EP 96: The BEST Way to Lose Fat After 40

0:00Hello, welcome back to Becoming Her, Fit or Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I'm 47, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach, helping women over 40 become their best. Welcome or welcome back. And today is a really good topic and one that I think a lot of you are going to relate to. If fat loss has started to feel like it's harder than ever, the answer is not to just keep eating less and doing more in the gym. Because the truth is you can cut calories, you can cut out carbs, you can add fasting, pile on a ton of cardio, but still end up frustrated with your progress and not happy with how your body looks.

0:32And I know because that was me for so long. In my 20s and 30s, I was living on salads. I stayed in a deficit as much as possible. I added more gym sessions, more cardio, because I thought burning more and eating less had to mean better results. While I could make the scale go down, I never really changed my body in the way that I wanted to. I was smaller, but I didn't have muscle, shape, or definition. Whatever results that I did get usually disappeared pretty quickly because none of what I was doing was sustainable. But now at 47, I eat more than I did at 27. I am in the gym far less and I'm leaner and stronger and have more muscle.

1:10Not because I did more, but because I did better. I changed my strategy. So today I want to break down for you why eating less and doing more in the gym will eventually keep you stuck, why spending time not dieting can actually be part of a smart fat loss strategy, and exactly how you can set up a successful fat loss phase so that you lose fat while protecting lean muscle so that you can have that definition and shape that you want. Something I want to make clear before we dive into everything else is that if you need to lose body fat, you will need a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is required for fat loss.

1:43And eating at a calorie deficit only means that you're eating less food than your body needs to maintain itself. So it has to pull from your energy stores to make up the difference. This is not a video telling you that calories don't matter or that eating more magically makes you lose fat. If you need to lose body fat, you will need a calorie deficit, but how you approach that deficit is going to make the biggest difference. You can slash your calories, cut carbs, skip meals, and pile on hours of cardio, be miserable, or you can create a moderate deficit, keep your protein high, strength train, and use walking or cardio strategically.

2:17Both will make the scale go down, but they don't necessarily create the same result. Because we're not just trying to weigh less, we're trying to change our body composition. We're trying to lose body fat while keeping as much lean muscle as possible. And that's what helps you look toned plus supports your metabolism, your strength, and all of the health benefits only muscle can give you. And that brings us to the first thing that I want you to understand is that eating less can backfire when your strategy is only to drop calories as low as possible and try and stay there. And this is where I got stuck for years.

2:49I thought if a calorie deficit helped me lose weight, then the lower I could get my calories, the better off I would be. So instead of creating a reasonable deficit, I would go straight into eating as little as possible. And when the scale went down, my immediate thought was like, okay, this works. So I have to keep doing this forever. So I stayed there. And I see this happen to women all of the time. Maybe your body maintains around 2 ,000 calories, but then you drop to 1 ,200 because you heard that's what helps for fat loss. And maybe initially the scale starts to move, but because it's not a lot of food, it's hard to sustain.

3:22And you find yourself in this pendulum where you're eating very little and then having weekends where you're going into these all-out binges and you feel guilty and blame yourself. And I see this happen with women all the time. They think if they can just cut their calories really low, that fat loss will happen really quickly and they'll get the results that they want that much faster. This was the case with one of my clients, Gina, who came to me with this exact situation. Anytime she wanted to lose body fat, she would drop down to 1 ,200 calories. She would be able to sustain it for a little bit of time, but then end up fatigued.

3:52Her cravings would go through the roof, and then she'd have these binge sessions and on this hamster wheel of never really changing her body and always blaming herself. When in fact, it was her strategy and her method. What we did for her is we started to phase her approach. Initially, we spent some time bringing her calories to a healthy range for her height, weight, and activity. And during that time, she was astonished to see how she could maintain her current body weight while eating more. Then we went into a deficit where she is now losing body fat at a healthy rate while still having enough calories to support lean muscle, energy, and be able to stay consistent long enough to see real results.

