Calorie Deficit Not Working Over 40? Fix THIS!

Why Fat Loss Is More Nuanced Than Eating Less and Moving More

You've been told that fat loss is all about eating less and moving more. While that's technically true, there is a bit of nuance there, and it's often difficult to figure out what you're doing wrong, especially when you're working out and trying to eat healthy and clean. That word actually might be what's holding you back, and I'm going to tell you why. I'll show you what's stopping you from being in a deficit over 40 and what you can do to fix it.

Why You Think You're in a Calorie Deficit But Aren't Losing Weight

First, let's look at what most people struggle with. I'm sure that I've been in a calorie deficit for months, but I haven't lost any weight. What's going on?

I understand how frustrating this is. You're working hard and really feel that you should be losing fat. There are a few things that can go wrong, and I'm going to help you figure out which one it is for you.

What a Calorie Deficit Actually Means

A calorie deficit just means that your body isn't getting enough energy from food and drink to sustain itself in its current state. So it takes that energy from your fat stores. If you give your body about the amount of energy it needs to stay where it is, you're in maintenance. That's basically where I am.

I'm not really losing or gaining fat right now. So that's telling me that I'm taking in about the amount of calories I need to sustain my body as it is now. If you give your body more energy than it needs, you're in a calorie surplus.

That's when your body stores that extra energy as fat or builds muscle if you're stimulating that muscle to grow with resistance training. By definition, if you're not losing any fat, then you're not in a calorie deficit, but I still believe that you think you're in a deficit.

The Two Questions You Must Ask Yourself

So first, I would ask you two questions. How many calories are you taking in per day? And where did you get that number from?

Why Online Calorie Calculators Can Be Inaccurate

There are lots of calculators on the internet that will spit out a calorie deficit number for you if you enter your height, weight, age, and activity level. Usually, they're based on different equations that I learned back at university when I was studying sports science. The Mifflin St Jeor equation, the revised Harris Benedict equation, the Katch McArdle equation.

They come out with a rough estimate, and it's possible that the number they gave you wasn't right for you. The calculator might have said that 2,100 calories would be a deficit, but you actually need 1,800 to be in a deficit. For smaller people, they're not great.

For people who are more than 40 pounds overweight, they often don't give a good estimate either. But if you're planning to track calories, you have to start somewhere.

A Simple Way to Estimate Maintenance Calories

I usually do a rough estimate of maintenance by multiplying my client's weight in pounds by 14. This number comes from a study using active people who are relatively lean and doing bodybuilding preparation, so it might not be right for you either. I'm 135 pounds, so my estimated maintenance would be 1,890 calories.

Based on my tracking my calories for a video I did just over a year ago, I think it's actually higher than that. So the first potential problem is that you started off with the wrong number. The equation gave you a number that was too high for you.

Not your fault. And no worries. If you've tried 2,000 calories for over a month, drop it to 1,800 calories for two to three weeks and see what happens.

Do Not Go Too Low With Calories

You have to be careful with these numbers, too. For a small woman, particularly if you're 5 foot 1 or 5 foot 2, it's going to give you a small calorie target. I never recommend going below 1,200 calories.

Even if you're very small, you can't get the nutrients your body needs on really low calories. You'll just be weak and exhausted.

Tracking Errors That Keep You Out of a Real Deficit

Now, if you're starting off with a number that is reasonable for you, there's another issue that can be stopping your progress. It's possible that you're not tracking your calories accurately. One of the most common reasons people aren't in a calorie deficit when they think they are is underestimating calories.

That's not a personal attack on you. Studies show that people tend to underestimate their calorie intake by 20 to 50 percent. Even dietitians who are supposed to be good at these things have been shown to be under reporting by an average of 30 percent.

That's about 225 calories, enough to keep you in maintenance when you think you're in a deficit. For non-dietitians, they're off by an average of 429 calories per day. So look, calorie counting isn't as accurate as you think.

