EP 77: Eating MORE Changed My Body After 40 (Here’s What Happened)

0:00Shauna Theresa: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 helping women over 40 become their best. This might not be what you expect to hear as a woman over 40 who's trying to get fit, but eating more, not less, might be the missing piece that's finally going to get you the body that you want. For years, I thought the only way to get fit was to eat less, and if you're over 40, you probably thought the same thing. The 90s pushed fad diet after fad diet, and we all believed if I just eat less, I'll finally lose the weight, I'll finally look toned.

0:36Shauna Theresa:But I'm here to tell you, some of my best physique changes did not come from eating less. They actually came from eating more. For so long, I lived in that cycle of eating less and burning as many calories as possible in the gym. And I looked okay, but I never really achieved the physique that I wanted. And I was working out so hard in the gym six days a week, living on broccoli, chicken. I felt soft, restricted. I felt tired. And my body really didn't reflect the effort that I was putting in. And I thought I just needed to do more. But what I actually needed was to start fueling my body. And I know that can sound crazy, especially if you spent your life thinking the opposite.

1:14Shauna Theresa:But stick with me here. There was a time where I needed a calorie deficit to lose body fat. The problem was that I tried to live there, which caused muscle loss, a slower metabolism, and being stuck with progress. I wasn't progressing in the gym, I wasn't building muscle, and I stayed stuck for a long time until I finally learned better and leaned into fueling my body. And for me, that shift actually started during pregnancy at age 39, when I was pregnant with my son. It was the first time in decades that I wasn't thinking about eating less or losing fat. I was focused on fueling my body and his.

1:48Shauna Theresa:You know, I had a hard time conceiving, So my sole purpose at that time was just to be healthy. And then that continued after he was born because I needed to fuel myself to breastfeed. So for the first time in so long, I took a break from restriction. And that break was exactly what my body needed. And once I was able to start training again after pregnancy, my body responded in ways I had never seen before. And I was actually training far less than I was before pregnancy. I also started to shift how I trained after pregnancy. My sole focus was building muscle because I knew that was going to be the key to staying healthy and having longevity as an older mom.

2:26Shauna Theresa:So I went from six days a week to three to four lifts a week, tracking, getting close to failure and applying progressive overload. I have another episode all about how to lift to get toned that I will link below. But fueling my body with enough calories, that's what changed everything. Now, your lifts, your training sessions send the signal to build your body, but proper nutrition allows your body to have the nutrients that it needs to actually build that tissue. And when you have more muscle, your metabolism is in a better place. You look more toned and defined. It creates a body that can actually lose and maintain fat loss much, much easier.

3:02Shauna Theresa:It's just better all around. So if you have been a chronic dieter and you feel like your body is stuck, like that last five pounds just won't move, like your body isn't reflecting the effort that you're putting in, you might not need another diet. You actually might need more fuel, more food. Today, I'm breaking down the three most surprising things that happened to me when I started to eat more. The first surprising thing that happened to me when I started to increase my calories was I actually looked leaner. And this was really shocking to me. You know, as I was slowly adding more calories in, I thought I might gain fat, but I actually looked leaner.

3:38And here's why. When you chronically under eat, your body doesn't have the resources to build muscle. And muscle is what gives your body that shape. It's what creates that toned look that everyone is kind of chasing. What happens when you diet for too long, you can lose weight, but you also might lose muscle. Your body ends up looking softer, flatter, more or less depleted. But when I started to add in more food, I was able to train with more intensity and actually build muscle and store glycogen in my muscles, which helps them look more full and tight instead of looking flat. And all of these changes allowed my body to look more defined.

4:13That's when it clicked for me. And this is the shift that I want you to understand, too, is that you don't diet your way to a toned body. You build it. You know, you cannot look toned without that muscle and you cannot build that muscle without enough fuel. Now, the second thing that surprised me when I started to increase calories was that fat loss actually got easier. This was really exciting and also super surprising, but fat loss got easier for me the more I ate because I built more muscle. More muscle allows a better metabolism. A better metabolism means easier fat loss. And what most of us didn't realize is that when we constantly eat less, when we're chronically dieting, our bodies adapt.

