EP 76: 5 Shifts That Helped My 53-Year-Old Client Lose 40+ Lbs & Transform Her Body

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger Over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I'm 46, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach that helps women over 40 become their best. If you think changing your body after 40 or 50 is not possible, this episode is going to change that because today I'm going to share with you exactly what works and why and then show you real proof of what's possible. And I've shared my transformation journey in my 40s before, but today I want to highlight my amazing client, Shantae. She came to me three short years ago, and she has completely transformed her body and her life.

0:36So today I'm going to show you her transformation, but I'm also going to talk about how she did it because that's exactly what I did and what I teach other women so that they can unlock their best bodies and have their best lives after 40. Now, when Shantae came to me, like most women that I work with, she was not new to trying. She had been doing all of the things, cutting calories, cutting carbs, trying different workout classes, trying different workout programs, putting in the effort. But her body wasn't responding like she wanted it to. And she was convinced that her best years were behind her.

1:06She was also pre-diabetic. She had low energy. Her confidence took a hit. And she was starting to have those thoughts like, maybe this is just how life is. Maybe my body can't change. Maybe I'm too old. Maybe it's too late. But fast forward to today, and she's 53 years young. She's leaner than she's been in years, stronger, more confident, feels capable in her body again. She's no longer pre-diabetic. She's off of her medications, and she's living her life in a completely different way. And this did not come from doing more. It did not come from an extreme diet or pushing harder in the gym. It came from a few simple shifts, and these shifts are what move you away from working against your body and constantly fighting it to actually learning how to work with it.

1:51And her story is like so many other women that I work with. Most of them are putting in effort, but not seeing the kind of change that matches that effort. And I used to be there too. I was in the gym six days a week, always restricting, pushing harder, until I realized something had to change. And just like Shantae, I didn't get here by doing anything extreme. I got here by changing how I approached everything, by focusing on strength instead of just trying to lose weight, and by learning how to actually fuel my body, how to stay consistent with the basics that we're gonna talk about today. And the shifts that we're gonna talk about today are the same shifts that I help my clients make in a way that actually fits their life.

2:29So they're not just seeing results for now, but they're seeing them forever. And that's why I'm so passionate and excited to share these because I know what it's like to feel stuck, to feel like you're working so hard, but your body's working against you. But when you lean into the right things, your body will respond like you never knew possible. If you relate to Shante's story or mine and you are ready to have your body start responding again, let's dive into those shifts that can make that happen. Shift number one is that I want you to stop focusing on body weight and I want you to start thinking about body composition.

2:58For a long time, I approached everything with the goal of just trying to get smaller. Seeing the scale go down meant I was being successful with fitness. But what I didn't realize is that body weight doesn't really tell the full story. You can lose weight, but not necessarily be losing fat, still not look the way you want to, not have the shape that you want. To look toned, defined, sculpted, takes having muscle. Without muscle, you might lose weight but still be soft, unless muscle means a slower metabolism, making it easier for you to gain fat and harder for you to lose it. When I stopped focusing on body weight and started to really focus on body composition, everything changed for the better.

3:36When I say body composition, I mean how much muscle you have and how much body fat that you have. And this especially becomes so important after 40 because this is when we naturally start to lose muscle if we're not intentional about growing it or preserving it. And muscle is the very thing that gives your body shape. It's what makes you look toned, defined, strong. It supports your metabolism, your strength, your insulin sensitivity, your energy, your health, and your longevity. So if the sole focus is just seeing that scale go down by any means possible, you can actually start to lose muscle in the process.

4:05And that's when you end up feeling soft or like your body isn't changing in the way you expected. But when you shift to body composition, you build a body that looks amazing and protect your metabolism and your health. And for many of us over 40, we have been taught to burn more and eat less, but that's doing us no favors when we're talking about muscle or metabolism. Then you couple that with age-related muscle loss, and we have a recipe for being soft and stuck. Instead of asking yourself, how can I lose weight? I want you to start asking yourself, how do I build muscle? How do I get stronger?

4:37How do I actually help my body composition? You know, fitness over 40 is not just about getting smaller. It's about building a body that looks and feels and performs better for the years to come. Shift number two is that I want you to stop thinking about constantly eating less and think more about eating to support your body and your goals. I spent a long time thinking I needed to eat as little as possible in order to see results. And I didn't realize how much that was actually working against me. And what I started to do instead was focusing on eating in a way that actually supported my body and my body composition.

5:10This meant that I was getting enough protein, building my meals around it, making protein the star of the show, not just an afterthought, making sure I was having 30 to 50 grams at least three times a day. It also meant eating enough in general, because if you're trying to build muscle, your body needs fuel to do that. I had to realize that a deficit is not a place that I should live, but rather just a place I visit when I needed fat loss because a deficit is not where your body thrives and it's definitely not where you can optimally build muscle. So instead of constantly dieting, I started to be more intentional with my nutrition and how I phased it.

