The 3 Things Behind Losing 20 Pounds and Keeping It Off for 10 Years

Weight loss for women over 40 stops working the way it used to, and perimenopause and menopause are big reasons why. The eating and exercise that kept your weight in check in your 30s can stop delivering results after 40, so this episode covers what really changed and what to do about it.

You haven't changed much. Same habits, same effort, maybe even more of it. But the weight is creeping up anyway, mostly around your stomach, and the approach that always reigned it in isn't doing the job now. Your body went through a real shift, and the old plan was built for the body you had ten years ago.

I'm walking through the three changes that made the biggest difference in how my body looks and feels after 40, plus two smaller habits I now treat as non-negotiable. These are the exact changes I used to lose 20 pounds in my mid 30s and keep every one of them off for 10 years, right through perimenopause.

Inside the episode:

• The one change I'd start with if you only did a single thing
• What I got completely wrong about working out in her 20s and 30s
• The eating habit I let go of at 45, and what she does instead
• Two small daily habits I now refuse to skip

Resources mentioned in this episode:

💪🏼 The Strong Core Method: a 4-week at-home core program for women over 40, built for every level, even if you've never worked out a day in your life. 12 guided workouts with video demos, 20 minutes, 3 times a week, to build a stronger, more defined midsection.

📝 Grab The FREE Fat Loss Formula Workbook to calculate your exact calorie deficit and maintenance numbers

🎯 Take the FREE ‘What’s My Metabolism Type’ Quiz that identifies your unique metabolism type and get empowered with a personalized plan to manage your weight confidently.

💌 Stay Connected: Join my BTB Newsletter for weekly insight


🎧 Listen Next: Why Losing Weight After 40 Makes You Look Worse

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👋🏻 ABOUT ME:
I'm Andrea, a double-certified NASM Nutrition and Fitness Coach and founder of Behind the Body. For 20 years, I under-ate, avoided weights, and lived on cardio chasing skinny, and none of it gave me a body I was proud of. In my mid-30s, I changed my approach: more protein, real strength training, and a plan that fit my life. I lost 20 pounds, and 10 years later, at 45, I'm still maintaining it through perimenopause. I help women over 40 simplify their approach, build real strength, and get results that last. Every week, I cover the science, the strategy, and the honest truth about fat loss and maintenance for women over 40.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER:
This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health routine. Results vary. Andrea is a NASM-certified Nutrition and Fitness Coach, not a doctor or registered dietitian.

