If I Wanted To Lose 30 lbs Over 40, I'd Do THIS
Oct 06, 2026If I had 30 pounds to lose, I wouldn't start with a detox, an extreme elimination diet, or two hours of exercise a day.
I'm 5 foot 10 and about 135 to 140 lbs now, but I was about 30 lbs heavier in my 20s, heavier than during my pregnancy in my 30s.
After over 25 years of fat loss coaching, I've seen what really works to get people over 40 to lose fat and keep it off. So, in this video, I'm going to show you the simple approach I take that will finally get you leaner at any age.
Set a Realistic Timeline to Lose 30 Pounds
First of all, you need to remember that the extra 30 lbs you're carrying didn't come on overnight or even in a week or a month. So, you shouldn't expect it to come off that fast either. I'd expect it to take about 6 to 8 months for me to get from 170 lb back down to 140 lb in a safe and healthy way. Maybe you've heard that losing half to one pound a week is a good target, but it really depends on where you're starting from and how far you are from your target weight.
Losing 30 lbs isn't about finding the fastest way possible to get the weight off. It's about losing body fat while keeping as much muscle as possible and building habits that prevent you from gaining those 30 lbs back.
Track Your Weight Loss Progress
First, I'd start tracking my weight, taking progress photos, waist, and hip measurements. You can only manage what you measure. If I'm trying to lose 30 pounds, I need an objective way to know whether what I'm doing is actually working, especially as you get closer to your goal weight.
So, I'd start by weighing myself daily, every morning under similar conditions, and look at my weekly average rather than obsessing over individual weigh-ins. That's called average weighing, and it's effective for a few reasons. You don't get hung up on a particular number and you learn about your natural variations.
I weighed myself for the first time in months the other day and I was 138 lb. Out of curiosity, I weighed myself the next day and I weighed in at 134 lb. I didn't lose 4 lb of fat overnight. There was just a lot of undigested food in there. I was on my period and probably experiencing some water retention, too. If I panicked about that first weigh-in and just threw in the towel on everything I was doing, which is what a lot of people do, I would ruin my fat loss plan instead of trusting the process.
The other reason that daily weighing is so effective is that you remind yourself every day about your goals. And studies show that people who monitor their progress are more successful with weight loss. Average weighing lets you focus on the trend rather than individual numbers. It's just one data point. And if those numbers are going in the right direction, generally, you're fine.
I'd also measure my waist every week or two, take progress photos and a progress video every couple of months, and pay attention to how my clothes fit. Sometimes the scale doesn't tell you the whole story. So, you want non-scale measures as well, but measuring progress doesn't create progress.
Make Nutrition Your First Fat Loss Priority
The next thing I change is what has the biggest impact on fat loss. With 30 pounds to lose, improving my nutrition would be my first priority. I'd take an honest look at the eating behaviors that caused me to gain those 30 pounds in the first place. Maybe my portions slowly got bigger. I'm ordering delivery four nights a week because I'm working late. I'm having a couple glasses of wine most evenings or a sweet, sweet latte twice a day. or I'm eating reasonably well during the week and then completely undoing my calorie deficit on the weekend. That's a popular one.
Instead of looking for a magical diet, I'd figure out which of my current eating and drinking habits are keeping me at my current weight. Then I change those. Most of you would get the results that you want just from targeting your nutrition. I'm not saying that exercise isn't important. It absolutely is. And I'm going to talk about why. But nutrition is going to do 80% of the work for you. So focus there first.
Trying to exercise away 30 lbs of body fat is an incredibly inefficient strategy because exercise doesn't burn as many calories as you'd like. A pretty average-sized doughnut has close to 300 calories. At 170 lb, I'd need to run for 30 minutes just to get back to baseline.
Should You Track Calories and Macros?
But let's stop there for a moment. Would I start tracking calories and macros? It depends. Recording what you're eating naturally tends to bring down your calorie intake, even if you're not trying to modify the numbers in any way. Sometimes just keeping track of everything that you put in your mouth has a way of making you a bit more vigilant. You just don't want to put those things down on paper or on an app or whatever it is. That's natural. So, you can use that as a tool.
Simple Nutrition Changes to Lose Your First 15 to 20 Pounds
When you have 30 pounds to lose, usually just making some small dietary changes is enough to get the fat loss going. Like reducing the frequency and quantity of ultra-processed foods, reducing your alcohol intake, increasing your intake of filling low calorie density vegetables and fruit, reducing your portion sizes, or cutting back on snacking. Most of my clients can lose their first 15 to 20 pounds just by following those simple tips consistently.
I'd start by building my meals around lean protein, vegetables or fruit, and appropriate quantities of quality carbohydrates, and some healthy fats. I have a free protein plan that will give you the best lean protein sources to help you lose fat. Get it at the link in the description.
How Much Protein Do You Need for Fat Loss?
For me, that would be protein sources like fish, chicken breast, Greek yogurt, eggs, and egg whites, and sometimes a whey protein isolate shake. If I'm looking for something quick and easy, I'd probably repeat a lot of the same meals throughout the week because that makes everything easier and I've got a lot on my plate.
