EP: 38 Why My Fat Loss Phase Worked After 40 (And Yours Can Too)

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger Over 40.

0:03Shauna:I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am 46, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach, helping women over 40 become their best. And today I want to share a personal story with you. Last week we talked about how to know if you're in the right place for fat loss. So this week I want to share with you my own recent fat loss journey, how I took myself through a 16 week deficit. I think there's a lot that we can learn from seeing exactly what it takes to achieve sustainability. results, especially over 40, when you take the tips that I give you and then put them into actual practice. And this is what I do with my clients.

0:38Shauna:This is what I do with myself. I've taken myself through different fat loss phases, as well as maintenance phases, build phases. And every time I do them, it gets a little bit better because my knowledge about them is better. My expectations with them is better. And I know what to focus on and hone in on and what to expect. So every time I do these phases, they just get better and better, especially because I spend time prepping for them. So over the last year, I focused on building strength. So I spent about six months specifically in maintenance phase where I was really focused on just getting stronger, helping to support my body, feeling energized, feeling nourished, giving myself enough nutrients to where my hormones were in good place.

1:22Shauna:All my biofeedback was in a good place, meaning I had energy. I was sleeping well. My lifts were good. My recovery was good, all those good things. And then I transitioned into a fat loss phase. So I want to talk to you today about exactly what I did for myself, why it worked and the strategic choices I made so that you can use these own insights on your own personal journey. So let's take it back. So I spent about six months in a maintenance and strength focused phase before I ever was thinking about fat loss. This was an important step and something that I think a lot of women skip because we start a diet and we just don't ever leave it.

2:02Shauna:And if we do, we think we're kind of cheating on it. And we just think that we have to eat low calories forever. When in fact, the goal is to maintain at maintenance level of calories and then spend strategic time in fat loss phases, depending on your goals and depending where you are with your physique. But spending time in maintenance while lifting heavy has allowed me to build lean muscle, strengthen and support my metabolism, and then prime my body for fat loss with a lot of nice lean muscle tissue. So when you focus on building strength with your maintenance first, before you focus on fat loss, you're setting yourself up for a smoother and more sustainable fat loss phase later on.

2:48Shauna:So during my maintenance phase, I was tracking my lifts, really focusing on getting stronger, progressing week to week, making sure every muscle group got the stimulus that it needed. I also was making sure I was nourishing myself enough, having enough protein, having carbs around my training to help support performance and recovery. All those details were to help with my maximizing my muscle growth and just helping to support my overall health and metabolic state. During maintenance, I felt really good. I felt really strong and I felt like I was in a good place for a fat loss phase, especially leading into the spring and summer months.

3:24Shauna:That was when I wanted to time it out. So at the end of March, I decided to start my 16 week fat loss phase. And I did that by creating a moderate calorie deficit. I took about 500 calories away from where I was and I didn't just slash calories. I did it strategically. And what was nice is that I had built up my metabolism. So my calorie intake was somewhere between 23, 22 to 2300. So my calories for my deficit were about 1700, which was very sustainable. And then I also made some adjustments to my activity. So I started with an average daily step count of about 7 to 8 ,000 steps, which is pretty manageable.

4:04Shauna:And then I implemented a goal of 10 ,000 steps during my deficit. And then later on towards the end of my deficit, I did add some incline walking just to help expend a little bit more calories without having to lower my calorie intake. So that was a nice way to just keep fat loss going without having to take away more food. But the key takeaway here is that the body can adapt to both calories and activity. So we want to make sure we are periodizing both nutrition and activity so that we prevent that adaptation and then that burnout. If you're doing the same thing all the time, always eating low calories, always doing the same kind of cardio, it's going to be harder for you to ramp things up and have your body react or progress.

4:49Shauna:When you are in a maintenance phase, it's okay for you to kind of scale back with your cardio or your activity and really focus on building muscle. When you're in a fat loss phase. Obviously we want to still prioritize training so that we can preserve muscle, but that's when we want to potentially add in a little bit of activity to help steepen the deficit. Now diet will always be king when we're talking about body fat loss, but we can, we can sprinkle in some extra activity to help steepen that deficit so that we don't have to take away more food. And walking is my favorite way to do that because it does not really interfere with recovery from your weight training and it doesn't spike hunger.

