping putting yourself first
A mentor of ours always says this; you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Putting yourself first is often viewed as selfish, and this is especially true for women. Many women feel incredibly guilty putting themselves first. Whether that’s doing a workout before work, or cooking a healthy dinner away from the family.
Yet – much like putting your own oxygen mask on first when flying – you need to focus on yourself in order to help others.
If you want to be there for your family in the long run, you must put your health and fitness requirements first. Otherwise, you’ll quickly go back to square one. You’ll constantly be fatigued and grumpy, your work performance will suffer… and you’ll always be playing catch up!
Putting yourself first is essential. It aids you in being a shining example to your family and colleagues, especially if you look after a busy team.
Additionally, this is how you build your own self-worth, and set an example of valuing yourself to the rest of your family. Self-worth is built from putting yourself first, so keep working on it!
Going back to what you used to do…
The reason our Fit Over 40 method works (when many mainstream fitness approaches don’t) is for a reason. It’s all designed to…
- Keep your body’s internal stress levels low (aka cortisol)
- Work with your hormones (rather than against them)
- Be gentle on the joints
- Build your metabolism and bone density
- Build a rock-solid mindset
Whilst any-old fitness approach can work for people in their 20s, when you’re into your 40s and 50s your body is changing. Hence, your approach must change with it.
The body’s stress response becomes more elevated with age, and this increase can be 3x more for women than men! So, intense cardio sessions or cutting out whole food groups can drastically spike your stress hormone. This can make it almost impossible to lose weight!
Hammering the body into submission won’t work as you get older, and it’s a classic diet rebound trap. In order to keep the weight off over forty, you need to do what’s right for your body and hormones.
Not giving habits long enough to form
According to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit. More complex habits, especially those that involve breaking pleasure-based habits, take longer to change.
So, if you want to make a lifetime transformation, you need to repeat these new healthy habits for long enough for them to become ingrained. 254 days is around 36 weeks… so focus on that if you want to break those bad habits for good!
It might seem expensive to invest in your wellbeing for that long, but what’s more valuable than your health?
Plus, repeating diet after diet from scratch is expensive. It’s easy for people to waste years, if not decades, of their life taking one step forward and two steps back with their weight! This can often be because they don’t keep going for long enough to break habits…
If you’re interested in finding a long-term, sustainable diet designed for women over 40, you can find out more about working with us here!
