If you’re a woman over 40 then this may interest you.
PROBLEM: When you reach 40 and beyond, you store body fat more easily. As your ovaries produce less oestrogen, your body attempts to find the hormone elsewhere. One place it can find it is within your fat cells, so the body becomes better equipped at converting excess calories into body fat.
SOLUTION: Control your portion sizes, eat healthy, nutritious foods and perform interval training (known as HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training) to reduce fat storage.
PROBLEM: Your metabolic rate decreases. Your metabolism slows by 5% each decade past 40 – this is due to a loss of muscle tissue and the loss of muscle tissue is directly related to a lack of physical activity.
SOLUTION: Perform strength training to build or maintain your muscle tissue. Don’t be afraid to use weights – you WILL NOT bulk up!
PROBLEM: You gain more weight around your middle. Oestrogen generally directs fat stores in women to the hips and thighs. However, ‘middle aged spread’ occurs as the decrease in the production of this hormone results in excess weight depositing around the tummy area instead. Abdominal (or visceral) fat also increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and certain cancers.
SOLUTION: Avoid obesity additives in your diet and control your blood sugar levels by avoiding sugar.
PROBLEM: You become too tired to exercise. Research shows that hormonal changes leading to bloating, hot flushes, insomnia and chronic tiredness can all result in women becoming far less inclined to exercise around this time of life.
SOLUTION 1: Find a local fitness class with like-minded women or a training partner in the gym. Or hire a Personal Trainer who can keep you on track and keep you motivated. You can get up to 10 times better results working with someone.
SOLUTION 2: Exercise smarter – reduce your workout time but make the workouts more intense. Use my 12-minute workout principle, three times a week.
Get in touch if you want more information on HIIT training, eating a healthy diet, local group fitness classes or my Personal Training service.
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Remember I’m trained to help you.