Never had a hard time losing the few extra pounds you gain here and there, but now you can’t get the weight off? As you enter your mid-40s, you may have a harder time losing weight. From the few extra pounds you gain during the holidays to any time you gain a bit of weight. If you have 10 pounds to lose or less, you might not qualify for GLP-1 medications. Here are some of our top tips for successful weight loss after 45.
Why it’s harder to lose weight in your 40s and 50s?
Knowledge is power. So, learning why you’re gaining weight is the first step. Yes, consider your nutrition and level of physical activity, but even if your level of physical activity is high and you eat well-balanced meals, you’re more likely to gain weight and struggle to lose weight in your 40s and 50s.
The top causes of mid-life weight gain are below, all of which require you to make changes beyond your current approach to health and wellness.
- Declining estrogen: As women enter perimenopause, estrogen levels decrease while androgen hormone levels increase. This causes your body to redistribute fat, typically in the belly, which is where the term “menopause belly” comes from.
- Declining testosterone: Declining testosterone in men increases fat storage and muscle mass loss. Just like women, men are likely to accumulate belly fat in andropause (aka. male menopause).
- Muscle mass loss: Often confused with decreased metabolism, we lose about 8% of lean muscle mass per year beginning in our 30s. This accelerates after the age of 60. Decreased muscle mass contributes to weight gain because muscles play a role in how you burn (metabolize) fat.
Does metabolism slow with age?
Contrary to popular belief, metabolism plateaus from your 20s to 60s. In your 60s, metabolism declines by .7% per year. We often confuse the declining muscle mass that makes weight loss after 45 more challenging with slowing metabolism.
Why you’re gaining weight, but your face is thinning
At the same time that you’re struggling with increased belly fat, you’re also experiencing fat pad loss in your face that leaves your cheeks, temples, and eyes looking hollow. Add to that declining collagen and elastin, and shrinking fat pads shift, and skin becomes lax. This changes your lifelong body shape. It’s a vicious cycle, because skin laxity combined with fat pad loss ages you even more.
Restoring volume loss is one of many reasons to consider RHA facial fillers. The lips and cheekbones aren’t the only areas we can plump. We can micro-inject fillers in your cheeks, temples, eyes, and other areas of the face to deliver natural plumping and lifting to make you look and feel like yourself again.
Why burning more calories doesn’t work?
Burning more calories than you consume is an effective method of losing weight, but regulating fluctuating hormones and building muscle mass is paramount in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. We’re focusing more on losing smaller amounts of weight in this blog, but if you’re BMI is 30 or higher, we may also suggest GLP-1 injections.
Why targeted weight loss doesn’t work?
Feel free to increase crunches and core exercises for targeted toning, but exercising for targeted weight loss is a myth. It’s more important to take a holistic, inside-out approach. Think beyond the number on the scale and the circumference of your waist, to maintaining your muscle mass, flexibility, and range of motion. Even if all you have time to do is take a walk (ideally a brisk walk), it’s important to keep your body moving.
Although targeted exercise doesn’t work, targeted fat blasting does! We have med spa treatments that can blast fat and contour many areas of your body.
Why caloric reduction isn’t enough?
In this season of life, tailoring your nutrition to match your lifestyle and wellness goals is more important than ever. Yes, you need to prioritize whole foods, and you may need to reduce your calories, but tailoring your meals is more important. This provides sustainable physical and mental energy while supporting hormonal balance, mental health, sleep, and all areas of wellness.
The top 5 ways to achieve weight loss after the age of 45
1. Annual checkups and hormone testing
Take an active approach to whole-body health by scheduling an annual physical with full bloodwork, urine, and stool samples. Tailor your physical and annual checkups to include exams that address your individual risk factors and checkups that are vital with age. From an audiology exam to an eye exam, mammogram, prostate check, hormone testing, colonoscopy, and more.
These tests identify all causes of weight gain, in addition to creating benchmarks, monitoring whole-body health, and diagnosing new health conditions. With the growing trend in predictive analytics in medicine, they also take a proactive approach to potential health risk factors.
