Three Simple Tools That Helped Me Lose Fat and Build Muscle After 50 [Ep 64]

What if three simple tools could completely shift the way you approach fat loss after 50 without fad diets or rigid rules? In this episode, Lisa shares the tools that made the biggest difference in her own body recomposition journey.

Building on the evidence-based strategies from the last episode, Lisa dives into how a basic food scale, a consistency calendar, and a flexible meal framework helped her stay on track and actually enjoy the process. If you’re craving clarity, confidence, and real momentum to lose fat, build strength and flourish in midlife, this episode will give you practical, doable tools that meet you where you are.

Key Moments:
[01:00] Tool #1: A food scale—why precision brought Lisa freedom, not restriction
[03:00] Portion clarity: Surprising mistakes we make when “eyeballing” our meals
[04:00] How weighing food helped Lisa build meals that aligned with her goals
[06:00] Tool #2: The consistency calendar—using visual tracking for motivation
[08:00] Why visible patterns help break the “start-over” cycle
[10:00] Tool #3: A repeatable meal framework that simplifies healthy eating
[12:00] How a personal meal “playlist” reduces decision fatigue 

🌟 DM Lisa on Instagram: Let her know which tool you’re trying or already love! @lisadupreecoaching
 

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Transcript

Welcome to Midlife Mojo, the podcast all about how to be fit and flourish in your fifties. With me, your host, with over 25 years of experience in the health, fitness, and wellness industry, Lisa DuPree, we'll be talking about all the things that support living life to the fullest. Let's dive in.

Lisa DuPree: Hello. Hello, in the last episode we talked about what actually works for fat loss after 50. No gits, no fads, just real evidence-based strategies that move the needle for me to lose 30 pounds and about 10% body fat. Those strategies are what I work with my clients on and they will work for you too.

So today I wanna get super practical. I'm sharing three tools that made a big difference in implementing those strategies during my personal body recomposition phase. And they're not [00:01:00] fancy or expensive. They're actually pretty simple, but they really helped me stay consistent, focused and on track. So let's dive into tool number one, and that is a food scale.

I'm starting with this one because it fast tracks seeing progress for me and because this is something I get a good bit of resistance on when talking about it with clients. So I wanna share a quick story that changed the way I thought about measuring food and it has nothing to do with fat loss at first.

It actually started in my kitchen when I was baking bread. I had this gluten-free, dairy-free bread recipe that just wouldn't turn out. And I was following the instructions going by the recipe, you know, using cups and ounces 'cause that's how it was written. But it just kept coming out like too dense and just gummy. And so of course I took to Google. I ended up finding a gluten-free chef who used a food scale and then measured all ingredients out in [00:02:00] grams. And I did this when I worked in the lab, so you know, I was down to try it, right? I started weighing everything in grams instead of relying on cups, 

And guess what? Perfect bread now every single time. And so that was really my light bulb moment. You know, if baking is a science, especially gluten-free baking, it's finicky. And volume measurements aren't precise enough for the right texture and rise, then maybe how I was going about measuring my food for meals would benefit from this too. 

I knew I was already eating healthy, but I was still just kind of plating what I thought was the right portion, just like, oh, well that's how much I'm gonna eat. So I would just put that on the plate and then wondering why I really wasn't seeing the results as quickly as I wanted.

And so I started weighing my food in grams. And you know, honestly, I used to eyeball everything. I thought I was eating the [00:03:00] right amounts, but when I actually measured it out, I found that I was undereating protein and I was overdoing the carbohydrates and fats, especially things like rice, nut butters, olive oil, like all healthy foods, but just, kind of over or underestimating.

What a portion really was. That was an eye-opening thing for me. And then where I get some of the resistance, from, a lot of the women that I talk to, they've tried losing weight before. They've had some success, this, that, and the other. But they don't wanna be restricted.

