#45: Getting in shape for summer starts NOW! (and how to do it using my 2-phased approach)
[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host. And today we are talking about how to get in shape for summer because guess what guys it starts now. And the reason I'm putting out this episode right now is because if you're anything like me, you have spent the last four, six, eight weeks.
Completely eating more than what you normally do, right? Holiday season was here, and I don't know about you, but I was eating out at least once a week, if not twice a week, parties at least a couple times a week, I was exercising less than I normally do, thanks to all these parties and getting ready for the holidays, and, you know, finishing up the end of the year at work, and all the things.
Right. And your immediate instinct when you start the new year is probably that, Oh my God, I need to [00:01:00] now start burning some calories. And what I want to say to you is nope. Nope. That is not where you want to be focusing your time, at least not if you want to spend next summer looking toned fit.
If that's what you want, and I know that is definitely what I want. I want to feel good wearing less and less as the weather gets warmer. I want to be revealing my shoulders, revealing my arms. I love summer clothes and I am going to be on a boat in a bikini next summer. That is my goal. But to get to that goal, what you really need is.
Muscle, okay? And muscle is not built in an aerobics class, in a spinning class, out jogging,
in a bootcamp class. Those are not building muscle for you. Muscle is built in the gym.
So if [00:02:00] your goal is to look fit, to look toned, to feel proud of your shoulders and your arms and your body next summer, and which of us don't feel that way, right? Then what you need to be paying attention to is two things. One is building muscle and the other is losing fat.
And my recommendation for you is to start with the building of the muscle. And then as we get closer into summer, then start working on decreasing the fat on your body. This is a very working strategy, especially for women who have like that 10, 15 pounds that they want to lose and hopefully lose forever.
Right. And I have to say, because honestly, The reason that I started weight training was that I noticed that I was not [00:03:00] looking the way I wanted to look. I saw my reflection in the mirror one day and I was like, what happened to my arms? Right? My arms, which used to be something I was proud to show were suddenly just looking like Undefined, lumpy, and, and then to top it off, I saw a picture of myself in a bikini when I thought that I was in really good shape.
I mean, I was in great cardiovascular shape, but I didn't look like I was in great cardiovascular shape. I just looked kind of formless. Yes. My motivators were very superficial at the time. And when I started really studying, how is it that I'm going to transform my body now that I'm in post menopause at age 52, how am I going to do that?
I learned so much about. Our biology about what happens when estrogen levels drop, about how muscle is built, and also about the [00:04:00] unbelievable health and fitness benefits of having muscle. So yes, your motivator may be that you want to look better this coming summer, but the icing on the cake is going to be that you are also going to feel better.
And you're going to be healthier because of building muscle, because of changing your body composition, right? Increasing the proportion of muscle versus fat in your body. So anyway, that was a long lead in, but let's get into it.
So the strategy here has two steps: the first
is to spend the winter when you're anyway, kind of hiding in a whole bunch of clothes, building muscle, not being so concerned about being lean and low fat, but building muscle. And then the second phase is going to be where [00:05:00] you're going to lean out. In other words, go on a fat loss phase closer to summertime.
And the reason that I really advise that you do it in this order while there are many of them. So let's go through them.
First of all, what you want as a result is a toned you and toned means that you have muscle and less body fat covering that muscle. So notice that the very important part of that is you have muscle and you are going to build muscle a lot better when you're not in a diet. In other words, when you're not in a calorie deficit.
Plus, if you're just learning how to weight train, then honestly, if you're trying to apply progressive overload and push your body and really get started weight training, if you're doing that in a calorie deficit, it's going to feel like crap. You're not going to make progress the [00:06:00] same way as if you're just in maintenance.
In other words, maintaining your current weight, and it's going to be super unmotivating for you. So I want to set you up to feel good about what you're doing. So you start with starting weight training, you will get stronger. Your body composition will change while you're doing the weight training, especially if you're new to weight training, if you were to do, , some kind of a measurement of your body composition, you would see a change from having a higher percentage of body fat to having a higher percentage of lean muscle mass.
And that's by starting the weight training. And while you're doing this weight training phase. You should, as much as you can stay in what they call maintenance calories. What that means is that you're not in a diet, so you're not losing weight, but [00:07:00] you're also not just eating whatever you want like crazy and, and gaining weight.
So you're keeping your weight pretty steady and adding weight training to your, fitness. And in fact, you can drop out some of your cardio if you need to, if you don't have time for both. I would recommend you drop some of your cardio. You'll be able to get your cardio back up later.