5:30Shauna:Hunger is the number one reason that people fail with dieting. So you want to do everything you can to really keep that at bay. So the best things to do are fiber, high volume foods, high protein, and walking. Walking is one of the best ways you can expend more calories without spiking your hunger, without making it harder for you to recover from your strength training. So it's my favorite way to approach fat loss in a deficit. But like I was saying, because the body adapts, we want to phase activity like walking, incline walking, or cardio intervals just so that your body doesn't adapt. It will allow you to create an energy expenditure in a strategic way without derailing your strength, your recovery, or your overall progress.

6:12Shauna:And a little bit more about walking. I intentionally chose walking. I absolutely love it. And this is coming from a former runner, a former hit girly. I love walking. I love what it does for my body. I love how it makes me feel And what I did do like I mentioned towards the end of the deficit when I really wanted to push fat loss a little bit more Was incline walking so I put the treadmill on about a 10 % incline And walked at a 3.2 to 3.4 speed But this was again very complementary for fat loss while preserving strength and muscle and not impacting my overall hunger It's low impact. It's not going to spike your hunger like hit or higher intensity forms of cardio can.

6:53Shauna:And it can be dialed up or down depending on the phase that you're in. Walking is also very easy, right? You don't necessarily have to go to a gym to do it. So a lot of times these other modalities, like you have to be, if you're using stand raster, you have to be at the gym. If you're doing a class, you have to be at the class. If you're walking, you can sprinkle in extra walks any time of the day. that you can do with your kids, your hubby, your puppy, like whoever you want to. You can go on your lunch break at work. You don't have to get super sweaty. It's just adding a little bit of calorie expenditure and it's low intensity.

7:26Shauna:It's an easy grab when you want to just help push that fat loss without really overextending yourself. And adding too much high intensity cardio can actually interfere with strength training, your recovery and your hormones, especially over 40, we're just a little bit more sensitive to that overall compounding stress. So we wanna be strategic with moderate movement like walking because it's simple, it's sustainable, and trust me, it's so, so effective. Now, moving towards the end of my fat loss phase here, at like the 16 week, I had lost about 10 pounds, but I had maintained a lot of lean muscle tissue, so my body looked leaner and more defined than I've ever seen it.

8:06Shauna:And I just turned 46 this year. I'm absolutely in perimenopause, But I highly, highly, highly attribute my success with this fat loss phase to having more muscle on my frame. And that would not have come from me being in a deficit all of the time. It definitely came from taking strategic phases where I was at maintenance. There was one phase where I did a building phase where I was eating a little bit more. But having more muscle on my frame allowed me to look sculpted and toned. It also allowed me to have a calorie deficit that was really sustainable. 1 ,700 calories was really easy for me to eat and stay on plan with.

8:45Shauna:I didn't really have a ton of hunger or a ton of cravings. So I just felt like it was really a great place. And like I mentioned before, going through these phases, a lot of times I have women ask me, how long will it take me? And sometimes it's going to take longer than you think. But every time you go through these phases, number one, you get better at it. You understand what it takes. You are more proficient at it. and your body just responds better and better and better. And every time you achieve a specific goal, you get excited because you're like, okay, I made it here. Now what else can I do with my body?

9:20Shauna:What's my next goal? And that's the best part about it. So while yes, I understand, like getting that first 10 to 20 pounds off, it's gonna feel really good. Once you get there, you're gonna be like, all right, now what? What's next for me? And so when you understand how these phases work, how you can implement them, you just get to take yourself to next level, next level, next level. And it is so empowering, especially when you start to see those little muscle cuts come through, when you start to see that definition come through and you start to feel stronger in the gym, it will set you on fire.

9:56Shauna:I'm telling you, there is no better feeling. It's better than seeing the scale drop 100%. You might have to live it to understand, but when you go into the gym and you can lift something that you couldn't lift last week, I'm telling you, it's so empowering. Or when you start to, like if you're doing your hair or you're picking up your purse and all of a sudden you look in the mirror and you see that little bicep cut, you're like, whoa, like it is so empowering. So trust me, muscle is going to give you that toned body that you want, but it's gonna make fat loss so much easier. So I say all that to say, that's what I think has helped my fat loss, especially this time around, be so efficient, effective, and allow me to do it eating as much as I did.

10:38Shauna:After 16 weeks, I was done with my deficit. I still had a little bit of fat that was kind of like the stubborn fat. I still have some cellulite on my legs. I hold a little fat under my glutes like most women, but I was ready to be done. After 16 weeks, you're just mentally ready for a break. That's where I usually find clients kind of get a little bit fatigued at the 12 to 16 week mark. and everyone's a little bit different. Can you go longer? For sure. It just depends on you. It depends on what your body is doing, how steep your deficit has been, what your biofeedback is like. All those things are something to weigh out when you're deciding whether or not you should end your deficit.