4:32That's the difference between having a successful deficit with a strategy and plan versus just trying to wing it and eat as little as possible. Now, the other problem that comes in, aside from just trying to deficit too hard, is to try and live in that deficit. But a deficit should be a place that you visit, not a place that you stay. And I think this is where a lot of women get stuck because they believe that they have to live on these low-calorie diets. They're afraid that eating more means they're going to undo all the progress they worked so hard for. So instead of a calorie deficit being temporary, it becomes their lifestyle and the way that they try to eat all year long.

5:05And that's where the eat less strategy really starts to fall apart. Because you're asking your body to train, recover, build muscle and function well while constantly giving it less and less. And remember, our goal is not just to make the scale move. We want to lose body fat while keeping the muscle that gives your body shape and health. That becomes a whole lot harder to do when you are trying to live on the lowest calories you can tolerate. This is the mindset shift that I want you to make. Instead of asking yourself, how low can I get my calories? I want you to ask yourself, how high can I keep my calories while I'm still losing body fat?

5:38Because the deficit is temporary, but it does take time. So you want it to be something that you can stay consistent with. Then once you're done with your fat loss phase, that's when you reverse back into maintenance, making sure you have enough calories to support your lean muscle tissue and have a little bit more balance with your lifestyle. Which brings us directly to point number two. Two, spending time at maintenance is not going backwards. It should be a part of your strategy. This is probably one of the biggest differences between what I did at 27 and what I do now at 47. So in my 20s, I basically had two modes, dieting and feeling like I should be dieting.

6:11Anytime I didn't like what I saw in the mirror, my answer was to eat less and move more. But now I use phases and I'm very strategic. There are times when I intentionally use a calorie deficit and focus on fat loss. But most of the time I'm eating around maintenance, focusing on training, getting stronger, recovering well, and maintaining the body that I've built. I think that's where the misconception comes in. You know, maintenance can be a magical transformative phase as well, especially when you focus on building muscle. Some of my best physical transformations have happened during my maintenance seasons, not during my deficit seasons.

6:44When you're in maintenance and you have enough calories, you have amazing things that can happen. Your hunger regulates. Your training performance gets better. Your recovery is better because you actually have the nutrients to support recovery. Muscle growth gets a lot easier because you can push that much harder. Not to mention, you get to practice what maintaining your physique actually looks like instead of losing and gaining the same 10 pounds from that extreme approach. And lastly, and most importantly, it sets you up for successful future fat loss phases. If you are constantly trying to lose fat and you start to have metabolic adaptation where you are maintaining on low levels of calories, you really have no runway to use.

7:25If you're maintaining at 1 ,500 calories, dropping to 1 ,100 is just not sustainable, and it's not going to help you build or maintain muscle tissue. Versus you spend some time getting your calories to a healthier level, and then it gives you runway to use. Let's bring up Gina again as the example, because initially we started her reverse diet. She went from 1 ,200 calories to 2 ,100 calories all while maintaining her body weight. And then we started her calorie deficit at 1 ,800. So you can see that that is a lot more sustainable than trying to live off of 1 ,200 calories. And this is why I say you are not meant to live in a deficit.

8:01Fat loss phase or deficit should be that, a phase. It should have a beginning, a purpose, and an end. And honestly, spending more time around maintenance is one of the reasons I can eat more now at 47 than I did at 27 while still being leaner, stronger, and have more muscle. The best thing I ever did was to stop trying to diet my way into a fit body. Sometimes the right strategy is fat loss. Sometimes it's maintenance and focusing on building muscle. The strategy changes with the goal and what's best for your body at the time. Which brings us to our third and most practical point because when it is time to go into a deficit and lose body fat, we want to set it up in a way that's helping you lose body fat without repeating the same cycle of cutting as low as possible and staying there.

8:43So let's talk about what a successful fat loss phase actually looks like. What I do now is completely different than what I did in my 20s, but it's a lot more effective and there's a few key things that I want to make sure are in place. First, I want to create a reasonable calorie deficit. A successful deficit is not about eating as little as possible. It's about eating enough to consistently lose body fat while still supporting energy, training, recovery, and maintaining muscle. For many women, somewhere around 10 to 20 percent below maintenance is a reasonable place to start. If your maintenance is around 2 ,000 calories, that would put you somewhere between 1 ,600 to 1 ,800 calories.

