Episode 91: From Mom Bod to Strong Bod: Your Fittest, Healthiest Self After 40

 In this episode, Jo dives into a topic that so many women can relate to—how to combat the "mom bod" and build your strongest, most resilient physique in your 40s and beyond.  We believe that all bodies are beautiful and powerful, but if you're feeling like your strength, energy, and muscle tone aren't what they used to be, there are actionable steps you can take to feel and function at your best.

In this episode, we cover:
✅ How aging impacts muscle tone, metabolism, and body composition
✅ Why muscle loss affects longevity and overall health
✅ The five key strategies for building a strong, fit body:

00:12 Understanding the Mom Bod

01:07 Importance of Muscle and Strength

02:04 Five Key Strategies for a Stronger Physique

02:24 Strategy 1: Start Lifting Weights

04:12 Strategy 2: Eat More Protein

06:23 Strategy 3: Add Cardio to Your Routine

07:47 Strategy 4: Moderate Alcohol Consumption

08:58 Strategy 5: Fine-Tune Your Nutrition

11:58 Conclusion and Exciting Announcements

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Transcript

0:44

Hey there. And welcome back to the boost your metabolism after age 30 podcast. You've got Joe here today, your host. And today we're going to dive into a topic that I think so many women can relate to. And that is how to combat the mom bod and build your best and strongest physique in your forties and beyond. Now I want to get one thing straight. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a mom bod. At Couture Fitness, we believe all bodies are beautiful and have done incredible things like caring and nurturing life. But if you are feeling like your strength, energy, and muscle tone aren't what they used to be, there are definitely some steps you can take to feel your best. As we age, our bodies naturally go through changes and without certain interventions, we start to lose muscle in key areas. We start to lose our glutes, our hamstrings, our quads, our shoulders tend to round forward. That can be also from just sitting at a desk all day, and we tend to accumulate weight around our midsection. And I would say overall, we tend to lose muscle tone and sometimes notice more cellulite as we age. But here's why this isn't just about aesthetics from a functional standpoint, a loss of muscle and strength can definitely impact your longevity and your quality of life. So strong glutes and legs help with mobility, stability, and balance. Key factors in preventing falls as we age falling and breaking a Bone, like a hip, is one of the leading causes of mortality in older adults and, being immobile and weak drastically reduces quality of life. Also things like having more muscle on your body and maintaining your muscle health Helps with things like preventing diabetes, which in turn prevents Alzheimer's. So having a muscular body Having strength are definitely things that we want to have Going into our older years. So let's talk today about what we can do to maintain strength, confidence, and a body that not only looks great but also functions at its best. So I've got five key strategies for you today to build a stronger, healthier physique as you age. Okay, so these are the things I would suggest you prioritize if you are looking to combat the mombod and I'll explain each strategy and then why I prioritize certain things over others. So the number one thing I would suggest you do to build a stronger, healthy Your more toned physique as you age is to start lifting weights. I would definitely do this before you start a diet or slashing calories. So I think the number one thing that. is hard to understand is that building a great physique is more about building muscle than simply losing weight. So that's why your first step should be to focus on growing and shaping your body through strength training rather than just slashing calories. And so you're going to want to start Having a structured, consistent weightlifting routine, that's really key. And in that weightlifting routine, you want to focus on hitting all the major muscle groups, your glutes, legs, hamstrings, back and shoulders weekly. And by lifting weights in this structured and consistent way, you'll build out your physique. Increase your muscle definition and really create a strong toned looking body and then there are just so many incredible side benefits of building muscle. You'll get stronger You'll increase your bone density and usually when you start building more muscle and really putting muscle on your frame that also usually results in losing some body fat as well. Practically speaking, you want to aim to start strength training at least three to four times per week to see the best results. I know a lot of people ask I do yoga or I do Pilates, is that, does that count for strength training? So I am not hating on yoga or Pilates or anything like that, but really you're going to get the most bang for your buck by lifting weights. It's going to put the tension and stress on your muscles that you need to actually build some real muscles, so that's what I would recommend. Don't ditch your Pilates and yoga, but definitely you want to start lifting weights two or three times a week. Okay, the second thing I would focus on is eating more protein. As we age, our protein needs actually increase yet many women under eat it. To start with, and then tend to eat less of it as we age. Partly I think our appetite does wane a little bit as we get older but you definitely want to make sure you're getting enough protein. So a good guideline is to aim for about one gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. So that means if you want to weigh 140 pounds then you would want to aim for 140 grams of protein. Now, Most women, a lot of women, are eating somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 grams of protein a day if they're not tracking or paying attention to it. Going from 40 grams of protein a day to 140 grams of protein a day is a pretty big jump. So we, Always say, try to start with hitting 100 grams of protein a day. And a simple way to hit that goal is to include at least 20 grams of protein in each meal. So that's a serving of protein a serving of Greek yogurt a chicken breast just four ounces of of protein usually will get you to 20 grams of protein, but you want to include that in each meal and snack and aim to eat four to five times per day. And that will get you close to that a hundred grams of protein a day, maybe even get you closer to 120 grams of protein a day. But prioritizing protein will definitely help you build and maintain lean muscle and is also going to just keep you. Feeling fuller for longer. For a lot of people it also cuts out cravings for things like sugar and alcohol and those sorts of things. I've had women, this is a tip I give