EP 73: Stop Eating 1200 Calories to Lose Fat Over 40

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger over 40. 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. If you're eating 1 ,200 calories and still not losing fat and starting to think that changing your body over 40 is impossible, you're in the right place. What if I told you that eating 1 ,200 calories or eating as little as possible is exactly why you are stuck? And that likely goes against everything you've been told. The 90s diet culture taught us that we needed to eat less and move more.

0:33But if that actually worked long term, you would not still be here trying to figure this all out. So today I'm going to break down why 1200 calories stops working and what to do instead if you want to get lean over 40 and more importantly, stay that way. There are two big reasons that eating as little as possible will backfire. Let's start with the biggest issue. 1200 calories only works if you can actually sustain it. And most women cannot. And not because of discipline, but because it's too aggressive. You might hit it for a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks, but then you hit a point where you just can't keep pushing.

1:09Hunger and fatigue will take over. Then you have a day or a few where you eat more than you planned. And no matter how much you eat, you're still not satisfied because now your hunger hormones are dysregulated. You're dealing with higher hunger signals and lower satiety, and your body is driving you to eat more to compensate. This creates a cycle where you're not consistently in a deficit. You're cycling now between two extremes. So even when it feels tough like you're always dieting, when you zoom out across the weeks or the months, you're likely averaging closer to maintenance, which means no fat loss.

1:41The second issue that can come from eating 1200 calories or as little as possible is something called metabolic adaptation. When you chronically eat less and less, your body has to adapt so it learns how to maintain your weight with less calories. Now your baseline is lower than it should be, which is why it feels like you have to keep dropping calories or adding in more workouts just to see any sort of results. Recently encountered this with one of my clients, Gina, who came to me stuck in this exact same cycle. Her go-to was always to eat 1200 calories when she wanted to lose weight. And like a lot of women, she would lose weight when she was strict with it, but she was constantly hungry.

2:18Her energy was low and she was always thinking about food. And eventually she would swing the other way. She'd end up overeating, regaining weight, and starting all over. Gaining and losing the same 10 to 15 pounds over and over again, but never really changing her body. So instead of pushing her lower, we actually did the opposite. When she came to me, she was eating around 1 ,200 calories, and we gradually increased her and got her up to 1 ,900 calories. And here are some surprising things that have happened. The scale actually started to drop, her hunger levels had leveled out, her energy has improved, and she's starting to get stronger in the gym.

2:52and her body composition is changing. Her waist is getting smaller and she feels different in her clothes. And this is not even her fat loss phase. This phase is all about setting her up for successful fat loss. We are spending time improving her metabolism, building lean muscle, creating consistency, optimizing her hormones. So when she does go into a calorie deficit, her body's actually ready and responsive and her baseline calories are higher, meaning her deficit calories will be higher, easier to manage, and more manageability means more consistency and consistency means results. And I know what it's like to want to change your body.

3:27And it feels like the harder you push and the lower you go with calories, the sooner that you're going to see results. But this approach backfires every time. I've been there and I've helped hundreds of women who were stuck doing the same thing. Lower calories does not equal faster fat loss. It usually leads to more muscle loss, more fatigue, and easier rebound. And muscle is what gives your body shape. It's what protects your metabolism and your health. So when you lose it, you might weigh less, but you will not look the way you want to. And it will be far easier to regain the weight and more likely that you're going to have health and mobility issues as you age.

4:03So here's what I want you to do instead. Use a moderate controlled deficit. Create enough of a calorie deficit, about 300 to 500 calories less than your maintenance, but not so aggressive that your body fights back. If you're not sure where your calories are, you can start tracking to get a baseline and then subtract 300 to 500. This is the most accurate way. Or you can use the calorie calculator that I have below so that you know where your calories should be based on your body and your goals. Now, once you have your calories set, you need to have a plan and we need to make sure that we have some accuracy.

4:36Because it's not just what we track that matters, but it's what we don't track. Sometimes those licks, bites, tastes, and drinks, they can add up quickly. And if we're not accounting for them, you may think you're in a calorie deficit when actually you're more in maintenance because of those untracked calories. So before you drop your calories lower, thinking that your body isn't responding, it's best to make sure that you have accuracy. My motto is always to do the most with the least so that you have runway to use if and when you need it. You don't want to drop calories before you absolutely have to.

5:07And the other thing I want you to do is this. keep it simple. Set your calories and your protein target and then plan and prep meals that you can repeat during the week. Pre-track if you can so that your day is more or less like a checklist. This is especially helpful during busy weekdays. Then on weekends you can add some variety, but create a simple plan with meals that you enjoy, meals you can prep, meals you don't have to think about. That way you're consistent and see success. Now something important that I also want to note is that weight loss and fat loss are not the same. If your goal is fat loss, you want to protect your muscle at all costs, which means prioritizing protein.

5:44So having about one gram per pound of goal body weight, and then by strength training three to four times a week with intensity and with progressive overload. Those two things tell your body to hold onto muscle so that the weight you lose comes from fat, leaving you looking more toned, defined, and with a healthier metabolism to maintain that fat loss easier. I also want to remind you that fat loss is not a lifestyle. It is a phase. It is a method for you to lose body fat, but we always want to end a fat loss phase by going back to maintenance where we can protect our metabolism, protect our hormones, and maintain our results with more flexibility.

6:20I really hope this helped you connect the dots. And if you're tired of guessing and you want a structured plan that's actually going to work with your body and not against it, you could check out the links below. I'll share all the information on my Strong by Shauna membership where I give you the workouts, structure, and tools to do this on your own. Or you can apply for one-on-one coaching where we walk through together step by step. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. As always, if you have show ideas, please DM me on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. If you found this helpful, please leave a rating or a review.

6:51I'd be so appreciative. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I'll see you in the next episode.