11:18But if your biofeedback is off, let's say your sleep is off, your cravings are really going up,

11:24Shauna:your strength is starting to suffer in the gym and you are just ready for a break or you're kind of at a standstill with results and you're already kind of at that top number with restriction with calories and activity, it just might be time for a break. And taking a break or going back to maintenance is not going to backtrack you. The only thing it's doing is pressing pause on fat loss. And the best way to do that is with a reverse diet. That's where I am now is that I'm at the reverse diet stage. And a reverse diet isn't a phase. It's more or less a bridge to get you from fat loss to your maintenance phase.

12:03It's just a strategic way to slowly add calories so that you get back to maintenance without regaining body fat. Little by little, you add about 100 calories every one to two weeks. You monitor your weight, monitor your progress, and then you get back to that maintenance level of calories. As far as what that number looks like, it will depend on how much weight you've lost. If you started your deficit and you were 20 pounds heavier, you now have a different vessel. Like your vessel is a little bit different. It's a little bit smaller. You may require less calories, but the general rule is you can take your new body weight.

12:40So if you've lost 20 pounds, take your new body weight times 13 to 14. That should give you a ballpark idea of where your calories are. And then slowly you're going to add a hundred calories every one to two weeks until you're around that calculation number that you came up with. Sometimes you can go higher, sometimes not. It just depends on your body. You will have some fluctuations, but you should be within two to four pounds of your starting weight from the end of your deficit once you finish your reverse diet. And then you just hang there. You hang there, you enjoy your progress, your fat loss progress while eating more food.

13:14And then you get to be back in the gym, getting stronger again, setting yourself up for another future fat loss phase where you are primed and ready to go and have even more muscle, making your next fat loss phase that much more effective. So let me just summarize everything we just talked about. So this is what my approach looked like, but this is exactly what I would walk someone through if they were starting a fat loss phase or wanted to start a fat loss phase. Number one, we have to start with a good foundation. So you need to have a good foundation of muscle and at least be in a good place with your metabolism.

13:47You cannot be coming from yo-yo dieting or having not even knowing what your calories are. Spend some time at maintenance first. Build some strength first. You can do that with a priming phase, which is more like four to six weeks. Ideally, if you want to put on more muscle, I would do three to six months. But think about the long game. We don't want to necessarily be gaining, losing, gaining, losing. If you're anything like me, you have been doing that for the last 10 plus years. We want to zoom out, right? Look at big picture. Do this the right way. Spend the time putting muscle on your frame, it will not disappoint you.

14:22The first thing is you want to spend some time building strength at maintenance first to prime your body, prime your metabolism. Number two is you want to make sure you have a strategy with your fat loss phase. How long is it going to be? What's your deficit going to look like? I would say somewhere between 300 to 500 calories less than what your maintenance calories is a good place to start. Decide what your activity is going to look like. And this does not have to be 10 ,000 steps. Really match it to where you are. If you're averaging 3 ,000 steps a day, just adding in another 1 ,000 to 2 ,000 steps and making that goal of like 5 ,000 steps a day is going to help.

14:57So one of my sayings is do the most with the least because you can always add on more. But like I mentioned before, your body is a machine and it adapts. So do the most you can with the least. You don't have to take away a ton of calories and add a ton of activity. It'll give you some results at first, but then you leave yourself no runway, nothing else to throw out into the game when you stall. So do a modest deficit, add a little bit of extra activity, meaning steps and see how you go. And if you hit a sticking point, which by the way, means you've been 95 to 100 % adherent with your diet and you haven't seen progress in two to three weeks, that's a sticking point.

15:42So if you know that diet has been a little little iffy, little washy, make sure you dial that in first before you start cutting more calories or adding more activity. Again, do the most with the least. So if you hit a sticking point, a true sticking point, then you can drop another hundred calories or add another thousand steps to your overall daily goal. And that should help keep things moving. The other thing you want to just make sure of is that you are continuing to strength train. Obviously this is what's going to be the main focus because we want to preserve muscle tissue and we want to send the signal to your body to keep muscle and take from fat.

16:18So if you're in a deficit, your body has to take that energy from somewhere. We don't want it taking from muscle. That's how we end up skinny fat and that's how we end up with a sluggish metabolism at the end of a diet. So really make sure you're prioritizing your strength training and your protein. That's going to help preserve that lean muscle tissue so that at the end of your diet or your deficit, you have lost body fat and muscle. Then the third thing is make sure you're phasing your activity wisely. I know we kind of just touched on this, but if you're going to increase your steps or cardio, only do it when you absolutely need to.

