10 Weight Loss Tips For Women Over 50

Did you know that your 50s are the time of life when most women are at their heaviest? It’s true! Sadly, 44.3% of Americans ages 44-59 are considered obese! Even if you’re not obese, and you haven’t changed your eating or exercise routine, you may have found yourself with 5 or 10 extra pounds that gradually crept onto your body. 🙋‍♀️ (That’s me!) This is alarming, but I’m here to tell you that there are things you can do to combat it. Today I’m sharing 10 weight loss tips for women over 50.

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Why Women Over 50 Gain Weight

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Basically, a bunch of things come together to make weight maintenance and weight loss over 50 more difficult.

• Hormone changes, especially the decline in estrogen during menopause, can cause weight gain.
• As we age, the subcutaneous fat underneath your skin migrates to your abdomen, becoming more dangerous visceral fat. Visceral fat is belly fat found deep within your abdominal cavity, surrounding organs like your heart, stomach, liver, and intestines.
• Age-related muscle loss (which starts at age 30) means a greater percentage of our body is made up of fat, which doesn’t burn as many calories as muscle.
• Age-related muscle loss ALSO means our bodies don’t process blood sugar as efficiently as previously.
• You may still be eating like you’re 30 (when you were more active and burning more calories).

This weight gain can lead to issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and more.

Weight Loss Tips for Women Over 50

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as eating less and moving more. Research shows that effective weight loss involves food choices as much as (if not more than) good volume. These tips can help with weight loss over 50.

1. Move at Least 30 Minutes a Day

Aim for at least 150 minutes of movement a week. Focus on activities like walking, swimming, biking, and gardening for cardiovascular fitness, and at least two days a week of resistance training for muscle strength. You don’t necessarily need equipment! Do what I do and use your body weight! Also, you should know that, in study after study, active daily living beats a few weekly gym sessions + sitting around the rest of the day.

2. Sneakily Work in More Movement

Park farther away from the front of the store. Take the stairs. If you need to move something to the second story of your house, don’t make a pile on the steps! Walk it up there. Those steps add up! Aim for 10K a day. For bonus points, make those steps vigorous to raise your heart rate a little bit. Walk like you’re in a hurry, and do it with purpose!

3. Start Your Day With Protein

Did you know the average American currently eats about 10 grams of protein at breakfast and about 60 grams at dinner? This contributes to fat! Instead, try something called “protein timing” — eating 25-30 grams of protein in the morning, the same amount at lunch and dinner. Studies show this helps you retain muscle mass.

4. Up Your Consumption of Organic Fruits & Vegetables

In general, foods in their natural form are always better than processed foods. Think nuts, seeds, seafood, olive and avocado oils, low-fat dairy, and especially lean meat, and especially fruits and veggies. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “The water and fiber in fruits and vegetables will add volume to your dishes, so you can eat the same amount of food with fewer calories. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories and are filling.” Pesticides are considered obesogens and are linked to weight gain, so be sure to wash produce well with a product like Veggie Wash Fruit & Vegetable Wash (It’s what I use.), or purchase organic if you can. 

5. Reduce Your Consumption of Simple Carbs & Sugar

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Minimize your intake of cookies, donuts, cakes, pies, sodas, and other sweet treats. Simple carbs like these fill you up with calories but provide minimal nutrition. Plus, higher carbohydrate intake makes you retain water, making you look bloated, feel heavier, and weigh more.

To read more about what I eat in a day, click HERE.

6. Stop Eating at 7 pm

It may seem counterintuitive, but studies have shown that eating later in the evening actually increases next-day hunger! It also decreases your next-day calorie burn and triggers your body to store more fat.

7. Figure Out WHY You Eat

When it comes to weight loss tips for women over 50, I think figuring out why you eat can be something we forget to address! Emotional eating can be linked to emotions like depression, anxiety, discouragement, fear, or even excitement and joy. What causes you to make poor food choices? If you haven’t examined the emotional reasons behind your food choices, it’s probably time to do that. If you can’t figure it out on your own, here’s a free online test that might help.

8. Shift Your Thinking About Food

Adopting the mindset that food is fuel can change your relationship with what you put into your body. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy what you eat! But it does mean that you need to understand that all foods aren’t processed at the same rate. Most of what we eat is broken down into glucose which can either be released quickly or slowly. Foods that release glucose quickly (See number 5 above.) cause a sudden spike in blood sugar. These foods give you a sudden burst of energy, but cause your blood sugar levels to drop quickly, causing a crash in your energy level and maybe even making you sleepy.

Foods that release glucose slowly (See number 4 above.) provide sustained energy and keep you feeling fuller longer. These foods won’t cause a spike in blood sugar because they provide a steady flow of energy to your brain. They cause your blood sugar to slowly rise and then slowly go down. Your brain needs a steady amount of glucose to stay alert, focused, and productive.

Need help with this? Mighty Health is a health & fitness app (endorsed by AARP) just for empty nesters and the over-50 crowd! I strongly endorse it and use it myself! Read more HERE.

9. Actively Combat Stress

Although it may look like empty nesters are enjoying the good life, we know that life over 50 can be stressful. Many of us are dealing with aging parents, concerns about our adult children, and job-related stress. Stress triggers the release of cortisol, leading to an increased appetite and cravings for unhealthy foods.

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Fight stress by doing things like taking a walk, calling a friend to vent, practicing yoga, or spending time in prayer. A book called  by Kelly McGonigal changed the way I think about stress completely and made a big difference in my anxiety level. It’s based on her famous TED talk called “How to Make Stress Your Friend.” In it, she cites research proving that undergoing stress is not bad for you; it is undergoing stress while believing that stress is bad for you that makes it harmful. In fact, stress has many benefits!

To read more about walking for health, fitness, and weight loss, click HERE.

10. Get 7 Hours of Sleep

Sleeping less than 7 hours a night has been shown to elevate ghrelin, the hormone created in the stomach that signals hunger. Sleeping less than 7 hours means you actually may be driven to consume more calories the next day.

While it’s true that midlife weight gain is something to be more conscious of after age fifty, be encouraged! There are small changes you can make that can help in the battle to lose or maintain your weight.

Sometimes the biggest challenge can be coming to grips with the fact that we are not the age of our kids, and we just can’t get away with the food choices that they make. 🙃 How do you fight the midlife weight gain battle? Do you have any good tips for weight loss over 50? Leave me a comment and give me some inspiration! We’re in it together, friends! 

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