3 Weight Loss Rules that Don’t Apply to Women Over 40

Today we are talking about 3 weight loss rules that don’t apply to women over 40!

These rules have been holding you back. It’s why you have been struggling with your weight and why it's not actually your fault. 

You have been doing everything you were told to do, but it's just not working. 

Why? 

Well, if after 40 years of the same advice and with over 70% of us American women with excess body weight, maybe it's time to re-examine what you were told to do. 

What if the advice you've been given has been wrong the whole time?

There are 3 weight loss rules that we need to shatter today for you to move forward with your life.

So let’s get started:

Rule #1:  Weight control is about calories in vs. calories out.

Eat more than you burn and you will gain weight. Eat less than you burn and you will lose weight. Seems intuitive right? It's all about balancing calories. Calories in vs. calorie out.

This is the rule that I almost quit nutrition over.

Why? Because it doesn’t work in the real world.

Just reducing calories in or increasing calories out does NOT and repeat does not result in consistent fat burning nor does it keep the weight off.

Ever.

It’s a disaster.  It’s hard to do. 

Why do we know that it doesn’t work?

Because 80% of people regain the lost weight within one year.

The other 20% are working out 75 minutes per day and hating their lives according to the National Weight Control Registry.

Your body adapts to this calorie change and won’t let you just burn calories and lose weight forever. Your body will change how much it burns and will work against your efforts to lose weight until you break and then you regain all the weight.

You have to let go of calories in vs. calories out.

What should you hold onto instead?  Weight control is found by eating the right foods at the right times to control your metabolic hormones and maintain a healthy metabolism.

Rule #2:

Eating fat found in food is bad.

Eh- wrong!

This is a food rule that may be the hardest to overcome.  

Eating natural fat from foods like eggs, whole fat dairy, meat, avocados, coconut oil, olives, nuts, seeds, and fish will never, ever, ever make you gain weight. Ever.  You can eat double portions of these foods and not gain weight. 

Why? Because it’s not about the calories that fat gives us, it’s about what hormones different foods stimulate. 

It’s all about how different foods affect our bodies. Not just how many calories they contain.

500 calories of broccoli is not the same as 500 calories of brownies.

300 calories of eggs are not the same as 300 calories of low-fat strawberry yougrt.

Not to your body they are not.

Avoiding eating dietary fat will keep you heavy.  It will keep you hungry.  It will keep you anxious and angry about food.

We have quite a bit of research that backs this up but it takes time to turn the low-fat ship around, so for now, we are going to leave it with the fact the eating dietary fat is not bad for you. It’s good for you.

Rule #3:

You must exercise to lose weight.

This basically goes back to supporting Rule #1 that you have to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.

The problem is you have to eat a certain amount of food.  Most people need about 1200 calories of energy per day just to live.

But, most calorie restricted diets for women will be around 1200-1400 calories per day.

And most women eat this little and still don’t lose weight. Due to something we call Adaptive Thermogenesis.  

So, they thought, hmmm, we need to do something here, women should exercise to burn even more calories!  

So now you’re exercising and not eating enough and your body is like, um, are we dying?  This is not sustainable, you know that right?

This is why about 80% of women will not sustain an exercise program for more than 6 months.

The long term stats for eating less and exercising more for weight loss and weight maintenance are staggeringly horrible.

It only works for about 20% of the people AND it’s incredibly difficult.

Why would we look at this data and still say, yes, this 20% success rate is definitely proof that using diet and exercise to create a calorie deficit is the best physiological way to lose weight for everybody on the planet?

It’s not the best plan for women over 40.  

Damage that most likely inflicted accidentally by following diet advice that had her eating too little calories that contained too little fat.

The 3 rules that you need to stop following are:

1. Create a calorie deficit to predictably lose weight.

Nope. Doesn’t work.

2. Avoid eating dietary fat.

Nope. Doesn’t work.

3. Exercise to burn calories.

Nope. Doesn’t work.

Just starting there.  Just understanding that you are a woman who is not going to respond to a low calorie low-fat diet and exercise like they told you you would.

But if you are here in this group, you already know that.  You’ve probably already tried that.  You know it doesn’t work.

And why?

Because you have metabolic damage that needs to be fixed. Your weight is controlled by an orchestra of hormones and checks and balances that have been punished for decades in our eating culture.

Your specific metabolic needs as a woman, especially as a woman over 40 have been relatively ignored and forgotten.

And now it’s time to do it right. To understand why your metabolism is different. To actually feed your body instead of starve it or trick it.

To enjoy food instead of being anxious about everything we put in our mouths.

If you are ready to let go of past diet baggage and finally fix your broken metabolism and take control of your weight we should talk.

Alright, great job everyone, remember, you absolutely have what it takes to lose weight, you just have to fix your metabolism first.