You need to measure very carefully to get an accurate number. Food labels in the US and Canada are allowed to be off by 20 percent, so what you see isn't always what you're getting either. But don't let that put you off the calorie tracking process altogether because it works if you use it correctly and consistently.

How to Measure Portions Correctly

So do a quick check. Are you controlling your portion sizes? If you're just eyeballing portions or measuring things in handfuls, you won't have an accurate calorie count.

Even things like measuring cups can lead you astray sometimes depending on the food because they're dependent on how much of that food you can squeeze into that measuring cup. Make sure that your servings are level. A tablespoon of peanut butter should be a level spoon, not as much as you can heap onto that spoon.

A food scale is the most accurate way of measuring, so try to use one to get an accurate weight of the food that you're eating.

Hidden Calories From Oils, Sauces, and Eating Out

Are you tracking hidden calories from sauces, dressings, and condiments? A tablespoon of oil is 120 calories. So if you're free pouring olive oil onto a salad, it might not be the low calorie food you thought.

Of course, any food that you don't make yourself is harder to track because you don't know exactly what's in there. You're just guessing. That's why it's easier to lose weight if you eat more meals at home.

But that's not always possible, and it's not always what we want to do either. So when you're eating out or ordering delivery, make sure to overestimate the calories you think the food has. That way, you're probably more accurate.

And make sure you track everything. Every bite off your kid's plate, when you taste your food during cooking, or when you have a small snack.

Why Liquid Calories Add Up Quickly

It's also worth mentioning that liquid calories can add up quickly. Soda, pop, whatever you call it, lattes, alcoholic drinks, and even fruit juices add a lot of calories. Liquid calories don't fill you up as much as whole foods that you have to chew and that contain fiber.

So smoothies and shakes aren't always a great option for long term fat loss. They have a lot of calories and not a lot of long term satisfaction. Solid food that you can chew keeps you satisfied for longer.

How Weekend Eating Can Wipe Out Your Weekly Deficit

Getting hungry often keeps a lot of people from staying in a calorie deficit. But even if you're doing all those things most of the time, it's still possible that you're not staying in a calorie deficit long enough. Why?

What happened with my client Melissa is one of the most common mistakes that I've seen over the years. She was tracking meticulously during the week, making sure she was always at 1,800 calories a day, eating reasonably, including a planned treat here and there. When I went to look at two weeks of her calorie and macro data, it was all there laid out from Monday to Friday.

1,800 calories a day. Protein, fiber, everything was there, but her Saturdays were empty. Sundays at lunch were usually partially completed.

So I asked her what was missing. Well, we went out on the weekend and we stopped at a couple places. So for lunch, I think I had a few things.

And then for dinner, yeah, I had an entrée. I think we had some guacamole and nacho chips beforehand. And then yeah, I mean, I had a little bit of my husband's cheesecake because I really like cheesecake.

And then on Sunday for lunch, we had a family event and my aunt makes this sort of pasta salad. I think there's some mayo in there, but I wasn't sure how much. So it was kind of complicated to figure that one out.

So it was just really hard to record all that. Most of my clients have some sort of story like this when they start with me. They're really great during the week, but they don't have as much control over what they're eating over the weekend.

And restaurant meals can easily be 2,000 calories. So it's easy to go over. The problem is if we've worked out that 1,800 is the amount of calories you need to eat each day, seven days a week to lose fat, then having 1,800 calories for five days and then 2,200 to 2,500 calories on the weekend will wipe out any progress you're making.

So you have two options. Lower the calorie target for weekdays to accommodate more calories on the weekend. Or figure out a way of eating fewer calories on the weekend so that it more closely matches your target.

It's really up to you what you choose to do. Just remember that even if you're in a deficit most of the time, weekend overeating can wipe out your deficit. That doesn't mean you need to be perfect, but it does mean you need to be more consistent with your choices.

Why Overestimating Exercise Calories Can Backfire

Another major pitfall that people fall into is forgetting that the calories in, calories out model has two sides, and you could be overestimating how many calories you're burning through physical activity. While working out is great for your health and sustainable fat loss, the calorie burn isn't as high as you think. You should keep some record of how often you're training, for how long, and for weights, what you're lifting, the sets, reps, rest, all of that.

