My Take on Losing Weight in your Forties

For years I have struggled with my weight.  It just seemed like life would get crazy and I would turn to the comforts of food.  Well, let's be real here,  I turned to food for all occasions.   I really enjoyed food.  Now I am in my forties and working on an healthier lifestyle.   It is not easy making these changes now.  I have a lot of bad habits to break that I have had for years.  I went from an athletic, young adult to hardly any exercise at all.  It's horrible!  I sit here befuddled on why I waited so long!  Now I am in a  time in my life,  when it is so hard to lose weight.

There are many reasons why it could be hard to lose weight in your forties.  Here are some things you may need to look at to get back on track.

1.   Your Attitude: How you approach your weight loss will determine if you succeed.   If you are prone to give up easily, you will not succeed.  But if you get the attitude that you are going to succeed at a healthier lifestyle for yourself, your family, and to see you grand kids,  it is amazing how much more you can get accomplished.   You have to have a positive attitude throughout because it isn't easy and some days it will be hard.  Especially the days when you step on the scale and you haven't lost.  {I just want to Smash It, Bash It, & Trash It!}  Take that frustration on run or  long walk.  It will be a win, win!
2.  Your workouts:  I was plain ole' lazy.  I would much rather read a good book, bake in the kitchen, or be on the computer, than work out.  I thought I could eat what I wanted, not exercise, and lose weight.   As I got older, I could feel the effects of not exercising.  I would get out of breath with just the smallest exertions.  When I changed my attitude and decided to add 30 minutes of exercise into my daily routine, I started to feel so much better.  Now I have worked up to 60-90 minutes at least 5 days a week and it is something I enjoy doing.
3. Your Eating: To lose weight you have to change your eating habits.  You have to be willing to give up some very unhealthy choices.  I have learned the last few months that eating out is a bad deal for me.  My body doesn't respond well to processed foods and I will not lose weight and will typically gain.  Fresh foods is the best choice.  You have to watch what you eat everyday!  For me, I use My Fitness Pal.  I do not do very well at guessing, so I faithfully weigh everything out and enter it onto my journal.  It really helps me to make conscious choices about what I am putting in my mouth.
4. Your Goals:  You have to set realistic goals.  If you set goals that are not realistic, you are going to fail.  Weight loss becomes hard to accomplishment if you feel like a constant failure.  The key is to set goals that you can achieve.  Every person's goals will not be the same.   Set weekly goals and then get really brave and set long term goals.  (Like going to the gym three times this week.  A long term would be train for a 5K)  Set goals that you know you can reach, no matter how small or big.
5. Be Willing to Fail:  You have to realize that everyday will not be perfect.  There will be days that you will rock it and meet all of your goals.  But there will be days that you are tired and want to eat everything in sight.  Hey! We are human and it is natural to have these days.  What you have to remember is NEVER give up! We are not complete failures if we make some mistake.  We have to get back up and do our best to make good decisions.

Now that we know some of the things we need to do to get back on track, here are some tips to start losing that weight you have been lugging around.  First of all remember that your metabolism slows around midlife.  And because of physical changes you are accruing, you have to start eating healthy and becoming active.  Most mid-lifers need about 30 minutes of moderate activity each day, but in order to lose weight in your forties, you will need even more.  You also have to replace fat with muscle.  As you gain muscle, your body will burn more calories.  It is also important to cut calories.  When you are in your forties, you need about 100 fewer calories a day.  You cannot eat like you did when you were younger.  Lastly, you have to  boost your metabolism.  You do that by eating 60-80 grams of protein a day.  This will help you to enhance muscle growth and to stay full between meals.   All of this is work, but a healthier lifestyle is so important to feeling better and looking better.  Even though some of us are forty something, we can achieve the goal of losing weight and becoming fit. 

Here are all the things I read to research this blog post:
About: Exercise & Health 
Livestrong

This was a contributor post on the below blog!