Transcript

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For about 20 years, every time that my weight started to creep up, my solution was the same. Eat less food, smaller portions, skip a meal here and there. And when that stopped working, because eventually it did, eat even less than that and then also ramp up my cardio. It was mostly effective for managing my weight in my 20s and early 30s. Then I got into my 40s, and using that same exact strategy was not only ineffective at losing weight, but it also made me feel and look even worse. If you're over 40 and you're in the same boat, struggling to figure out how to lose weight and keep it off, it's because your body has fundamentally changed. Our hormones now are all over the place. And the strategy that you've been using in the past was built for a body that you had in the past with stable hormones and not for the body that you have now. So I rebuilt this entire approach for this 40 plus body that I have now, 45 to be exact. And I've experienced so much success that I love to share it, hoping that it can resonate with other women our age. I'm gonna tell you the three things that I changed that had the biggest impact on my weight loss and my weight maintenance in my 40s. And if you're new here, I'm Andrea. I lost 20 pounds in my mid-30s and I've kept every pound off and then some for 10 years, right through perimenopause, and I'm a double certified nutrition and fitness coach. And I figured all of this out the hard way through a lot of trial and error. Welcome to Behind the Body. I'm Andrea, certified nutrition and fitness coach. In my 30s, I lost 20 pounds and I've maintained it well through my 40s. Every week here, we talk about what's really happening with perimenopause and weight gain, what to do about it, and the brutal but beautiful truth about this stage of life. Whether you're just starting or tired of starting over, you are in the right place, and I'm so happy you're here. Let's dive in. Okay, the first thing that I changed after 40, and the one that I would start with if you only do one of these, is prioritize protein. And here's why it's first. After 40, especially once your estrogen starts dropping, you lose muscle faster than you ever have before. And muscle is what keeps your metabolism running and burns calories all day long. Protein is what your body uses to hold on to that muscle and keep that muscle and protect it. So when you cut food and you cut your calories, and then you also pile on cardio on top of that to force your weight down, your body burns off muscle along with that fat. So you end up thinner, but now your metabolism is slowed way down. And the amount of effort or the calorie deficit that you need to be in has to be much more aggressive to keep losing weight. And protein is how you stop that. Before I was about 37, I never thought about protein. I mean, I don't even know how much I was eating of it, but guaranteed so little. And then on top of that, doing so much cardio. And I just ate whatever fit within my calorie budget or whatever was in front of me. Protein was literally an afterthought or a never thought. And that's the reason that I never carried that much muscle ever before. Now it's the closest thing that I found to a cheat code for losing and maintaining weight. And I say this constantly if you follow me. But if you want the one thing that can help you with your weight loss and your weight maintenance efforts without requiring you to eat less or work out more, this is it. Beyond protecting your muscle, protein fills you up and keeps you full so much longer so that you're not constantly hungry. And it costs your body more to digest it than any other food that you eat. Your body burns 20 to 30% of its calories from just breaking down protein through digestion. So if you eat a piece of steak that's 100 calories, your body spends 20 to 30 of those calories to digest it. So you're only really absorbing 70 to 80 of those hundred calories. You don't get that same value with carbs or with fats. And now, if tracking all of your macros sounds like too much, it's like overwhelming or too much of a chore, then don't. But I recommend tracking your protein. Make every meal and every snack start with a protein, whether that's chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, like whatever your preference is, and then build everything else around it. Even if you never hit a perfect protein target, you'll be eating way more protein than you probably ever have. And that alone can make such a significant change to your body composition. I like to follow a simple target of 0.7 to 1 gram of protein for every pound of your goal body weight. That means the weight that you're working towards if you have more than 10 pounds to lose. If you have less than 10 pounds to lose, then 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of current body weight. If this is a lot of math for you, I have a free fat loss formula workbook that calculates your protein plus your maintenance calories and your calorie deficit. Step by step, it'll take a couple minutes. It's free, and I will link that in the description for you. Okay, the second thing that I changed was starting to lift weights. Now, I need you to understand where I came from because at one point I was a cardio bunny. I was all focused on cardio. I ran. I trained for marathons and half marathons. I spent hours on the Stairmaster. I was obsessed with Orange Theory and then obsessed with Peloton. If it spiked my heart rate, I was doing it. And that was my benchmark for how good the workout was. Cardio was my whole strategy for staying slim. And it left me exhausted and thinner. I was definitely skinny, but with no strength or shape or definition to my body. And now I look back at photos from my 20s and my 30s, and I don't love at all what I see. I look so much better now at 45 than I did at 25. And the biggest reason is that I stopped making cardio, the whole strategy. It went from 100% of what I did to about 20 now. Lifting weights took its place, and I'm so thankful it did. And I know what a lot of you are probably thinking, because I hear it from so many women in my life when I talk about strength training. They say that they don't want to bulk up. You will not bulk up unless you want to. With your hormones shifting after 40, that's not what happens. You need to be super intentional about the amount of food you eat and the degree to which you're lifting weights. And that happens over years, over a long period of time. You don't just magically or accidentally wake up bulky. But what does happen to you when you start incorporating strength training is that you get stronger and you get in shape. You get a shape. The kind of arms and abs and legs that make people ask you if you work out. Muscle is what makes your body look intentional, like you're taking care of yourself. The catch