And I'd aim for at least 0.7 g per pound of protein, 1.6 g per kilogram of my body weight. At 170 lbs, that would be at least 119 g of protein. I'd probably keep it simple and just have three meals a day because I found that if I eat more frequently, I tend to overdo it a bit with calories. So, that's roughly 40 grams of protein per meal. Some of my clients like to fit in a small snack if they have longer gaps between meals because getting too hungry is the enemy of fat loss. Keeping your protein intake in there tends to help with that as well.
Strength Training for Fat Loss After 40
And while nutrition would do most of the work for getting the fat off, there's something else I prioritize specifically because I'm over 40. I do strength training two to four times per week. If you're not pushing back against it, you're losing muscle as you get older. A healthy metabolism depends on you maintaining your muscle mass. Muscle burns slightly more calories than fat, and muscle gives you the energy to move.
If I hadn't been training consistently recently, I wouldn't suddenly decide I needed to train six days a week. That's one of the biggest mistakes people make when they're highly motivated to lose weight. They change their entire diet overnight, start lifting weights every day, add an hour of cardio, and suddenly they're trying to live like a professional athlete while also trying to manage a career and family.
For a few weeks, they're doing everything. Then they're exhausted, constantly hungry, sore, and struggling to fit this new routine into their busy life. I'd rather have a training program I can still do six months from now. I'd follow a structured weight training program, focus on good technique, track my workouts, and gradually try to maintain or improve my strength whenever possible.
Weight training isn't about burning calories, although it burns some. It's about building muscle, maintaining strength, and getting more confident about your physical abilities over time. It can really help you get through that weight loss program because you're feeling better.
Increase Daily Steps for Fat Loss
But there's another form of activity I'd probably increase immediately and that wouldn't involve an exhausting workout. I'd move more. And that probably means tracking my steps. I'd aim for about 7 to 8,000 steps a day and try to do it consistently, especially if I was coming off of being sedentary, maybe only doing 2,000 to 3,000 steps. I work from home, so I would need to make an effort to move more throughout the day.
But walking is one of the most underrated fat loss tools, particularly over 40. Many people have the mistaken impression that their metabolism tanks in their 40s. But it's really lifestyle changes that make the biggest difference. And they happen very gradually. We move less and less as we get older without even noticing. So I would deliberately put more movement back into my day. That also makes me feel more energetic and makes me more likely to do the other things that I need to do.
Why Cardio Is Important for Women Over 40
And that also means cardiovascular exercise. Recently, I've heard some fitness experts warn people about cardio, particularly women over 40, that it elevates our cortisol and stops fat loss somehow. That's nonsense. Cardio benefits your heart health and helps you with fat loss. And almost no one is doing too much. Maybe a few 55-year-old competitive marathon runners are pushing it, but that's about it.
Actually, less than half of people over 40 are getting enough cardio for even basic health benefits, much less really great fitness. If I was completely inactive, I'd start with a couple of moderate 20 to 30 minute cardio sessions per week. I'd pick something I enjoy. Martial arts, biking, maybe just running around town on my trusty scooter. a little bit of calorie burn, but mostly it's about feeling more energetic, sleeping better, and becoming that healthier, fitter, and ultimately leaner person you want to be.
Why Coaching Can Help You Lose Weight and Keep It Off
Then I'd focus on being consistent with all those things I mentioned, eating better, moving more, measuring my progress forward, and tackling those 30 pounds alone can be really hard. Your motivation starts off great, but then you have to work late, get tired, and soon you find your motivation comes back down again. So, I would get a coach to help me through that. And yes, obviously, I'm a fat loss coach, so you expect me to say that. It's self-serving, I know.
But when I recently bought a house and needed legal documents prepared, I hired a lawyer. When I need an injury treated, I see my physio. I have a piano teacher that I do piano lessons with every couple of weeks.
Many times over the past few years, I've been frustrated with a particular song or just feeling disheartened with how slow my progress is as an adult beginner learner of piano. But my teacher, Kyla, shows me techniques to get me through tough sections. She encourages me to try a different approach if something isn't working for me. And even just knowing that I have to show up every two weeks to play for her gives me more motivation to keep going with my practice when she's not there.
Think about the same thing with fat loss.
If something matters to me and someone else has decades of experience solving that exact problem, I'd rather use their expertise than waste months or years trying to figure everything out myself. I believe in what I do and I know I've changed lives with the support I give my clients. Most of them have tried to lose weight dozens of times over the years. They do well for a while, but they can't keep it up for long enough. But when I'm there for them, it makes a difference.
And there's so much misinformation out there about weight loss. It's tempting to keep trying something new. It helps to have someone keeping you focused on the goal. A good coach doesn't complicate things. They simplify everything for you. They get you to focus on what actually matters.
Build a Lifestyle That Keeps the Weight Off
Because ultimately, losing 30 lbs over 40 doesn't require anything extreme. But the goal shouldn't just be to get the weight off. It should be to build a body and a lifestyle that makes it easy to keep it off.