a lot of women who will ask me like, Oh what should I do? And I, with my, I eat so poorly, should I cut out sugar? And I usually just say, start by adding. I'm trying to eat at least 100 grams of protein a day and I've had women tell me like, Oh my gosh, I did that and just started losing weight. So I wouldn't be shocked just by if eating more protein, you also start reducing your body fat, especially if you combine that with lifting weights. Okay, the third thing I would focus on is once you've got, you've started lifting weights two or three times a week, you're eating 100 grams or more of protein a day. The third thing I would do is add in just a bit of cardio to your weekly exercise routine, but we don't want to overdo it. So definitely lifting weights is the foundation of exercise that you want to build. A bit of cardio is great for overall health. So I would just aim for 30 to 45 minutes. of moderate intensity cardio a few times per week Keeping your heart rate in the 120 to 140 beats per minute range. Usually that's a good range for women. So if you're doing nothing right now, maybe start with just one 30 minute session throughout the week. Or add 10 or 15 minutes of cardio to each weight lifting session. And you'll, get that cardio in. Cardio is helpful because it supports our heart health. It improves. Our endurance and over time, it's just going to make you more conditioned and can help you lift heavier in the gym. So a little bit of cardio health helps you lift heavier weights. A little bit of strength from lifting weights is going to make you better at cardio. So here's the key. We don't want you to go overboard. Too much cardio can actually work against muscle retention and fat loss. And also, we want to use cardio strategically and really ramp it up if we're in a very concerted fat loss phase. But a little bit goes a long way, and so you definitely, just for overall health, want to get a little bit of cardio in each week. Okay, the fourth thing I would suggest you prioritize, again, once you have your weightlifting routine set, you're eating enough protein, you're doing a little bit of cardio, is to moderate your alcohol consumption. So this one might not be something that you want to hear, but it's important. And that is that our ability to process alcohol diminishes as we age. And so if you're drinking a glass or two of wine every night, it could be contributing to stubborn body fat, particularly around your midsection. It tends to make cellulite accumulate in a little bit different way. And so from an aesthetic standpoint, cutting out alcohol or moderating it is definitely going to tighten you up. But also alcohol from a health perspective, alcohol is a known carcinogen and can definitely negatively impact sleep recovery and hormone balance. It is one of the leading. causes of cancer. Especially in women, just one drink a week can definitely increase your risk of having breast cancer. It is definitely a luxury. And so cutting back even just a little can make a big difference in how you look and feel and your overall health. Okay, my final tip is to again, after you've gotten the weightlifting the protein, a little bit of cardio, you're moderating your alcohol, the fifth thing that you can do is fine tune your nutrition. So once these other basics are in place then you can really look at your nutrition and start to fine tune that. Ironically, nutrition plays the biggest role in fat loss, but it is the last thing I'd focus on when building sustainable habits. That sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but definitely, before diving into any sort of calorie counting, or big calorie deficit, would focus on lifting weights, eating enough protein, moving more, and moderating alcohol. And once those habits are solid, you can start tracking your intake and find what your baseline nutrition is. And then I would say if you're under eating, like below 1600 calories a day, I'd work on gradually increasing that caloric intake up to around 1800 calories a day. That's just going to give your body what it needs to build muscle. And then if you do want to do like a concerted fat loss cycle, you will have some caloric runway to work from. It's really hard to cut calories when you're only eating 1600 calories and have it be sustainable. or anything that's going to produce long term weight loss. Now, if you're overeating or, I'm not even going to call this overeating, but let's say you're eating in the range of 25 to 100 calories just reducing that caloric intake by 300 to 500 calories per day can really a lot of fat loss. But the one thing I think it's important to remember is that changing nutrition alone, isn't going to build strength or reshape your body or make you look toned. The real transformation comes from a combination of training, nutrition and lifestyle habits. In the bodybuilding world, we call the period of time that you're really focusing on lifting weights, getting almost a surplus of nutrition, we call that our improvement season. And then you follow that improvement season by a real short concerted period of, doing a calorie deficit and then you get to reveal everything that you've built in your improvement season. It's always just usually best to start with the improvement season, which is again, lifting weights, eating enough protein, getting good nutrition in your body to build muscle, and then worrying about weight loss after that. Those are the five things I would focus on if you really want to Start reshaping your body combat, those things I talked about earlier about losing your glutes, losing your quads, accumulating weight in your midsection. These are the things I would focus on. If you're looking to combat the mom bod and build your best physique your focus, again, the focus needs to be on building strength, building muscle, and building sustainable habits that keep you feeling amazing and looking amazing for years to come. So start lifting, eating your protein. moving your body and taking care of yourself. And before I wrap up, I do have something exciting to share. Coming this April, we've got something special that will help you spring clean your habits and again build that strong healthy body. So stay tuned because you won't want to miss. That's what we have coming for you in April. So for today, thanks for tuning into the podcast. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, tell a friend about it. And until next time, stay strong and build those habits and keep taking care of yourself. One last thing I want to mention is make sure you pick up our, the current freebie we have out, which is a fast food nutrition guide. It will help you make smarter choices at restaurants and make sure you are, picking items that have a good amount of protein in them. Okay. That's all I have for today. Thank you