Jen thought she’d tried everything.
“Nothing would budge the numbers on the scale.”
Jen had always had control over her health and weight. She wasn’t a nutrition novice.
“I was incredibly knowledgeable about health and wellness and eating very clean.”
But, something changed after Jen’s 40th birthday. Despite trying everything, she started packing on pounds.
“My weight crept up after hitting 40 three years ago.”
Jen’s story is so relatable. We’ve worked for decades to be fit and healthy. Then, we blow out 40 candles on a birthday cake and something shifts. All our old weight loss strategies stop working. In fact, they may even be making matters worse!
As we crest 40, some major physiological shifts change the way our bodies hold and shed fat. Adjusting our workouts is essential for weight loss after 40.
Before you step foot on the treadmill this week, make sure you know which workouts to avoid after 40. Start here, with my list of 4 workouts to cut for faster fat-loss after 40.
Chronic Cardio
For decades, women have been trapped on the treadmill. We’ve been convinced that if we want to lose weight, we have to burn calories, and the best way to do that is panting for two hours a day.
It’s true—cardio workouts can strengthen your heart, improve brain function, and even boost your immune system. But when we overdo our cardio workouts, we’re running farther away from health and fat loss.
For us women over 40, excessive cardio can be detrimental. It can lead to increased cortisol levels, muscle loss, hormonal imbalances, and a higher risk of stress fractures. Cardio workouts are beneficial for your health, but they should never take the place of weight lifting. Focusing on a balanced workout routine that includes both cardio and strength training is the solution.
Zumba
Zumba is a blast! You don’t have to ditch your class, but know where the benefits of Zumba start and end.
Aerobic dance classes can offer cardiovascular benefits, they don’t provide enough resistance or muscle engagement to significantly impact fat loss. They don’t build muscle, which is key for boosting your metabolism and supporting long-term fat loss.
Instead, enjoy these classes as part of your routine if you love them! Consider them a way you can move more and socialize! Make sure, though, that you’re relying on a balance of strength training and HIIT for fat loss.
Crossfit
For women over 40 who want to lose body fat, CrossFit can be counterproductive for a few key reasons.
During perimenopause and menopause, cortisol production can become dysregulated and heightened. Excessive or chronic high cortisol levels can lead to a number of health issues, including increased belly fat storage, muscle breakdown, fatigue, and poor sleep—all of which make fat loss harder.
CrossFit is a high-intensity, full-body workout that often includes heavy lifting, high-impact cardio, and fast-paced circuit training. While these workout strategies can improve fitness in some, they also can elevate cortisol levels—your body’s primary stress hormone.
CrossFit also puts you at high risk of injury. As we age, our joints, tendons, and muscles become less resilient to the repetitive, high-intensity movements required in CrossFit. For women, as estrogen declines, so does our production of collagen. Collagen adds cushion to our joints. The less we have, the more damage we do to our bodies jumping, swinging, landing, and running.
Barre
Barre may make you feel like a ballerina, but it’s not boosting your fat-loss. The goal of barre is to improve strength, flexibility, and balance. But when compared to other types of exercise (like certain cardio and strength workouts), Barre falls to the back of the pack for boosting fat-loss and metabolic health.
Barre workouts typically focus on toning, using low-intensity, high-repetition movements. They won’t increase your heart rate to burn significant calories, or provide the intensity needed to stimulate substantial muscle growth.
Instead, try compound strength movements (ones that involve multiple joints and muscle groups) which are much more effective for fat loss after forty.
Fall In Love With Strength Training After 40
Strength training is especially beneficial for women over 40 who want to lose weight. Here are a few reasons you’ll grow to love it.
Strength training turns your body into a calorie burning machine.
One review of 18 studies found that resistance training increased resting metabolic rate, while cardio exercise had a much smaller metabolic impact. Strength training prompts an “after burn” effect. According to the research, your metabolism stays elevated for up to 38 hours after one strength training session.
Muscle burns a lot of calories. As we age, however, we lose muscle mass (a condition called sarcopenia). Strength training helps preserve and build muscle, combatting this age-related decline in muscle mass and, therefore, metabolism.
It’s sustainable and time-efficient.
Our schedule turns fast and furious in our forties. Thankfully, strength training doesn’t require long hours in the gym. Three 30 to 45-minute sessions each week, focusing on compound movements, will increase your fat loss and muscle building.
Strength training will increase your energy and boost your mood.
When was the last time you felt happy and awake? It was a good feeling, right? Strength training releases endorphins that help reduce stress and improve your mood! It also improves sleep quality and energy levels, which as we know, is especially important during the sleepless nights of perimenopause.
It boosts fat loss, not just weight loss.
While some exercises can help you burn calories, strength training specifically targets fat loss while preserving lean muscle. The more muscle you have, the less likely you are to lose muscle tissue while dieting. That means you’ll lose pounds of body fat, not pounds of muscle as you lose weight.
Strength training counteracts hormonal imbalances.
After 40, many women’s hormones begin to shift. Estrogen starts to decline as we approach menopause. One result of lower estrogen is a weakening of our bone density. Strength training improves bone density and can help balance hormones by increasing levels of growth hormone and boosting other metabolic processes.
It improves insulin sensitivity.
With age, our risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes increases. When you strength train, your insulin sensitivity improves. That means your body will become more efficient at using the food you eat for energy rather than storing it as fat.
What Happened to Jen?
Jen’s story didn’t end with defeat!
“I joined LEAN and it’s working! I see my body changing before my eyes only three weeks in, and my energy has vastly improved!”
Jen learned all the workout strategies listed above. She shifted her workouts, her diet, and her lifestyle. Not one step was too hard for her to stick with, she just needed to be pointed in the right direction.
“LEAN is a very simple program to follow, and I love knowing how to plan. Thank you, Amanda!”
Don’t let 40 stop you from feeling and looking your best! Join LEAN leave those extra pounds in the past.
