Women over 40 anyone hit a plateau?!

[Happilyobtuse]

I’m 43 years old, 5ft 6” and weigh 70 kgs. I walk 11-12K steps daily, eat 2 egss for bf, lean meat and veg for lunch and light dinner. No snacks, trying to drink 1-2 litres of water but my weight won’t budge! Any tips on what to do?

I have one of those fancy weighing scales.
My muscle mass is 46.83 kgs, Bone mass - 2.99 kg, protein - 16.3%, body water - 48.2%, visceral fat - 8. Trying to sleep 7-8 hrs at night. Please help!

have you calc'd the total calories you consume including everything that passes your lips?

I guess you're on a low fat mealplan since you don't mention any fat-bearing foods in your diet?

Yes, as per total calories I am in deficit most days but still not seeing much change. I drink only water and the occasional coke zero/pepsi max. No alcohol at all. It is very frustrating not seeing the scale move. It goes down 0.5 kg and then comes up again in a few days.

You're not doing any exercise (unless you count walking)? That's your issue there.

I’m similar age and lost a few kilos on the Fast 800. I generally don’t like any kind of diets that are unsustainable but nothing else was working for me. I did it over 8 weeks when I didn’t have much on and found it relatively easy to follow. I have also been drinking a lot less since, which I’m happy about too.

Your body composition is quite good given you only do walking as exercise. Being in a calorie deficit "most days" isn't really enough to loose weight though - you need to a deficit of around 3500 calories to burn 1lb of fat so that's 500 deficit a day to loose a lb a week. Hence why you're going up and down a bit (but a lot of that will just be natural variance of fluid retention etc) rather than a net loss over time. That said, I have tracked calories to the letter and done a fuckton of exercise and still lost and gained the same lb again whilst constantly being hungry so I do think part of it is age related as in my 30's the weight fell off me easily!

Sorry forgot to mention, I do lift weights and try to do some combo HIIT exercises. Doesn’t happen daily but 3 times a week. Trying
to be more regular. I agree in my 30’s it was so much easier to lose weight! The 40’s suck big time!

I lost weight ~1.1/2 stones at 40. I stopped breakfast (no coffee/ milk), filled half my plate with green (mostly spinach or watercress) and the rest with protein for lunch and an early dinner. Yoga, run or tennis everyday for an hour; rest on Sunday. No/ low alcohol but one (or a few) square of dark chocolate a day. It took me about 6 months to get there but the weight is still off a couple year later. It’s probably not the best success story but definitely a big win for me.

2 years ago I could lose weight with no issues, just had to pay attention to my diet. Now, at 44, I'm in calorie deficit most days but no weight loss.

I sure it's partly hormonal as the weight is now sitting on my tummy rather than my hips but fundamentally, I am doing a lot less exercise.

Yeah, I had a baby at 39, so I lost my post partum weight and was at 63 kgs aged 41, but subsequently I have gone back to full time work and struggling to juggle it all. Today for instance I have done strength training with weights in the morning and walked 14877 steps. Diet has been good so will have to wait and see what happens end of this week.

Glad to hear I am not the only one. I am really trying to increase fiber and protein in my diet. Hope I see some results!

Yep! I'm 42 and have always been able to outrun my diet (which is actually healthy but not diet food if you get my drift). I had my third baby at 40 and honestly I've had to loose that weight gram by gram.

Bu exercise a lot (I enjoy it) but weight just sticks around. The only way I have shifted a bit is fasting a bit (or skipping breakfast as it used to be known) and hardly eating any sugar and not snacking at all.

I imagine I'd shift more if I also gave up booze but I like a beer

40 now and it was lifting heavy weights that really helped me. Always lifted weights but saw a personal trainer who said I was not lifting heavy enough to make a real difference. Probably been the biggest game changer for me and my metabolism seems to have sky rocketed.

Now just to try and cut down on the cakes, that's a work in progress!