2. Strength train
Now is the time to make a few changes to your fitness routine. Strength training at least 3 days a week is one way to restore and proactively maintain muscle mass. Your body weight can serve as your resistance. This could be the difference between standard yoga and power yoga, but even standard yoga helps build and maintain muscles. This change alone can rapidly activate weight loss after the age of 45.
Strength training can also minimize skin laxity by boosting collagen production and filling in areas of skin sagging, such as bulking up “bat arms”. Med spa skin tightening may further reverse your skin laxity.
3. Tailor your protein intake
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and one of many things protein does in the body is build and maintain lean muscle mass. So, strength training must be paired with a diverse range of amino acids.
How many grams of protein you need per day should be tailored to your age, gender, and level of physical activity. To maintain your lean muscle mass, you need more protein than you did in your 20s and 30s. In your 20s and 30s you required .8 grams of protein per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. In your 40s and 50s you require 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
In addition to grams of protein per day, you must prioritize consuming all 9 of the amino acids that the body can’t produce on its own. This is achieved by consuming a diverse range of protein sources, including:
- Lean meat
- Fish
- Seafood
- Dairy
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Legumes
- Whey protein isolate
Why whey protein?
Whey protein isolate is a “complete” protein. This means that it contains all 9 essential amino acids. So, when choosing between the overwhelming range of protein powders, add at least one isolate to the mix.
4. Stress management
Mid-life brings a range of transitions. You’re likely part of the sandwich generation, managing your partnership, career, children, and aging parents. At the same time, your hormones are fluctuating, and you may be experiencing health challenges of your own.
This can lead to a chronic rise in stress hormones, particularly cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. When these hormones are off balance, it creates a negative ripple effect throughout your body, which accelerates middle age weight gain.
Stress management and adaptogen herbs minimize the negative side effects of stress hormones.
The side effects of stress include:
- Decreased immunity
- Tension headaches
- Physical tension
- Increased irritability
- Weight gain
- Insomnia
- And more
5. Sleep quality
Whether from stress, a full schedule, or staying up late to watch your favorite TV shows, you may not be getting enough sleep. You need to provide your body with 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep per night. Due to fluctuating hormones, you may find falling asleep and staying asleep more challenging. If you don’t get the deep sleep your body requires to thrive, it creates physical stress that mirrors many of the symptoms and risk factors in the list above.
The tips below help, but find what works for you:
- Head to bed and wake up within the same 30 minute window each day to regulate your REM cycle.
- Stop drinking coffee, caffeinated tea, and energy drinks at least 4 hours before bed.
- Limit water and beverages 2 hours before bed so you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom.
- Minimize screen time 2 to 3 hours before bed, or wear blue light glasses or use blue light filtering devices.
- Create a bedtime ritual that helps you relax and unwind. Maybe stretching, PM yoga, aromatherapy, soothing music, or deep breathing.
- Limit stress at least an hour before bed, including watching the news, checking work emails, reading disturbing books, or watching disturbing TV or movies.
- Create an oasis in your bedroom, managing noise, light, clutter, and the overall ambiance.
How Valley Medical helps you achieve weight loss after 45?
Eliminate the stress of trial and error by scheduling a consultation with Valley Medical Weight Loss and Med Spa. We offer tailored support and scientifically proven strategies that help you manage weight loss after 45. No fad diets here!
Our services include:
- Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT): We can test your hormones and assess your health to determine if you’re a candidate for BHRT therapy. We offer hormone therapy for men and women.
- Medical weight loss tools: We offer GLP-1 injections, a weekly weight loss program, vitamin injections for nutrient deficiencies that contribute to weight gain, meal replacement shakes, whey protein, and at-home nutritional supplements.
- Aesthetic services: We offer facial fillers for areas of volume loss, skin tightening for sagging skin, and targeted fat blasting for the stomach, chin, hips, thighs, buttocks, back fat, and more.
Reach out to schedule a consultation to discuss which of the areas above we can address. We have locations in Phoenix, Tempe, and Glendale, and a new location in Chandler is coming soon!
