Have you put on weight since turning forty? Here’s how to avoid weight regain.
Here at Trinity, we’ve worked with thousands of women over 40 who’ve previously dropped dress sizes… only to experience weight regain a couple of years later.
It can be incredibly frustrating to work tirelessly for months to reach your goals, only to end up where you started. Often, it’s all too easy for this weight to pile back on faster than it was lost!
These women often struggle when it comes to eating ‘normally’ again. After stepping on the scales and seeing the number creep up, it can be really difficult to re-find that discipline.
This situation can cause a huge amount of stress and worry on a day-to-day basis.
Why is it so common to fall victim to weight regain after turning forty?
The reason this happens is simple:
The process of losing weight is NOT the same as the process of keeping that weight off.
(Especially for women in their 40s and 50s)…
But with the right approach? It IS possible to drop 1-2 dress sizes, fit back into all your clothes and feel INCREDIBLE wearing anything you like… in just 12 weeks. Plus, you are capable of maintaining those results for life!
In our most recent podcast episode, we revealed the step-by-step method to doing just that. Here are the tips and tricks that our clients use to see long term success!
The 4 phases of a Lifetime Transformation…
There are four stages to losing excess weight and successfully keeping it off for life:
Reboot > Reframe > Reverse > Maintain
Here’s how to properly follow these steps to avoid weight regain in your forties and fifties.
1. Reboot
Most diets are a one-size-fits-all approach, regardless of weight and gender. Essentially, they’re not designed for women in their 40s and 50s. They either…
- Grind your body down with brutal exercise, like HIIT, spinning, running
- Or starve your body and/or cut out whole food groups e.g. carbs/fat/sugar
For the majority of women over 40, this doesn’t work. It over-stresses the body and joints, spikes the hormone cortisol – making it easy to gain weight and hard to lose it – and sends cravings through the roof. Additionally, this collectively makes menopause symptoms much worse! On top of this, this cycle encourages yo-yo dieting and binging.
So, what’s the solution? We recommend you get the weight moving again by Rebooting your system with an approach that’s optimised for women over 40.
Our Fit Over 40 program does this by eliminating problem foods that mess up your hormones; we do this using something called the Diet Makeover.
We also recommend you to do exercise that keeps the body’s internal stress levels low, to avoid cortisol blocking weight loss.
You should also consume the right amount of calories for you; not too much and not too little. This should take into account your weight, height, age, hormonal situation and dieting history. If you’d like more information with this, we can help you find the individual amount for you.
2. Reframe
What determines the results you get? Well, it’s actually very simple; the results you achieve simply comes down to the decisions you make…
If you choose to eat and exercise in the right way, you’ll get the results you want! If you choose to eat and exercise in the wrong way, you might make no progress, or you might move backwards.
Do you choose to have that Friday night takeaway or not? Do you choose to open a bottle of wine after a stressful day at work, or do you have a soft drink and an early night? Or maybe you choose to eat biscuits at your desk or have a piece of fruit?
What usually causes people to give up, or go off track with good eating and exercise habits, is their mindset:
Thoughts > Feelings > Actions > Results
This can be seen with the “sod it, let’s order a takeaway” mindset. Or perhaps for you, it’s “one more won’t hurt” or the common “I’ll start again next Monday.”
To make things even more difficult, life is often a lot more stressful and complicated for women over 40. They have less time and a lot more responsibility than ever before!
Being higher up the career ladder means that work regularly becomes manic and overwhelming.
Many of the women we coach also take on the bulk of responsibilities around the home! Plus, the effects of peri-menopause can cause mood fluctuations and disturbed sleep.
If you don’t know how to turn those negative thoughts around, and if you don’t know how to keep your stress levels under control… it’s almost impossible to stay consistent long-term.
So, what’s the solution? We use a simple mindset tool called the Stress Shield. This keeps stress levels under control, no matter how much you have going on. This means you are less likely to turn to food and drink to deal with that stress.
3. Reverse
If you implement the reboot and reframe phase, it’s only a matter of keeping going and you’ll get to your goal weight!
This depends on how much weight you’ve got to lose, and it takes a bit longer if you’ve got more weight you want to lose. You can’t rush it!
However, once you get to your goal weight… the key is to avoid that usual dieting rebound which often causes weight regain.
The dieting rebound happens because your metabolism naturally slows down when eating a reduced calorie diet. Your body is clever and adjusts your metabolism to avoid you starving. It’s designed for a survival situation, rather than one where there is an unlimited amount of food available.
If you go back to eating “normally,” you’ll be eating way more calories than your body is currently burning each day.
However this can be avoided by doing something called reverse dieting…
Reverse dieting will rebuild your metabolism to a point where you can eat a reasonable amount… without gaining weight and while enjoying more flexibility. This comes down to carefully managing your diet and exercise approach to bring everything back to a maintenance level.
4. Maintain
Once you’ve reached to your goal weight and reverse dieted to avoid that initial post-diet rebound… then it’s all about maintaining.
The good news is that maintaining is actually easier than losing weight!
You can get away with being less strict and enjoying more flexibility… if you’ve completed the first 3 phases properly.
However, even then, it’s still possible to take it too far and rebound if you don’t transition to maintenance properly. To avoid going back to square one and to maintain your results with ease… we recommend you don’t give up what worked to get you there.
Ensure you always have some version of the 3 essential motivators:
- Support
- Accountability
- Community
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!
