Can Weight Loss Be Tougher In Mid-Life?

Fight The Battle On Middle Age Spread – Losing Weight at 30’s

It can be shocking how extra weight looms up in your 30’s without you noticing it. Busy schedule can make weight loss and keeping up with exercise infinitely harder as we reach mid-life (between the age 30-40). Looking back at your friend’s wedding photos from years back will make your eyes roll as you cannot imagine how much weight you have gained. It feels as if pounds of fat just developed overnight.

Metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories) plays a big role on weight gain. It can fairly drop around your thirties onwards which causes you to put on weight more easily. Depressing as it may seem, the effect is so minimal that weight gain can actually be avoided. It’s likely that you have been getting into bad habits and eating more or moving less than you used to.

If you want to ditch the excess pounds that the average woman gains in weight between thirty and forty, be sure not to fall into these lifestyle traps:

Getting A Bit of Too Much
With family life and career taking too much of your attention, life at 30 can suddenly become more difficult. Your time gets eat up between school runs, getting the work finished and keeping the house in order. Inevitably, you wind up taking less exercise and eating out more or using take outs to cope with getting meals on the table. Try and give yourself and your health a greater importance by asking for help and reducing your commitments to less important matters. Realize that bodily changes start well before midlife. A dietitian can provide you with the right diet plan to fight the negative effects of aging.

Matching Your Partner
Settling in with a partner often happens in your thirties. You start cooking for him and eating the same dishes and frequently a similar portion sizes. While you may have managed with something like a soup or toast a few night times, it then becomes full dinners with desserts. While your man can most likely take the calories—all that excess lands exactly where you don’t need it—on your belly and thighs. Go easy by eating only what you need and don’t try to equal your partner meal for meal.

Eat For Two
Weight gain can come about with having kids. Although you need only 300 calories more a day after the initial 3 months of pregnancy, it’s easy to use having a baby as your defense to eat excessively. This increased weight can be difficult to lose afterwards. Often the problem is compounded by a second pregnancy before you have dropped the weight from the first. To avoid excess weight gain, keep working out as long as it is safe to do so throughout your pregnancy and continue to walk the weight off afterwards—something you can do with kids in tow! Eat healthy and consciously. Pregnancy is a great time to get in the habit of eating well.

Losing Weight During Pregnancy: Do It Safely

Muscle Loss (Sarcopenia)
Inactive lifestyle can cause a decrease of as much as 3-5% on muscle mass each decade after age 30. As each pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day even when you are immobile, it is important to grow that energy back through resistance or weight training. Stay clear on diets that encourage losing weight of more than two a week. Doing such will have you lose muscle as well as fat. If you end up gaining back the weight as most people do, it’s all fat. This is the idea behind the yo-yo syndrome where you end up being more heavyset than ever.

Getting Too Complacent
As you get older, you tend to be complacent about your appearance. You’re unlikely to see the symptoms of the bad health choices you’re making while in thirties. It’s likely that heart disease, diabetes and other health issues have yet to show their face but these silent killers are lurking in the background. Health shouldn’t be taken for granted. You will feel sorry at once in the years to come. Give up your comforting routines and give your health utmost importance while you still have plenty of time. Allot some time during the day when you can regenerate for 30 minutes of exercise.

Weight loss in mid-life does not have to be tough. Awareness and a change in lifestyle is where it all starts. Excuses won’t make your pounds melt off. Healthy living is something you choose — so it’s all up to you whether you want to be fat or fabulous by the time you reach 40.