They don't want to feel like they are having to control everything excessively. And so I hear things like, you know, if you were weighing out your food, especially if you're weighing out everything in grams, isn't that obsessive? Or this takes a lot of time. I don't really feel to do this. And do I have to do this forever? 

But really, the truth is weighing my [00:04:00] food actually gave me freedom

For the first time, I wasn't guesstimating. I had real clarity. I could look at my plate and feel confident that it supported my goals. And I wasn't relying on willpower or stressing over every bite like I was learning because it wasn't about restriction. It was about the data, the feedback and awareness, not shame.

 It taught me what a portion actually looked like. For example, what four ounces of chicken looks like compared to four ounces of salmon. Even what four ounces of chicken breast looks like compared to four ounces of chicken thigh because there's a different macronutrient makeup in those two different cuts of chicken.

That really helped me build meals that truly supported fat loss, muscle building, and overall sustained energy. And no, I didn't weigh every [00:05:00] single thing forever. I used it consistently for a couple of months, and then I just went to doing spot checks when I needed a reset or when things kind of felt off.

 If this idea feels intimidating, just start small. You don't need anything fancy as far as a scale, like a basic $10 scale. that can measure in grams and ounces if you want to start with that if it feels easier and more accessible first. And then try it for a few days with a few meals.

 I think you might be surprised by how empowering it can actually be to know what is going in your body and then how you're feeling, when you're eating those portions that are accurate. And so if you've avoiding the food scale, because it does sound rigid, I really invite you to flip the script on that.

 What if it's not about control? What if it's about clarity and confidence that your actions align with your desired [00:06:00] outcome and goals?

All right. Tool number two is a consistency calendar, and this is something that really helped me stay on track. I got this idea from my significant other when we first started dating. He was training to complete an Ironman triathlon and he had this calendar in his kitchen with a bunch of yellow marks all over it.

And what he was doing is he was highlighting every day that he did his workouts, recovery activities, rest days. And he used it because when he was seeing too little yellow, he knew he was missing too much training and then he was able to adjust. Anyway, he ended up crushing that Ironman, like he did so good.

He felt great throughout it. He felt great afterwards. If you know, an Ironman is really long distances, it's like 140 miles that they cover. It's a twelve hour day for most people, if not longer. Some people take longer to get through it, and so I figured when I got serious about my own body transformation [00:07:00] goal, I'm gonna try this.

You may be thinking like, Ugh, I don't wanna track things every day. That's too much work. Or maybe I've tried logging things before and I just always forget. This tool isn't about perfection or taking a lot of time and thought. This is a quick way to create visual accountability. And it's pretty easy to make a check mark or highlight a day.

It's worth that few seconds to do something that gives you a sense of momentum and helps you really see your progress and effort over time, especially if the scale isn't moving, which can happen a lot of times when you are in a small calorie deficit, you're losing fat, but you're building muscle at the same time, right?

And so you're able to see your effort and your progress over time. And I didn't track everything. I used three basic check boxes that gave me a really clear bird's eye view of how I was doing. [00:08:00] I checked off if I got my strength training done that day, if I got my cardio in and if I stuck to my nutrition plan.

And so when I saw those boxes checked, I really felt proud. Like, Wow, I'm really doing this. And I felt motivated, I really wanted to keep that streak going. I also set my consistency calendar in the living room where I would see it every day, multiple times a day actually.

And when I saw a few gaps, I got curious, not judgmental. And this helped me work around things that kind of popped up unexpectedly, or special things or special events that I wanted to go to. And it helped me rearrange my schedule so that I could get it all in. It helped me adjust, not feel like I failed.

And so think about it. Have you ever been stuck in that start over loop, like being on track perfectly for a few days, then slipping, falling off and [00:09:00] quitting, and then having to start all over again? But this time you're starting over with a little less motivation and a little more doubt. Well, this tool helps interrupt that pattern by making consistency visible. And this is really helpful because when life gets messy, when life gets busy, you need to be able to adjust. You have a very clear pattern there that you can work with. Now there are apps out there that you can use but those didn't work for me.