4:49Metabolism downregulates. Energy output will drop. And your body becomes more efficient with less calories, meaning it burns less overall. So then when you try to lose body fat, your body is not really responsive. You can eat less, add more cardio, but now you're stuck in this cycle where you have to do more and your body seems like it's fighting you. But when I spent time eating more, slowly working my way up to a healthier maintenance, everything improved. My workouts got better. My energy came back. My body started functioning better. So when I did go into fat loss phases, I didn't need to slash calories.

5:23I didn't need to kill myself with cardio. Fat loss actually felt easy.

5:27Shauna Theresa:For a long time, I was living on about 1 ,800 calories, which isn't that bad. But that meant if I wanted to lose fat, I had to drop to about 1 ,400 to 1 ,500 calories, which is not a lot of food and very hard to sustain. But over time, I've been able to reverse diet, add more muscle. and now my maintenance level of calories sits at about 22 to 2300 calories, which means if I wanted to go into fat loss, my calories would sit at around 1800 to 1900, which is much easier to lose in that range. And this is something that I see with the clients that I work with too. I work with women who, like me, have spent years dieting and now have a very low maintenance level of calories.

6:04Shauna Theresa:So our first goal is to help metabolism and body composition. We do this via a reverse diet and by dialing in their training program with proper volume and intensity. If the concept of reverse dieting is new to you, I have a full episode that I will link below that you can check out after this. But as we increase their calories week by week, they're getting stronger. Their bodies are tightening. They have more strength, more energy in the gym, and they stop fearing food. I have two clients right now who are making amazing progress. First one is Gina, who always crash dieted at 1200 calories and now is eating 2000 calories weighing less most days looking leaner and getting stronger then i have lila who again was eating about 1500 calories and at 510 that was not enough to support healthy hormones or healthy body composition but as you can see after adding in the right fuel and dialing in her training plan her body is looking sculpted strong and changing in the best of ways and the best part about all of this is that they are not even in fat loss yet.

7:07That comes later, but now their bodies will be primed and ready. Now, the third thing that surprised me when I started to eat more was that my body, especially bloating, started to feel so much better. And this doesn't get talked about enough, but when you under eat

7:20Shauna Theresa:for long periods of time, your body slows things down to adapt. And I'm not just talking about metabolism slowing down. I'm talking about things like your digestion, your recovery, your hormones, your energy. You feel bloated. Your hunger cues are thrown off. Your sleep can be thrown off. Your energy level is low. So when I started to eat enough, suddenly digestion improved. Energy improved. I was sleeping better. My workouts felt better. My nails started to grow. My hair started to grow. My skin was better. Everything felt better because my body actually had what it needed to perform optimally, not just survive.

7:58And that's the key to looking and feeling your best over 40 especially is that your body needs to feel supported. And when it does, it can work with you instead of against you. Again, there is absolutely a time and a place for a calorie deficit. Fat loss requires a calorie deficit, but fat loss is a phase. It should not be where you live. And some of my best transformations for both myself and my clients did not happen in a calorie deficit. They happened in maintenance where we were focused on building muscle, improving metabolism creating a body that actually responds if you are a woman who feels like you're doing everything right you're eating less you're in the gym you're working out hard but your body still feels soft and stuck it might not be that you need to do more might be that your body needs more more fuel more strength more muscle more support because when you build that foundation first fat loss becomes something your body can do again not something that it fights thank you so much for joining me in today's episode.

8:58I really hope that it gave you hope to know that change is possible over 40, but sometimes it's not about doing more. Sometimes it's about doing better. And if you need help on your fitness journey, you can also find all of the ways to work with me in the show notes. You can come inside my Strong by Shawna membership, or we can work one-on-one together where I can walk you through all these phases. And if you have show ideas, please DM me on Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. If you found today's episode helpful, please leave a rating or a review. I would be so thankful. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I'll see you in the next episode.