Struggling with Fat Loss in Midlife? It Could Be Your Hormones.
No one ever told me that maintaining my weight nor losing weight in midlife was going to be such a challenge! (Catch my story here.)
In our 20s and 30s, it’s fairly simple to lose unwanted fat and tone up: do some more cardio, cut back on calories, and improve your diet. Voila, pounds off. However, this same strategy doesn’t apply to our 40s and beyond. We can cardio our brains out, restrict more calories, and even eat the cleanest diet, but still no change. It is an incredibly frustrating wheel to be on, running like a crazed hamster, yet getting nowhere.
Hormonal Imbalance
Halleluah! There are some simple reasons why the struggle is real in midlife: hormones. I’m not just talking about sex hormones: I’m including cortisol, insulin, and thyroid. As we age, most women develop some kind of hormonal imbalance. I’m not sure which one starts off the cascading downslide (did the chicken or the egg come first scenario). A slow thyroid can affect blood sugar and elevated cortisol can affect blood sugar. Elevated blood sugar can affect adrenals (cortisol), which can affect sex hormones. Sex hormones can affect all the other hormones.
Do you see where I’m going with this? These hormones are intimately connected and have negative effects on your metabolism and the ability to burn fat if they are out of balance. You can “restrict calories and food”, run times per week, and even lift a few days per week, but no change takes place.
The key to midlife fat loss
The key to mid life fat loss is balancing these hormones through adequate sleep and stress management, consuming the right amount of macronutrients to balance blood sugar, and combining them with the right workouts strategically targeted for fat lass and muscle building, improving gut health, and supplementation. These simple strategies can make all the difference in the world.
I created a workbook with practical tips for balancing your body’s hormones and finally take control of your weight. Snag it HERE.