Losing weight can be challenging, especially for women over 40, who may feel overwhelmed by the abundance of weight loss advice available. It can be hard to determine what to try and how to sustain a new weight loss plan.
To assist you in your weight loss journey, we’ve compiled a list of simple yet effective weight loss tips specifically for women over 40. Unlike other programs that require long gym sessions or drastic dietary changes, these tips are easy to implement and won’t leave you feeling deprived or overworked.
With these tips, you can naturally slim down and maintain a healthier lifestyle, without the added stress of unrealistic expectations or complicated routines.
Let’s get going!
1. Hydrate All Day Long
This weight loss tip is super simple, but very few women actually follow it.
Thirst is easily mistaken for hunger, especially in the morning. If you start your day trying to quench your thirst with food, you’re likely to keep that process up throughout the rest of the day.
Instead, start your day with two big glasses of water. That means before you have your coffee or tea, well before you eat breakfast, and as close to the beginning of your day as possible. The actual amount will vary from person to person, but try to consume at least a liter of water upon waking.
This will kickstart your day in the right way, helping you feel hydrated and avoiding any misinterpretation of thirst for hunger.
2. Don’t Eat Less
Living a low-calorie lifestyle that focuses exclusively on eating less doesn’t work! Instead, focus on eating more.
Fruits and veggies are full of fiber, water, and micronutrients that will help your body feel satiated. If you make an effort to eat more of them, you’ll automatically end up eating less of the unhealthy foods.
Don’t let people tell you that fruit has too much sugar either!
With all of that fiber and water, fruits are still far lower in calories than most foods, and the fiber means that the sugars are released more slowly and evenly, preventing crashes.
Even while you’re eating out, focus on eating all of the veggies or salad that comes with your meal first, and saving the best for last. This way you’ll be able to tell if you really need the other half of that loaded baked potato!
3. Keep Healthy Foods Visible
If you’re planning on eating more healthy foods, the best way to do so is to keep them out and readily available.
That way, even if you find yourself in the kitchen looking for a snack to curb your boredom, you’ll find the fruit bowl or your favorite healthy snacks jumping out at you instead of a bag of chips or worse!
Work to keep as few of your unhealthy foods in the house while you’re at it. If you don’t buy them, you’ll be less tempted to eat them. Then you can have a dessert on the nights you go out to eat to satisfy your sweet tooth.
If you have to keep unhealthy foods in the house for other members of your family, do your best to hide them away or at least keep them out of plain site. That way you won’t be as tempted to indulge.
4. Walk Everywhere
Walking is one of the most effective exercises for weight loss. Why?
Well, for starters, it’s not a high-intensity exercise, so it’s not going to ramp up your appetite like a session in the gym might. That’s not to say that the gym should be avoided (on the contrary), but if you’re not ready to make that sort of commitment to exercise, walking is a great alternative.
The best part is that walking can be done while doing other things, making the best use of your time. Try listening to audiobooks while you walk and the time will fly by (seriously!). You can listen to self-improvement books or your favorite stories while you enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.
Plus, you don’t have to commit to walking for hours each day. Try to get out for a 20-minute walk in the morning and another in the afternoon or evening and you’ll be burning hundred of extra calories, improving your overall fitness, and getting some very important time outdoors.
5. Don’t Drink Your Calories
You’ve probably been told not to consume your calories in the form of beverages. Well, it’s actually quite good advice.
Drinks are far less satiating than solid foods.
If you can focus on having your coffee black, tea straight, and using stevia as a sweetener, you’ll be far more likely to stick to your weight loss plan.
Better yet, stick to straight water for the majority of your drinks and your body will be far healthier for it!
6. Eat Protein At Every Meal
Eating more protein can help you lose weight. We’re not talking about waiting until dinner and having a massive steak with your already heavy meal.
Instead, try having smaller amounts of protein with every meal.
Eat some Greek yogurt or a few eggs in the morning for breakfast. Both are good options for lunch as well (hardboil eggs are is the way to go!).
You can also add fish, chicken, or other lean protein to a salad for lunch for a more filling meal. You’ll also want to have protein for dinner as well, along with lots of vegetables or salad.
By regularly eating smaller portions of protein, you’ll stay fuller longer and be less apt to snack outside of mealtimes.
7. Brush Your Teeth After Every Meal
This may sound like a silly weight-loss tip, but its really works!
By brushing your teeth after each meal, especially dinner, you’ll be far less likely to continue grazing and snacking afterward.
The freshness of the toothpaste can reset your palate and reduce the desire to eat any additional food.
Also, after dinner most people won’t eat after they brush their teeth because they know that it means they’ll have to go and brush them again before bed if they do.
8. You Alone Decide When and What To Eat
If you’re not hungry, don’t feel like you need to eat breakfast just because everyone else does.
The same goes for lunch or dinner.
If you miss a meal, you’re not going to wither away. On the contrary, your insulin levels will drop and your body will begin running off of your stored fat.
On the other hand, if you need to eat a big breakfast to feel your best throughout the day, then make sure you do so.
Don’t give in to the neighbor who wants you to do a fasting challenge every morning.
9. Eat Your Fats
Too many women avoid fat as a way to lose weight, but did you know that fats are vital to our health?
Healthy, unprocessed fats are the essential building blocks of our hormones (which is why it’s so important to avoid processed fats) and can help stave off hunger.
A meal that embraces the addition of smaller portions of healthy fats will ultimately be more satisfying while your eat it and leave you feeling fuller longer.
10. De-stress
Stress plays a major role in weight loss. If you’re stressed, your cortisol levels are high, and excess cortisol makes it far more difficult to burn fat.
Plus, stress is a major contributor to overeating. We’ve all heard the term “stress eating,” and it’s a very real phenomenon. When we’re stressed, many of us seek out food as a way of comforting ourselves.
That’s why it’s so important to take time every day to unwind properly. That could be a hot bath, a walk with the dog while listening to music, meditation, or simply sitting in the backyard and staring off into space.
Whatever helps you relax, do your best to make time for it every day, or twice a day if you can!
11. Follow the 80/20 Rule
If you haven’t already heard of the 80/20 rule, it basically calls for eating healthy 80 percent of the time and eating less healthy the other 20 percent.
That way you still get to indulge in some of your favorite foods and you avoid feeling deprived. Deprivation is the enemy of longevity. If you don’t like your new healthy diet you probably won’t stick to it very long, and weight loss is a long-term game.
12. Get proper sleep
Numerous studies have shown that getting less than 5–6 hours of sleep per night is associated with increased incidence of obesity. There are several reasons behind this.
Research suggests that insufficient and poor-quality sleep slows down the process in which the body converts calories to energy, called metabolism. When metabolism is less effective, the body may store unused energy as fat. In addition, poor sleep can increase the production of insulin and cortisol, which also prompt fat storage.
How long and how deep someone sleeps also affects the regulation of the appetite-controlling hormones leptin and ghrelin. Leptin sends signals of fullness to the brain while ghrelin tells your brain you’re hungry.
Without a properly functioning leptin and ghrelin, you’re constantly hungry and nothing you eat will ever make you full – double whammy.
So, sleep more and sleep well.