The 5 Best Weight Loss Tips if You're Over 40

 Dropping pounds in your 40s are often a challenge—but these easy strategies actually work, consistent with a nutritionist.

Hitting your 40s has many benefits, like earned wisdom, increased self-awareness, and self-confidence. Truth be told, though, it's tough getting won't to a number of the physical changes. A biggie may be a downshift in metabolism, which may make weight maintenance trickier and weight loss tougher. However, losing weight after 40 isn’t impossible. You absolutely can shed pounds at any age—and do so while simultaneously optimizing overall wellness. Here are five tactics that employment for my clients. And yes, one involves a daily dose of dark chocolate!

Cut back, but don’t cut out carbs

Carbs are fuel, and whole food sources, like fresh fruit, whole grains, and potatoes, are bundled with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. ablation carbs completely deprive your body of important nutrients. this will cause unwanted side effects like constipation, fatigue, and irritability.

But after age 40, your daily carb requirement may decline. Many of my clients find that they can’t eat large carb portions without either gaining weight or struggling to reduce. the simplest resolution is to optimize the standard of the carbs you eat (say butternut squash over-processed bread), and consider carbs as a smaller add-on to a meal, instead of the most attraction.

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For example, one client frequently ate veggie burritos, made with an entire grain flour tortilla, rice, black beans, salsa, and guacamole. Despite being a walker and practicing yoga, the size wasn’t budging. The culprit: a carb surplus. That burrito packed 120 grams of carb, and even half it had been quite her body could burn during a given meal.

We figured out that so as to urge to and maintain her healthy weight, her daily calorie needs were about 1,750. I find that a target of 40% of total calories from carbs is right for many of my over-40 female clients who are active, but not athletes. For her, that meant 175 grams of carb per day or roughly 40-45 grams in each of her four daily meals. This moderate carb budget does leave carb-rich foods—just in smaller portions, paired with larger servings of non-starchy veggies, lean protein, and healthy fat.

When we swapped her burrito for a salad made with a base of leafy greens topped with fajita veggies, salsa, black beans, and guac, the carbs decreased to 42 grams. She still felt full, satisfied, and energized, and therefore the scale started moving. 

The lesson: carbs aren’t inherently fattening or bad, so you don’t get to banish them completely. Nixing carbs altogether generally isn’t sustainable long-term, and it’s not optimal for health. The goal is to choose quality carbs, and aim for balance—enough to satisfy, but not exceed your body’s fuel needs.

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Eat tons more veggies

Start with veggies first, then build your meals around them. I often recommend including one full cup of non-starchy veggies at breakfast and a minimum of two cups in each lunch and dinner. A minimum of 5 cups each day (think five tennis ball–size portions) will provide valuable nutrients and offer disease protection. 

But these veggies also are getting to increase fullness, add volume to meals, help regulate blood glucose and insulin levels, and support healthy digestion, all of which add up to sustainable weight management. 

Most of the 40+ women I work with overestimate their veggie intakes, and consistent with the CDC, only 9% of adults eat the minimum recommended intake of two to 3 cups of veggies per day. (Note: that’s but I like to recommend .)

At breakfast, whip a generous few greens into a smoothie, fold shredded zucchini into oats, add veggies to an egg or chickpea scramble, or just eat veggies on the side, like sliced cucumber or red bell pepper. instead of sandwiches or wraps at lunch, choose salads or bowls, with an outsized base of greens and veggies. At dinner, sauté, oven-roast, grill, or stir-fry veggies, and make them the most important component of the meal.

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Again, pair your veggies with a source of lean protein, good fat, and a smaller portion of healthy carbs, and you’ve created a perfect balance for both weight management and good nutrition.

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Be careful with alcohol

Many of my female clients over 40 don’t see the size move until they crop on alcohol or take an opportunity from drinking. Alcohol is hard because carefully it's going to actually support weight management, research suggests. But women who drink heavily or binge drink have an increased obesity risk.

Moderate alcohol consumption means one drink each day (and no, they don’t carry over), which equals five ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or a 1.5 ounce shot of distilled spirits.

If you’re downing half a bottle of vino most nights, there might be several issues at play. First, alcohol tends to lower inhibitions and stimulate appetite, so you'll finish up eating more, often mindlessly. Also, when alcohol is consumed, breaking it down becomes the body’s top priority. meaning foods consumed with alcohol are less likely to be burned. Finally, an excessive amount of alcohol can disrupt sleep—and a healthy sleep cycle is directly tied to metabolism, weight management, and belly fat accumulation.

If ablation alcohol altogether isn’t realistic, consider committing to a selected drinking strategy. crop gradually, limit alcohol to weekends only or curb your consumption to a 1 drink per day max. 

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Don’t eat diet food (or continue a diet)

A lot of my 40+ female clients remain stuck in outdated weight loss mind-sets. One involves eating diet foods, those highly processed products made with artificial chemicals engineered to be lower in calories, carbs, sugar, or fat. 

I like to recommend nixing this complete lot for good! additionally, to being completely unsatisfying, diet foods can wreak havoc together with your appetite, trigger inflammation, alter the healthy bacteria in your gut tied to weight management, and overtax your system.

Research also shows that switching from processed foods to whole foods increases calorie burning, meaning that eating real food may assist you to reduce even without cutting your calorie intake (an outcome I even have seen many times). rather than a coffee calorie frozen meal, choose a hearty soup, and an avocado-topped salad. in situ of a couple of reduced-fat cookies, reach for a sliced apple dipped in almond butter or a couple of squares of top-quality bittersweet chocolate (more on this below).

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Healthy, sustainable weight loss isn’t about dieting. Deprivation and go on/go off approaches ultimately backfire. Instead, adopt a mentality of balance, meaning not underrating or overeating, with attention on nutrition, not restriction. it's going to seem boring, and it’s not a fast fix. But it feels best both physically and emotionally, and this approach is maintainable.

Treat yourself to bittersweet chocolate daily 

Research backs something I can attest to myself and witness with my clients: building in bittersweet chocolate as a daily treat helps curb cravings for both sweet and salty foods. bittersweet chocolate also can help reduce stress, a serious emotional eating trigger. One study found that eating about an oz and a half bittersweet chocolate each day for 2 weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed.

Five squares of 70% bittersweet chocolate contain under 250 calories, yet provides antioxidants, fiber, and magnesium, a mineral tied to relaxation, improved sleep, and enhanced mood.

Knowing that they need a chocolatey treat to seem forward to has helped many of my clients expire other less satisfying and higher-calorie and carb-laden goodies. Spread it out throughout the day, or enjoy an oz approximately of bittersweet chocolate as a part of a daily “you time” ritual.

Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, is Health's contributing nutrition editor, a replacement York Times best-selling author, and a personal practice performance nutritionist who has consulted for five professional sports teams.

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