9:20Not 1 ,200 calories, not as little as you can survive on, but enough to actually create fat loss and still keep you nourished. And if you aren't sure where your calories should be, I will link my calculator in the description so that you can estimate where your calories should be for your goals. Now, the second thing I prioritize in a deficit is protein. If your goal is to lose body fat while preserving lean muscle tissue, you need enough protein. Protein also helps to offset your hunger. It's the most satiating macronutrient, so it's going to help you stay fuller for longer, warding off hunger pains and cravings while you're in that deficit.

9:54It also burns more calories just to digest it, which is only working to your benefit while you're in a calorie deficit and it's the building block for everything especially muscle. Generally speaking you want to aim for about one gram per pound of your goal body weight. So if your goal body weight is 140 pounds then aim to have 140 grams of protein every single day. The point is to make sure that protein is intentional because we want to give our body what it needs to preserve lean tissue while we are losing body fat. And the third thing that I like to prioritize during a successful deficit is strength training and this is a big one.

10:27Your workout is not where you're going to go to burn off your food. It's where you're going to give your body a reason to keep and build muscle. That means using structured training, having enough intensity, getting close to failure, adding progression over time. We aren't replacing strength training with more cardio because we're trying to get lean. If anything, this is when protecting your strength and muscle becomes even more important. What I like to say is that we build in the gym and then we reveal in the kitchen. So go to the gym to build and preserve your lean muscle tissue and then use nutrition to help you lose body fat and reveal that beautiful body that you're building.

11:03The fourth thing that I like to prioritize in a successful calorie deficit might surprise you, but that is carbs. 27-year-old me would have been cutting out all of the carbs, but 47-year-old me knows that I train a lot better when I actually fuel myself. They are your muscles' preferred energy source. So your training performance and recovery is going to be far better, especially if you have them around your workouts. Something that I want to make sure that you understand is there is no one macronutrient that causes you to gain body fat. Gaining body fat only happens when we are eating in a caloric surplus.

11:36You can be eating all healthy foods and still gain body fat if you are in a caloric surplus. Just cutting out carbs does not mean that you are going to have a successful deficit. This is why tracking calories becomes so important because it allows you to have balance with your diet, getting you all of the nutrients that you need from all free macronutrients. You need proteins, fats, and carbs. So track your calories and then reduce your calories to be in a calorie deficit. That's how you're going to have a successful deficit, have a balanced diet that you can actually stick with and have consistency with.

12:08And remember that anything you do to attain your results, you're going to have to do to some level to sustain your results. That's why these approaches of just cutting out on food group doesn't allow you to sustain results long term. The main point I'm trying to make here is that you don't have to be afraid of anything. So long as you are accounting for calories and protein, you're going to be able to get results, but most importantly, keep results. Now, the fifth thing that I like to prioritize in a successful calorie deficit is strategic movement. This does not mean adding all of the cardio all at once.

12:37It means having a strategy and doing the most with the least. When you are in a calorie deficit, the majority of that deficit is going to be created by calorie restriction, meaning you are eating less than what your maintenance level of calories are. You can steepen your deficit by adding more activity, but you want to do the most with the least so that you leave yourself runway if and when you stall and you need to push a little harder. That's why going all in with cardio right out of the gate or super low with your calories generally tends to backfire because you have nowhere to go if in fact you stall.

13:10When I'm in a deficit, I look at my average steps, I look at my average level of cardio and I just turn the dial a little bit. I do this for myself and with clients. For example, in a maintenance phase, I'm generally getting anywhere from 7 ,000 to 8 ,000 steps daily. In a deficit, I will push that up to 10 ,000 steps. And then if I have a stall, then I may add in two days of zone two cardio. Not six days, not hour-long sessions after every workout, but strategic movement when I need to. You don't need to be exhausting yourself with hours of cardio to have a successful deficit. Let your nutrition do the work and then only dial up your activity if and when you need to.

