5 Fat Loss Mistakes Holding You Back Over 40

Have you been blaming your age for not getting fat loss results in your 40s or 50s? The truth is, there's still a lot you can do to get leaner as long as you don't fall for all the outdated advice about your limitations as you get older.

I'm going to break down the biggest fat loss mistakes that are stopping your progress and show you how to lose fat efficiently so you can thrive over 40.

Stop Blaming Your Metabolism After 40

Your first mistake could be blaming your lack of progress on your slow metabolism. Many people over 40 assume they can't lose fat because their metabolism has slowed down dramatically.

But that's not what the science shows. A major 2021 study looked at more than 6,000 people aged 8 to 95 and found that the metabolism stays remarkably stable between 20 and 60.

Your resting metabolic rate, the calories your body burns just to stay alive, doesn't meaningfully decline until around 60.

The real problem after 40 is that lifestyle challenges often lead to less movement, less intense training, and less sleep, while eating habits can get worse under the pressure of career and family responsibilities.

That creates a calorie surplus that causes people to put on weight as they get older.

I've put together the FREE Lean & Strong 40+ Plan, which will include some of the info that I'm going to talk about so you can put all this together. You can get it HERE.

I'm going to show you how to deal with the specific challenges you're facing shortly.

But first, it's important to know that there is one thing that your resting metabolic rate does depend on as you get older, and that's your muscle mass.

And to maintain that, you need to be strength training.

Why Strength Training Is Essential Over 40

Now, you're probably weight training already if you've been watching my channel for any length of time, but many people are still not doing proper resistance training.

I'll start by saying that any strength training is better than none. But if you're like one of my typical clients and you're serious about building muscle and maintaining it as you get older, you have to be specific about it.

Going to the gym, doing three sets of 10 of a few of your favorite exercises won't work once you're past the first couple of years of consistent training.

And consistency is a really key part of this because doing one workout one week, three workouts the next week, skipping a week, and then doing two workouts the next week isn't going to build muscle.

Still better than nothing, but not ideal.

Weight training 3 to 4 times a week for about 25 to 45 minutes is a solid amount to commit to.

And that's actual weight training, not including 5 minutes to warm up and maybe a stretch at the end. Although that's more important for how you feel generally and not muscle growth.

You should have some sort of structured program rather than just doing whatever you want each time you go in.

If you want to progress, monitor the weight, sets, and reps that you're doing and make sure you're challenging yourself to increase over time.

Once you've been training a few years in your 40s and 50s, your weights don't just keep going up.

You probably won't be doing PRs in your bench press at 55 unless you only start training later in life.

So, you need to change your program every 6 weeks or so to keep stimulating your muscles to grow.

That could be switching exercises with minor variations like a flat bench press to an incline bench press.

You can also change whether you're lifting heavy 5 to 6 reps or less or lighter weights for let's say 7 to 20 reps.

I do most of my work in the five to eight rep range because that's what I enjoy, but I still try to work in some higher reps with certain exercises.

Recent research has shown that you can get as much muscle hypertrophy with lighter weights and higher reps as you can with heavier weights as long as you push yourself close to failure.

But it's also good to get in some heavier training once you adapt to it since our strength tends to decline with age and we want to fight against that.

And that means doing the training and also having the nutrition in place because another mistake is not fueling yourself properly for training.

Avoid Extreme Calorie Cuts

You know, you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat, but if you reduce your calories too low, it's going to backfire.

Very low calorie diets mess with your energy levels and can result in muscle loss.

That's exactly the opposite of what we want as we get older. That's going to slightly lower the calories that your body burns at rest.

More importantly, if you eat too little, you may reduce your daily movement without even noticing it.

Your non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT can drop when you're not eating enough.

You end up sitting more, moving around less, and burning fewer calories all day long.

Plus, not pushing yourself in the gym because you're tired means you're not getting enough stimulus for muscle growth.

The solution is to create a moderate sustainable calorie deficit instead of extreme restriction.

Cutting out just 300ish calories from your maintenance is usually enough.

You can either track for a couple of weeks and see what you're currently eating and then reduce it.

Or you can just do some minor tweaks to your nutrition.

Reducing serving sizes or the frequency of consuming high calorie density foods, especially ultra-processed foods.

Carbs, Fat, and Protein Over 40

Remember that carbs are not the enemy. They're your body's preferred energy source for strength training and your brain, and they help with muscle recovery.

Starchy carbs like potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, oats, and other whole grains provide fiber and the fuel for energetic workouts.

Same with vegetables and fruit. Good nutrition and good sources of energy.

A lot of the carbs that people worry about are not just carbs. They also have a lot of fat.

There are things like pizza, creamy pasta, pastries, muffins, fries, and potato chips, which are high in calorie density and easy to overeat.