 So I kept it really super low tech, you know, paper calendar, you could write it in your journal, or something like that if you're using that every day. I found that using a whiteboard calendar with colored markers worked for me. My strength training gets a certain color check. My cardio gets a certain color check, and my nutrition another color check. I liked being able to see that whiteboard and all the color on it. 

Just track what matters to you and then let [00:10:00] each check mark be a celebration of the effort you're putting into your wellness.

All right, tool number three is a meal framework with some go-to meals. And this might sound a little simple, but I promise it changed everything because I was able to build a framework and then fill that in with some repeatable go-to meals. And now, you know, some of the things I hear about this is like, I don't wanna eat the same boring food every day.

And that was me when I started. I'm like, I don't wanna eat the same thing every day. I need variety in my life. I like variety! Or maybe it's I don't have time to plan the meals ahead, but here's another way to look at it. This doesn't mean that you're eating the exact same thing every day.

What it is about is creating a framework that helps remove decision fatigue. So instead of standing in the fridge at 6:00 PM, hungry and you're thinking, Ugh, what should I [00:11:00] eat? Or mindlessly grabbing, whatever snack is available when I get stressed. You know, I already had a few meals and snacks that I knew supported my goals, that I knew I liked.

They tasted good, and they left me feeling satisfied. So I like to think of this as like a personal meal playlist. It's your greatest hits that you can come back to again and again. 

For example, lately my meal playlist looks like this:

For breakfast, I have an egg and egg white omelet, and I add peppers, onions, mushrooms to it. I top it with salsa and then I have it with a brown rice cake. You could opt for a slice of whole wheat toast if you are not gluten-free. I go for the rice cake because I'm gluten-free.

I like the texture of the crunch that goes with the softness of the omelet.

Then I have a ginormous salad for lunch. [00:12:00] It has a lot of vegetables. It has grilled chicken, avocado, black beans, and then I make a really simple lime vinaigrette to top it with. For a mid-afternoon snack, I have a high protein smoothie that has spinach and berries in it, and then for dinner, something like grilled salmon, sweet potato, and green beans.

And so these meals became my foundation for getting in all the macronutrients that I need and the proportions that I need to stay in a small calorie deficit to lose fat and then still be able to build and preserve muscle. And then from there, I rotate in different ingredients that have a similar macronutrient makeup.

Swapping out the vegetables. For the black beans, maybe one day have chickpeas or something like that. Swap out the dressing, change up the protein. I was able to try a new recipe here and there, but that framework, [00:13:00] that base foundation is solid. And so for women over 50, especially if you're managing hormones, metabolism shifts, busy schedules, structure equals relief.

And that's what this tool gave me because you're not on a diet, you are designing a framework that vibes with the rhythm of your life. Ha, that was a lot of music references. I just love it when thoughts come together like that. Alright, so to recap, three tools that help me most during my fat loss and body recomposition phase were one, a food scale for accurate portion tracking.

Two, a consistency calendar that helped me stay motivated, gave me visual accountability and helped give me self-awareness. And then three was a framework that had a list of go-to meals that made healthy eating simple and repeatable. So none of [00:14:00] these tools were magic in and of themselves. The real mojo came from how they helped me show up day after day, supporting the habits that actually create the results.

And if you've listened to the podcast before, you know that this is what matters most. That consistency, it's not about being perfect, it's about being consistent because that is what is going to get you to your desired outcome and help you succeed. So I would love to know which of these tools are you already using and which one might you be excited to try?

You can come over to Instagram and DM me at Lisa Dupree coaching and let me know if there's something you're already using, if you have another one that works for you that's made a big difference. You can also send me a text using the link in the show notes. 

And hey, if you have gotten any value out of this episode, I would love it if you would do me a favor and leave a review or share it with a friend who's ready to take action in her fifties and beyond. Until next time, get out there and keep your mojo rising.