is that building muscle takes time. It's not an overnight win. And that's exactly why it's worth it. You can't fake it and you can't buy it. When you see a woman our age out in the wild who clearly trains, you know she earned it day after day. You know she had to delay instant gratification to earn that muscle. That's the part that changed me beyond the mirror, that changed my whole outlook, proving to myself that I could keep a hard commitment over chasing quick fixes or fads. And the bonuses of weightlifting at our age are that my joints hurt less. I can walk up flights of stairs relatively easy, I can carry a bunch of grocery bags, I can go on a hard hike without falling apart. I mean, I literally feel like I could do anything because I have such a strong body. And all you need are just three or four short sessions a week, doing basic moves like squats and rows and presses, things that work multiple body parts at once. That's literally all it takes to get started. You can even do workouts in the comfort of your own home, in your living room. All you have to do is just order a couple sets of dumbbells or resistance bands from Amazon and watch some YouTube videos. That can create substantial change in your body. Or if you want a super simple place to start, I created the strong core method, which is four weeks of core workouts from beginner to advanced, all levels, done in the comfort of your own home, three times a week for 20 minutes or less a session. You could start there and build a strong toned core. I'll put that link in the description so you can check it out if you're interested. And one quick thing back on cardio, because I'm not telling you to quit cardio or to never do cardio. I love cardio personally. Cardio burns calories while you're doing it. The problem is that it gives your body no reason to keep muscle. And when you consistently do like long cardio sessions week after week, it raises your cortisol, which then tells your body to hold on to belly fat. I started feeling that in my mid-30s. I can see it in those pictures back in the day. So now I keep a little cardio as a supporting role and let lifting do the heavier work that changes my body. Okay, the third thing that I did was stop eating in a big calorie deficit. Starving myself thin was for my 20s. At 45, I am too old and too smart for it now because skinny just isn't the goal anymore. I want a body that I'm proud of. I want a body that looks strong and looks healthy. That's really important to me. And that takes food. So I rarely eat in much of a deficit. If I put on a few pounds that I want to drop, I will cut maybe 100 to 200 calories a day. No more than that. And only until I'm back to my normal weight. Then I go right back to eating at maintenance because food is where everything good comes from. The protein, the fiber, which we desperately need, the vitamins, the minerals that your body needs to look and feel its best. I don't want to look like I'm 25 again. I don't want to look like the skinniest version of myself. I want to look like the best version of myself at 45 with glowing skin and healthy hair and as much energy as I can possibly have. You can't get there when you're constantly dieting. And when you eat mostly whole foods, then you get off that yo-yo cycling of diet because whole foods don't drive weight gain or inflammation the way that processed, packaged, or restaurant food does. You eat enough, you eat well, and then your weight settles into a spot that your body and your mind are happy with. I refuse to starve myself skinny again. I care more about looking healthy than looking skinny. And looking healthy takes food. Okay, those are the main three things that made the biggest impact into how my body looks and feels after 40. But there are a couple more things that absolutely help that I just want to touch on quickly. The first one is sleep. I used to run on almost no sleep, no consideration. Staying up late, waking up early, like not even a thought. But after 40, I made it a non-negotiable. I'm in bed by 9:30 or 10 most nights. When you're short on sleep, your stress hormones climb, and that makes losing weight and holding on to muscle even harder than it already is. So get quality sleep, and then the next day is easier. The workouts, the eating, the mood, like all of it is so much easier. And then the second thing is water. I drink a ton of water. It's the first thing I do every single morning when my feet touch the ground out of bed is pound 25 ounces of water. I'm not saying that you need to do that, but that's the water bottle that I keep next to my bed. And that gets me started with good water consumption for the day. It helps to keep me full so I'm not just like randomly snacking. Well, sometimes I do because I'm bored. I'm just not like snacking because I think I'm hungry when I'm actually thirsty. And not to mention that I do think it plays a pivotal role in how glowing and vibrant my skin looks. I aim for about an ounce per pound of body weight. So for me, that's like 145 ounces. Now that's over a gallon. I don't hit that every single day, but I aim for that and I get as close as I can. Everybody's different, but that's my target. And I swear it makes a real difference in my weight and in my skin. Moral of the story: when you're over 40, your body just doesn't quit on you. What your body needs has changed. And now all the little details that used to never matter before or that we never even thought about when we were younger all play a super important role in our health and the way that we look. Feed it enough protein, give it a reason to keep its muscle, stop starving it and let it rest. And you'll see your body start responding accordingly. These are the things that changed my body significantly after 40. But where you should start depends on what's slowing your body down the most right now. I have a free metabolism type quiz that tells you which of the five metabolism types you are based on your habits and what's happening with your body. It takes about two minutes and you'll know exactly what's holding your weight back and get a customized plan for what to work on first. I will link that quiz in the description below. If this episode was helpful, please subscribe to the podcast so that the next episode is already downloaded and ready for you to go. And if you have 10 seconds, I would so greatly appreciate if you could leave a comment. It helps this podcast reach more women over 40, and I would be so grateful for that. And if you want more things on health, fitness, nutrition, lifestyle for us women over 40, come and join the behind the body community. Every week I will send you something or right to your inbox to help you keep making progress. And you can sign up for free at behind the body.com forward slash newsletter. Thank you so much for tuning in, my friend, and I can't wait to chat with you next week.