But I don't recommend you include any calorie burn data to allow yourself to eat more calories. Fitness trackers and cardio machines are notorious for giving inflated calorie burn estimates. If you're relying on these numbers to calculate your deficit, you might think you're burning more than you really are.

You can still use a tracker as a guide to monitor your activity level from day to day, but don't enter that data into your calorie counting app. You're just increasing the inaccuracy of the process. And as we've already talked about, it's not that accurate a process.

And definitely do not use your exercise to earn more calories to eat. That creates a bad relationship with food and exercise, and you'll be in a constant battle to eat less and exercise more. When what you should really be focusing on over 40 is building muscle to stay strong and doing cardio for enjoyment and heart health, with a few calories burned being a side benefit.

Understanding BMR and Daily Energy Burn

I know most people think of calories out as exercise, but that's actually only a small part of your daily energy expenditure, if you do it at all. Most of what your body burns each day is your basal metabolic rate, BMR, which is based on your body size and to a lesser extent, how much muscle you have. That's normally 60 to 70 percent of your total daily energy expenditure.

How many calories your body burns for the day. That's why it's normally easier for men, particularly large men, to lose fat than it is for smaller women. You just get to eat more calories to maintain your larger body size.

My husband is a very muscular six foot three, so he gets to eat a lot more food than I do, even though I'm five foot ten. And many of my female clients are five feet or five foot one. We go out to dinner with our husbands and the meal sizes are the same.

For many women, an average meal at a restaurant is twice as many calories as she needs.

NEAT, Movement, and Age Related Changes

Your daily movement outside of exercise, NEAT, non exercise activity thermogenesis, moving around at home, cleaning, fidgeting, is also part of your calorie burn, and that accounts for usually about 10 to 15 percent. In research, people who reduce their calories and diet for long periods tend to spontaneously reduce their NEAT. You might not even notice that you're moving less, but you'll be burning fewer calories.

You can try to offset that difference by actively tracking your steps. Because if you eat less but move less, then you could very well end up in maintenance, not losing fat. This does tend to happen as we get older.

And there's evidence that women in perimenopause and menopause naturally reduce their NEAT because we're often tired. The reverse can also happen. When I work with beginners to exercise, they can often lose weight without changing what they're eating at all, although most of them do eventually.

If they go from sitting all day at work and sitting on the couch at home doing only say 3,000 steps to exercising a few days a week and maybe increasing their steps to 7,000 or 8,000 a day, they can lose weight without changing their calorie intake at all.

Why Your Calorie Needs Change As You Lose Weight

I want you to remember this part because it's going to be important for a bit of troubleshooting I'm going to do for you later on. Because remember that it's calories in and calories out that determine whether you're in a calorie deficit or not, not just your food intake.

What I said about body size is also important for fat loss because as you lose weight, you're now a smaller person. Let's say you start off at 170 pounds and your goal weight is 130 pounds. Maybe you eat 2,200 calories a day and that's a calorie deficit for you at 170 pounds.

Say you lose 30 pounds. Nice. Good job.

And you're down to 140 pounds. But now, because you're a smaller person, your body doesn't need as many calories to maintain itself at that new weight. You might need to drop your calories to 1,800 to lose more fat.

Your weight loss will stop if you keep eating the same calories you did at the beginning of your journey. Your body is constantly in a process of adaptation. So a calorie deficit is a moving target.

When your weight loss stops, your calorie deficit has become your maintenance. And if you reduce your exercise and daily movement, the number of calories you need goes down further.

Hormones, Menopause, and Fat Loss

Honestly, the only way it really works long term is if you're active and moving. That's the healthiest approach anyway. Exercise has benefits well outside of fat loss.

I'm not a fan of very low calorie diets. They're not healthy and they make you weak, especially as you get older. You need those nutrients to keep you functioning well.