5:46Now there were times that I was in fat loss phases, but they always ended with me going back to maintenance where my body could recover and actually build real muscle. And some of the best physique progress I've made has been in maintenance phases, not in fat loss phases. A deficit has a time and a place, but it should be temporary. Your best body needs to be nourished, especially as we deal with declining hormones and muscle. Now let's move into shift number three, which is to stop exercising and to start strength training. I have to say that this shift was a game changer for my physique, but it was not easy.

6:20I was so used to going into the gym and burning as many calories as I could, trying to sweat away all of that fat. And a good workout meant that I had burned a ton of calories, I was sweaty, I was tired, I was beat to the ground. But strength training looks and feels very different. It's still hard, but it's hard in a different way. But the return on investment that you get with your body composition is unlike anything else. And I stopped looking at workouts as a way to burn calories and I started to look at them as a way to actually build muscle and build up my body. And that's such a different mindset and it also looks very different in practice.

6:55Instead of using classes, random videos or random workouts, I learned how to strength train using one program and sticking to it long enough to see progress, you know, eight to 12 plus weeks. And I started to track my lifts, tracking my weights, tracking my reps. I worked on getting stronger every week by adding a little bit more weight or adding an extra rep, trying to move with better control and execute form better. Because that's how muscle is built. It's not built from random workouts. It's not built from trying to confuse your body. it needs to be challenged over time in a consistent way.

7:27And sticking to the same program allows you to see if you're continually making that progress. And it also meant getting close to failure with these exercises, not necessarily from being out of breath or being sweaty, but truly going to muscular failure. That's the kind of effort that actually signals to your body to build more muscle. And something else that really matters here is rest. Not rushing through your workouts, not turning everything into cardio, doing supersets with everything, but pushing hard and then allowing yourself to rest so that you can go into that next set with intention, focus, and get close to failure again.

8:02Because the goal isn't just to feel tired or to burn calories, it's to create the right stimulus for your muscles to actually grow. When you start training like this, that's when your body starts to change. This is what's going to build that shape. It's going to give you that tone-defined look. Start to view the gym as the place you go to build your body, not to burn it away. Ship number four is moving away from intense cardio and moving into walking and then supporting recovery. Pulling back from intense cardio was another shift that made a really big difference for me. For a long time, I thought I needed to be doing more.

8:34You know, every workout I did would end with a HIIT workout, running, Stairmaster, you name it. But we are never going to sweat our way to Sculpted. And while cardio has a time and a place, it should complement your strength training and not take away from it. When you are lifting, you are creating damage to the muscle that requires time and opportunity to recover. So you need to balance that work with proper recovery. And walking has been an amazing way for me to do that, and it gave me that balance. It allowed me to stay active every single day without constantly draining my body. It has supported my recovery, my energy, and it's something that I can do consistently without burning out.

9:12And that's really the goal here. We aren't just looking for what works for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, but what can we do for years? Because that's how we are going to maintain results. We build a lifestyle that's going to support our metabolism and our bodies for the years to come. Now, the fifth and final shift is to stop starting over and start staying consistent with the basics. And this honestly is the one that's going to pull everything together for you. The truth is you don't need to be perfect and get everything right, but you do need to be consistent with the things we just talked about and then give them time.

9:46You know, so many of the old fad diets and fad approaches that we were taught provided these quick scale changes, but we now know that those weren't true body transformations. Those were just fluid fluctuations. And if anything, we lost just as much muscle as we did fat. And that's not what we're trying to do now. We are trying to build a physique that's going to be looking its best, but also performing and feeling its best. It's important to resist jumping to something new or giving up when results don't show up in a week or a month, but committing to the basics of lifting, protein, walking, recovery and rinsing and repeating.

10:21And that's why Shantae has seen the success that she has, not just over a few months, but over the last three years is because she didn't chase something new. She stayed consistent with these basics. And there will always be something new and shiny in the fitness world. A new program, a new diet, a new trend promising these new results. But when you really look at it, most of it is just repackaged versions of the same exact thing. Calorie restriction and burning more calories. And that's not what creates lasting change. What does create lasting change is doing the things that build your body and your metabolism up and actually giving them time to work.

11:01Just know that you don't have to stay stuck. You don't have to keep trying to burn your body away. You can start to lean into what builds you up, making you stronger, more capable, more defined, and creating long-lasting change. I hope you found this helpful, and I really hope that it showed you that change is absolutely possible over 40 or 50. and if you need help actually putting this into practice, that's exactly what I do inside my coaching and my membership. I will leave all of the information below but either way, please remember that your best body over 40 will be built, not burned. So lean into getting stronger inside and out and you will look and more importantly, feel your best.

11:37Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I genuinely hope you found it helpful. If you did, I'd be so thankful if you left a rating or a review and if you have future show ideas, please send me a message on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I will see you in the next episode.