So, keep your serving small and reduce how often you're having them.

Fat is also not the enemy. You need it to absorb fat soluble vitamins and to protect your hormonal health.

But you want to focus on healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like olive oil, fatty fish, and nuts more than saturated fats like butter, bacon, and other fatty meats that can raise your cardiovascular risk.

It's all about balance. So that means carbs, fat, and the final important macronutrient, protein.

With protein, it's less about fueling and more about recovering and building muscle.

Muscle naturally becomes harder to maintain with age, which means you need more high quality protein to stay strong.

At the same time, relying just on fatty cuts of meat or processed meats for your protein isn't a great idea either.

You won't be able to eat low enough calories for fat loss, and you're probably piling on the saturated fat and processed meat intake, which isn't going to do your health markers any good.

Aim for at least 0.7 g of protein per pound of body weight, which is 1.6 g per kilo of body weight.

Mainly from lean sources like chicken breast, lean ground turkey, white fish, egg whites, small cuts of sirloin steak, seafood, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and whey protein.

You can add in some plant sources like tofu, lentils, and beans as secondary sources to bump up your protein intake and your fiber.

And for maximal muscle building, spread protein across three or four meals per day so your body has a steady supply for muscle protein synthesis.

Prioritizing lean protein helps you build muscle and lose fat over 40.

Use Whole Foods and Treats Strategically

And you also want to focus on whole nutrient-dense foods most of the time.

They fill you up and make you feel good. Some ultra-processed foods can definitely fit in there too.

Small amounts fairly regularly or larger amounts less often, whichever you prefer, can still allow you to stay healthy and lean.

You don't have to cut them out.

I used to try to follow a strictly whole food clean diet all the time.

And the cravings that built up after weeks and months of eating like that made it so hard to stay on track.

Now that I allow myself those treats in small quantities pretty regularly, the desire for those treats has gone way down.

I'm much less likely to overeat because I know I can have those foods if I want them.

That's just how human psychology works.

But only those treat foods I really enjoy.

You'll find out how to build your own fat loss nutrition plan with The Food Freedom List, which is in The Lean & Strong 40+ Plan HERE.

Don’t Ignore Cardio and Daily Movement

In that plan, I also talk about another key part of my fat loss system for people over 40, which is regular movement.

Because ignoring cardio and daily movement is a big mistake.

People often debate about what's most important for healthy aging, weight training or cardio.

I personally don't think it should be either or. You should be doing strength training and you should be doing cardio.

The balance between those things is up to your particular goals.

I tend to do more cardio when the weather is warmer here in Toronto. I'm on my mountain bike most weekends, sometimes rollerblading, and I go kayaking with my family a few times a season.

Now that the weather is getting colder, I'm going to focus more on my weight training again and doing more martial arts training, which also keeps me safe indoors from the bitter cold.

I've been asked before if I worry about muscle loss with doing too much cardio, and I usually don't.

Most people don't do enough cardio for it to be a barrier to their muscle building.

You would have to be doing sessions of over an hour several times a week.

I definitely lost muscle when I trained for the Toronto Marathon in 2012.

And I know now in the summer when I do my 3-hour bike rides, it does interfere with my ability to build muscle in my legs.

I'll still be feeling the effects of a Saturday ride if I try to do a leg workout on Monday or Tuesday.

Usually, I'm so active that it's hard to get enough calories for building muscle as well.

But that's fine for me. As I shift back to more weight, that muscle will come back.

If I was still doing bodybuilding shows, those long bike rides wouldn't be ideal.

But I'm just doing all this to feel good and stay healthy.

And hopefully, you're looking at it that way, too.

You want to get leaner, and you want to feel stronger as you get older, and you're in it for the long haul.

Be Patient With Results After 40

Because one of the biggest mistakes people over 40 make is expecting fast results.

Fat loss means building muscle and losing fat.

Muscle building is a very slow process, especially if you've been training a while and you're in your 40s, 50s, or older.

You need that consistent training stimulus over the long term, many months, years.

And if you've already been weight training for years, you may need to accept that even maintaining your muscle mass as you get into your mid 40s and 50s is a win.

There will be some muscle loss over the decades, even if you work hard and push yourself, but you're going to be significantly better off than 99% of people if you keep strength training, doing cardio, and paying attention to daily movement as you get older.

All physical activity helps to some extent with muscle maintenance.

So, the important thing is to keep moving.

You need consistency with exercise and nutrition over the long term to see real sustainable results.

There's no quick fix that doesn't have major downsides.

So, take your time, track your nutrition and training, and allow your body time to adapt.

If you're ready to commit to the process and get down to 15% body fat as a man or 20ish% as a woman, watch the video HERE.

Ivana Chapman