13:49The other thing with activity is I like to lean on walking or incline walking because it doesn't compete with my strength training, which is what I want to prioritize to maintain lean muscle tissue, and it doesn't spike hunger. Things like running, HIIT cardio, they will spike your hunger, and that's the last thing that you want in a calorie deficit. So get your calories in check, prioritize protein, strength train, and then add in walking, you know, make sure you're tracking your steps, dial up that target if you want to, add in some incline walking if you need to, but do the most with the least and you're going to be able to remain consistent so that you get results in a sustainable way.

14:26And finally, the last thing I prioritize in a successful calorie deficit is to do the most with the least. And we just kind of touched upon this and this is probably one of the biggest things that I want you to take away. And when I say that, I mean use the lowest effective dose possible when it comes to restricting calories and adding activity, and then give it time to work. Do not start your fat loss phase by dropping calories as low as possible, taking your steps from 5 ,000 to 12 ,000, adding in five days of extra cardio. Because if you stall, where are you supposed to go from there? Start with a modest calorie deficit, somewhere like 10 to 20%, nothing crazy.

15:00And then look at what you're already doing. If you're averaging 6 ,000 steps a day, maybe you bring that to 7 ,000 to 8 ,000 steps. Then see how it works. Then maybe at some point when progress stalls, you add in some zone 2 cardio one to two times a week. Then give it time to work. And this is where patience comes in and knowing the right things to track. Because it's easy to assume that nothing is working when you're looking at the scale and you haven't seen it change for a couple of days. Something that's important to understand is that your weight is going to fluctuate for so many different reasons.

15:28So things like your cycle, your stress, how much you ate the day before, how late you ate towards bedtime, a hard training session. One weigh-in tells you very little. So instead of just randomly checking the scale, I want you to weigh in every single day and then track the trends. You're going to see day-to-day fluctuations, but overall you should see that it's trending in a downward pattern. Then the other thing I want you to do is take weekly progress photos and start to compare them. You will likely see changes in those photos before the scale has caught up. You can also take waist measurements.

15:58That's a great data point to look at and track and pay attention to how your clothes are fitting. And then make sure you give it time to work. Have three to four weeks where you are dialed in on everything and tracking that data to see if things are going in the direction that you want them to. And understand that successful fat loss looks like anywhere from a half a pound to a pound a week. And that's a perfectly healthy rate of progress. So if you're averaging less, even if it's a half a pound or a pound, don't change anything. Keep doing the same thing until you reach a plateau. And with a plateau, I don't mean having a couple days where you don't get a new low weigh-in.

16:31I mean that you have been adherent with your calories, your protein, your lifting, your movement, and you haven't seen any changes with your weight, your photos, or your measurements in around three weeks. And that's what I would consider a true stall. And that's when we start to turn those dials that we talked about before. Maybe we steepen the deficit by taking away another 100 calories. Maybe we add in another 1 ,000 steps. Maybe we add one more zone two session, but we make one small change and then we give it time to work. And that's how you set yourself up to have a successful calorie deficit where you lose fat and maintain your lean muscle.

17:06So at the end of it, you still have a healthy metabolism and you have that lean defined body that you want. now when the fat loss phase is over again we want to go back to maintenance you can use the calculator to determine what your new maintenance level of calories would be especially if you've lost weight you're a different vessel now until we have to estimate what those are slowly work back to those and then just maintain it start to lean into getting stronger and continuing to improve your body composition i really hope this helped open your eyes to approach fat loss in a completely different way.

17:38And if you want me to walk you through this entire framework, that's exactly what I teach inside my Soft to Sculpted mini course. In that mini course, you get three video trainings along with endless resources. The trainings teach you all about metabolism, how to build to burn in the gym, and how to phase out your nutrition plan so that you support your goals. I'll leave the link in the description. You can check it out. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I genuinely hope you found this helpful. If you did, please leave a rating or review. I would be so appreciative. Until next week, keep getting stronger and I will see you in the next episode.