3 Reasons Most Women Over 50 Unknowingly Kill Their Metabolisms, and How To Recover Like a Champ!
Reason 1) Not Eating Enough
My clients always think I am crazy after sitting down with them and then telling them they are not eating enough to lose weight. I cannot blame them for being doubtful after our society has been telling them daily that to lose weight you must eat less, not more. However, what most fail to realize is that eating less food can slow down your metabolism and put your body into starvation mode. Metabolism, in simple terms, is the speed in which your body burns through food. So, eating more can increase it, and eating less will almost always slow it down. Think of your metabolism as a campfire; the more you feed it the more it will burn, and the less you feed it the more it can slow and die out. So, eating more than your BMR, (basal metabolic rate) which is the number of calories your body needs to function is key to losing weight and keeping off.
Reason 2) Eating The Wrong Foods
When trying to lose weight, most of us focus on just trying to create a calorie deficit each day and not really looking at what foods they are eating. This is a mistake in my opinion. The foods you choose are just as important as the number of calories you eat. Not all calories are created equal. If I had a plate of donuts that equaled 1000 calories and a plate of chicken, rice and vegetables that equaled 1000 calories you think the body would recognize them the same right? Outside the body they are the same number of calories but as soon as you eat them, they are digested differently. The donuts are loaded with saturated fats and simple sugars and your body will spend little or no time digesting them, and they will have an incredibly good chance of being stored as fat. Now compare this to the chicken, rice, and vegetables, which are more natural and thermic, (produces more heat during digestion) your body will recognize them as fuel and use them for energy and not for storage.
The foods you choose will be more important long term than just the number of calories you eat. Choosing low fat meats and dairy, high fiber starches, and non processed grains, and plenty of fruits and vegetables will aid you much better in losing weight and keeping it off than just eating less.
Reason 3) Not Performing Resistance Training and only doing Aerobic exercise
Most all of the people I work with, who contact me, or I talk to in or outside of the gym usually want to do one of 3 things:
1) Lose visible fat (not just weight)
2) Build Lean Muscle (or their words tone up)
3) Look and feel better (about themselves and in the mirror)
No matter your specific goals adding resistance training to your weekly workout is crucial for long term success. A proper resistance training program should be the foundation of any individual who wants to see results and changes in the way their body looks and feels. Resistance training if done properly and is balanced with the right nutrition is great for building and maintaining your lean muscle tissue. Your lean muscle tissue is literally your fat burning engine, without muscle your body can not even burn very much fat if any during your cardio/aerobic sessions. Muscle is an active tissue that can help your body burn calories all day long even at rest.
I am amazed how many people who contact me say they want to lose fat/weight yet they are training to run some 25k race. If your goal is to run that’s great but training for a marathon and losing fat/weight are two separate goals in which you must have two separate strategies and plans in place to be successful and each. One must also realize running long distance is not effective for long term fat loss (not just weight). Studies show excessive cardio can breakdown muscle and cause your body to store more fat in the long run. I have never met anyone who lost excessive amounts of fat and kept if off by just doing cardio. Sure you will burn lots of calories by running for 45 minutes then taking a cardio class for another hour afterward, yet it’s a seriously flawed strategy if you’re seeking the best possible results and having a very efficient fat burning workout.
I personally recommend that cardio sessions do not exceed 30-45 minutes if your main goal is fat loss. How much weight training should one do? I personally believe most need 3-4 days of weight/resistance training per week to see the maximum benefits. These benefits include increased lean muscle tissue, increase in metabolism, increased muscle strength and endurance, and increase in bone mass. The 1-2 days of resistance training per weeks is quite common and a good start (some is better than none) yet it is not enough. If you go to the gym for an hour 3 times per week then 30 minutes of resistance training and 30 minutes of cardio is using that hour much more efficiently than just do cardio for one hour alone.
If you consistently eat the right foods, eat enough of those right foods, balance your workouts with resistance training and moderate aerobic exercise to increase/maintain muscle and your metabolism will be back on track in no time.
Have you struggled to lose weight and keep it off? Have you unknowingly killed your metabolism and are unsure how to get it back? Are you finally ready to take back your weight loss power and turn your body into a fat burning machine?
Contact me David Modderman at 616-824-8311, david@davidmodderman.com, www.davidmodderman.com.