Good nutrition helps support your hormonal health at any age. But we need to be especially mindful of that in our 40s and 50s as our hormones go through specific changes. But it's a myth that going through perimenopause and menopause stops you from losing fat.

Calorie deficits work for women of all ages. But you have to be smart. And the symptoms you're having make it so much harder to do all the things you need to do.

Because fatigue, sleep issues, vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and flushes, joint pain, mood issues like depression and anxiety, and brain fog can make everything hard. Trust me, I'm right there with you. I am experiencing most of those things right now.

Metabolic Adaptation and Diet Fatigue

My message is that you can do it. It is possible. But if it really feels like you're stuck, there are a couple of common reasons that people think they're not able to lose weight anymore.

And the first is metabolic adaptation. You've probably heard that you could have screwed up your metabolism with dieting. As women, we've probably gone through many cycles of this.

But that's not as common as you might think. We've already discussed that losing weight makes you a smaller person that needs less energy. There's also some metabolic adaptation that occurs with a reduction in calories.

So you eat fewer calories. Your body's burning fewer calories to digest that food. Your body slows its function down slightly.

But this tends to be temporary, lasting maybe two to three weeks, and then your body adjusts again. So there isn't really long term damage done as many people think. If you keep going or take a strategic diet break by increasing calories a little bit for a week or two, this will resolve.

What usually actually happens is that when people have been dieting for a while, they experience diet fatigue. It's just so hard to keep on track. So extra calories tend to drift in.

You're hungry. You're tired of this whole process. Or you don't track calories when things aren't going well.

And those are the calories that are preventing your fat loss.

When Hormones or Thyroid May Be a Factor

But it's my hormones. If you have a thyroid condition, your body doesn't burn as many calories as you might predict for your body size. Calories in, calories out still works as it does for everyone else, but the amount of calories that it will take for you to lose weight is too low to be practical or healthy.

So see your doctor and they can test your thyroid levels. Perimenopause and menopause do not shut down fat burning, although you may start to see a shift in your fat distribution from your hips and thighs to your midsection in more of a male pattern as estrogen drops.

So for the stomach area to look the same as it was before menopause, you might need to be a bit leaner overall, and you might not be able to or want to do that.

Lifestyle Foundations Still Matter Most

If you want to support your hormones during this transition, it's always good to address the lifestyle basics first. Your doctor will say that, too. That means the usual exercise, daily movement, eating enough protein, vegetables, fruit, fiber, healthy fats, sleep, and of course stress management.

All of those things will help you lose fat. But remember that fat loss takes time, and patience is key. If you've only been in a calorie deficit for a week or two, you might not see any changes yet.

Your body needs time to adjust. Fat loss doesn't happen overnight.

Clean Eating and the Thermic Effect of Food

If you've been consistent with your deficit for at least three to four weeks and still aren't seeing progress, then it might be time to reassess. Is that really the right deficit for you? Do you need to increase your activity?

If you're getting closer to your weight goal, let's say within 10 pounds, it's going to take longer. You'll need to be even more precise with your tracking to get the results you want, even if it seemed easy at the beginning.

Now let's address this whole clean eating thing. A calorie is a unit of energy, and all calories are the same. But how your body processes them is different.

So yes, it's helpful to eat primarily whole, minimally processed, nutrient dense foods. Lean proteins, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, whole grains.

Highly processed treat foods, as I call them, are less filling and you're more likely to overeat them because they're tasty and calorie dense. But the other difference is that your body uses more energy to digest whole foods.

You absorb more of the energy from highly processed and ultra processed foods and less from whole foods. So if you eat 2,000 calories of entirely ultra processed foods, your body will absorb more of that than 2,000 calories of whole foods.

The thermic effect of food is five to 10 percent of the calories that your body is burning off during the day. So changing the quality of your diet will increase your calories out. They also naturally reduce your calories in since whole foods are lower in calorie density.

Protein is more thermogenic, burning more calories than carbs and fat. So shifting your macros can be helpful too. For more help on how to eat for fat loss over 40, WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

Ivana Chapman