16:50And you don't have to do anything extreme. You don't have to be running. We don't have to be doing HIIT. Remember, those are going to impact hunger. Just do a little bit of increase with your steps or add in some incline walking if you'd like to, but try to do the most with the least and try not to do anything that's going to compromise your recovery, your muscle, or your hunger. Number four is to choose complementary movement. So I know I keep harping on this, but walking or incline walking for fat loss is top tier. Like I said, it's very complementary. It doesn't add to your stress. You can do it anywhere.

17:23It's not going to increase hunger and it's really going to be complementary to strength training, but it's going to help your recovery and all those good things. And then lastly, number five is we want to reverse diet it back into maintenance so that we can maintain fat loss, continue to fuel our body so that we can grow more muscle and create that flexible metabolic health for future fat loss phases. That's key so that you can have a future fat loss phase and just get back to a more flexible lifestyle. Maintenance is beautiful for that. It allows you more flexibility. I still, more or less in maintenance, I will eat 80 to 90 % whole foods, but then it leaves me that 20 % wiggle room where if I want to have an ice cream with my son, I can.

18:08If I want to have a pizza night, I can. I'm still tracking. I'm still making sure I'm in my maintenance calories, but I have a lot more flexibility because I have more calories to play with. And that's a perfect place to be. Maintenance phases are perfect for busier seasons. I strategically did this so that I transitioned it to maintenance for the summer. Summer, we have a lot more cookouts, right? We're traveling. There's things that come up that make it harder for us to adhere to a calorie deficit. Same can be true for the holiday season. Now I'm going to be more or less in maintenance phase, probably through January, because I know it's just going to be busy.

18:44We have Thanksgiving, we have Christmas, all of these things that I want to be able to have a little bit more flexibility with my diet for. It does not mean I'm going to go all out with my binging or anything, but I do know that I have that extra wiggle room with my calories and I make room for the things that I enjoy. And that's what creates this sustainable lifestyle. There is no more extremes. I'm done with extremes. At this stage of life, there is no more extremes. I'm done with that sort of dieting. I am really all about balance. At the same time, I still prioritize the things that I know are going to help me look and feel my best, but I also leave room for the things that make memories, like baking cookies with my son at Christmas and tasting them with him, or having a Thanksgiving meal and being able to have a pie that maybe one of my relatives spent time and love making.

19:33Doing this, like spending time where you're building more muscle, helping your metabolism to maintain at a higher calorie intake allows you to really live life in a more balanced way. There's still structure, but it allows you to be flexible. And with more muscle, you'll be surprised. Your body doesn't necessarily hold on to fat like it does if you are restrictive all of the time, which really creates just a nice balance and a nice place to be. So I hope this episode was helpful. I hope that kind of seeing these tips played out in a real life scenario helps you kind of understand the importance and the steps surrounding a priming phase, fat loss phase, versings, and then maintenance phase.

20:18I hope it kind of brings everything into like an understandable, more tangible plan for you so that you can potentially use these tips in your own journey. And if you're listening to this and thinking, wow, this all makes sense, I would love to just put it into action right now.

20:34Shauna:I have a little surprise, something special, but I have an eight-week challenge that's starting on September 8th. And this is for women over 40 who want to implement these strategies, who want to get strong, want to change their bodies, who want to just become their best. It's called Becoming Her, fit and fierce. And this challenge is perfect for you. If you've had a busy summer and you just want to get some structure back, you want to start to focus on you again, and you want that guidance with strength training, with phasing your nutrition and staying consistent. In this eight-week challenge, you will get an eight-week home or gym workout plan.

21:10You'll have a phasing your nutrition guide so you know exactly what to eat for fat loss or maintenance or priming, whatever your phase is. You'll also get a recipe guide with some sample meal plans to make eating healthy very simple and a fun prize for one lucky participant. I'm going to leave all of the details in the show notes. I would love to see you inside.

21:31Shauna:If you have any questions, you can always reach out to me on Instagram. I'm more than happy to help. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I hope my story gave you some insight, some practical tips, and kind of a roadmap for how to approach fat loss the right way, especially as a woman over 40. And remember, the key is strategic phases, building strength, preserving muscle, phasing your nutrition. When you follow these steps, I promise you're going to see lasting results. And that does it for this week, but stay strong, stay consistent, and remember, you can absolutely build a body that you love inside and out at any age.

22:08And I will be here every week to remind you of just that. I will see you next week. Until then, keep getting stronger and keep becoming her.