Easy Ways to Weight Loss After 50 or After Menopause?
Yes. Weight loss after 50 is not as hard as it’s portrayed to be. The hardest part may not be in the physical changes that need to happen, but in the mental weight we need to lose. Our thoughts can get in our way when we’ve had them so long. Change is hard. That part is true.
Prioritize sleep with food and exercise choices.
If you tend to go straight for the treadmill and the religious dedication to your step counter, stop. Without sleep your exercise and nutrition efforts are not going to work. Hormones in control of metabolism via lean muscle and cortisol control require sleep for optimal balance.
Your food and movement choices matter. The type and timing of exercise has everything to do with the quality of your sleep. Whether you do it inside or outside can have a big influence. Move intense exercise to early in the day and calm yourself with yoga or walk later in the day. Eat for sleep with serotonin-enhancing carbohydrates later in the day. You can increase your sleep by up to two hours in a 28 day time frame by changing your habits.
Exchange weight training for long slogs of cardio.
Surprise! You’re breaking up with the dreadmill. As much as we’ve laughed about treadmills that hold clothes, it might be a better use for it than providing fatigue-encouraging, muscle-wasting kinds of activity. That doesn’t accomplish the goal you have: balancing hormones more naturally to shed weight more easily.
If you’re not weight training, start. If you’re randomly doing strength exercise, start with a better plan. If you’re not reaching fatigue (though yes, after a reasonable progression) it’s a must to see change. You want to build up the lean to lose the fat. Cardio exercise will not do that. Ever.
Body weight training is not the same. That serves as movement and it’s definitely better than no workout. Weight loss after 50 is reliant on increasing lean muscle tissue with a means of reaching fatigue. The joint limits you may have with significant weight to lose make weight training the obvious winner so you can choose more exercises, more safely perform them, and increase your lean muscle.
Reduce your exercise time and increase your movement.
Exercise less, yes, you read that right. Move more all day. We do sit so much more than is favorable for our jobs so we need some exercise. But even the small things you can do each hour will help you become an “active person.” That is so much more tied to your risk or lack of overweight and obesity than is exercise. Weight loss after 50 is a result of both exercise and movement, but the greater of them is movement.
Get up and use the restroom. Get a drink of water. Stand to talk on the phone. Then a small bit of regular exercise is important to serve as a catalyst for the rest of your day. But begin to see it as just that, the rubbing the sticks together and the real flame for metabolism is the all day movement you have. People who have dogs move more. Become obsessed with cleaning your house.
Supplement to fill your micronutrient deficiencies.
It’s nearly impossible to eat enough in a day to reach our micronutrient needs that make us thrive. If you’re missing any, your well-oiled-fine-tuned vehicle of a body won’t run well. Your metabolism depends on all the parts being present.
Have you got years of dieting experience? Notice no one ever asked for that on a resume? It’s backfiring about now. Though it never really worked for your long-term advantage, it’s now amplified. It’s about getting in the goodness so you can get rid of the cravings (see more below on that).
Plan your perfect protein, fiber, and fat and carbs for each meal.
What you used to think is “healthy” is not necessarily right for you, right now. Most of us need to unlearn old ideas before we can create new thoughts that will be new actions that become new habits. Science you learned in elementary school even is probably still a part of old habit gravity that keeps you in conflict with what you know is right and what you want to do.
Get some support with lift off. You’ve got to break through that barrier before you can make a permanent change. The surprisingly easy thing is… the new habits are so much more enjoyable and so much less about deprivation than we’ve been led to believe.
Learn the right type and timing of carbs for every meal.
There are good carbs and better carbs. The time you have them is as important for weight loss after menopause (or during) as what you have. If you’re not sure what that means and you’ve simply given up bread, you’ve got a toe in the water. Get educated on the carbs that help you lose weight after 50 and when they’re best consumed.
Treat cravings as clues.
Don’t give into them but do listen to them. There’s gold in those cravings. They can be telling you that your exercise is too long, too intense, or too frequent. They can be telling you that you’re really not sleeping as much or well as you need to sleep They can tell you that you’re cutting corners and playing the calorie game cheating yourself out of micronutrients you need to boost your metabolism.
Specific cravings like salt or sugar, or very specific like chocolate, have intel behind them. Cacao has magnesium in it for instance. So that chocolate craving? Could be telling you to get more in your diet or supplement (preferably not by way of chocolate).
Yes, some day a little chocolate is going to be fine. Today is not your day.
Start eating and stop drinking your calories.
Start eating and stop drinking your calories.I’m a smoothie girl so this may confuse you if you know me. Wine loving girl, I’m talking to you. Right now, if belly fat, or weight loss is a problem, wine isn’t your friend. It decreases your likelihood of having a healthy meal after, increases fat storage no matter what it might be, and halts the fat burning that will help your cause.
You don’t have to say goodbye forever, but you need to, as a Flipping 50 community member told me just last night, break up. She said she and wine aren’t on speaking terms right now.
Start adding instead of subtracting food.
Nothing that starts with deprivation leads to long term success! If you’re adding all the things to your daily plate and bowl that will get you full of micronutrients that make you glow and fiber, fat, and wholesome foods that keep you full, you will naturally reduce cravings.
This “crowdsourcing” method of eating keeps your eye on eating MORE of the good stuff. When you do you’ll lose those distracting thoughts and be so much less tempted by processed foods or sweets.
Kick sugar-free foods & artificial sweeteners to the curb.
Your confused body won’t shed weight. Instead it will slow your metabolism. Sugar-free popsicles, low-fat sugar-free ice cream or frozen yogurt, artificial packets of sweeteners. Stevia, and sugar alcohols (if you can tolerate them), is really the only thing you want to be using, but sparingly.
The best rule is look at anything that’s become a crutch for you and start weaning off of it. Weight loss after 50 requires more focus on the right things and leaving old, and incorrect, habits behind. But, you’ve got this!
Do you want support in your weight loss after 50 journey?
The best next step if you have 20 or more pounds (and some old ideas about weight loss) to lose is Fit U. Enrollment is open right now and it’s 50% off. You can learn more here.