That's easier actually to build than muscle. But you really want to be focusing on the muscle lifting at least twice a week, full body. If you can do three days a week or four days a week, then of course your results are likely to come faster and be more noticeable. I mean, you know, that's life. You put in more work, you get more results to a degree.
Okay. I, yeah, let's not go overboard.
Now, while you're staying in this maintenance calories, you want to [00:08:00] think also about what you are eating to make up those calories. You want to be eating enough protein. Now protein is going to have a lot of benefits for you. Okay. First of all, we need it in order to build that muscle. Muscle is made up of amino acids and the way that your body gets amino acids is by eating protein.
If you can eat. Low fat sources of protein, all the better. And I actually have quite a few episodes on getting enough protein, how I got it into my day and those kinds of things. I will link those episodes in the show notes. So if you want to get more in depth on the protein piece, you can do that there.
Protein is wonderful because it makes you feel more satiated, And you want to aim for that one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
So this is your ideal body weight and we're not talking ideal like, Oh yeah, if I could look like [00:09:00] Twiggy or, you know, a supermodel, that would be my body weight. No, like a reasonable, healthy body weight for you, so you're one gram per pound looking at your ideal body weight.
Okay. And then phase two, as we get closer to summer, we'll be doing a calorie deficit and that calorie deficit. I would not do an extreme one. I generally think about like losing pound a week as being fairly reasonable, maybe even less than a pound a week, but an average of about a pound a week.
And Well, I'll do an episode a little bit closer into that time, going through the details of how to do that. But the beauty of doing the calorie deficit later. So closer to summer is that first [00:10:00] of all, you have gotten weight training really kind of under your belt. You know how to do the exercises.
You've been applying progressive overload. You've been able to build some muscle. You probably are. Feeling it, at least in your everyday life, like carrying your groceries in or moving the sofa, rearranging furniture, whatever, getting off the floor, uh, stepping onto the bus, carrying your suitcases, you will have noticed changes in your body.
And when you go into the calorie deficit, the thing is that it is going to feel crappy to do the weight training. So the fact that you already are comfortable with it will make it easier, and it's already become a habit, will make it easier for you to keep going, even when it's not. You feel like you don't have the energy to do it and you don't really want to do it.
I mean, because honestly, that's what happens when you're in a calorie deficit, your body is [00:11:00] like, Oh, I don't have the energy to do this. Don't do this, but you will need to do it. And the reason why you will need to continue to weight train is that if you are in a calorie deficit, losing weight, without weight training, then 25 to 30 percent of the weight that you lose will be your lean muscle mass.
And you don't want to lose that muscle, right? You want to lose. fat off your body. So you need to be weight training. Okay. So the second reason why this calorie deficit is better to do second is because then you got the muscle on your body, right? And the first few weeks of your calorie deficit is the time that it's not so tough in the sense that.
You know, you won't be feeling so hungry and so tired. The ending part is the, is the worst part. But so after you've gotten through the first two, three weeks, you're going to start to see some change and you'll probably start seeing your muscles showing more. And guess what? They wouldn't be showing more if [00:12:00] you hadn't built them before you started on the calorie deficit.
So the fact that your muscles start to show more and you start to look better. Toned look leaner, look more, you know, athletic is going to be a great, great motivator for you to continue in your calorie deficit, because as you continue in the deficit and as the fat melts away, your beautiful muscles are going to start showing.
Okay, so this is kind of my psychological reason for doing it this way around. I just think it is going to be so much easier. So if you can just, um, you know, hold off on that desire to like, Oh my God, I've just been overeating for a month, two months, and now I just need to do cardio like crazy. You know, please rather shift that energy to the weight room, start lifting weights like crazy, start [00:13:00] keeping your eating steady.
Make sure you're eating enough protein that you're keeping your calorie amount pretty steady so that you're not gaining weight or losing weight and build that muscle. as we get closer to summer, then go through the fat loss phase.
And this is the strategy that I used in 2023, the beginning of the year building, building, building muscle, and then getting closer to summer going into the calorie deficit had enormous success with it.
So if you are in. Um, on doing it this way, then let's get you started with weight training. You can join my group program now in January or learn to lift on your own using one of my self study courses, and then keep your ears open, get on my mailing list. Actually, that's probably the best way to do it.
Get on my emailing list because closer to spring, I'll be talking [00:14:00] more about the fat loss phase, and if there's enough interest, I will run a group program where I can support you in doing that fat loss phase. We can do it together. All right.
So those were my thoughts as you are thinking about your new year's resolutions and how you should start off your year, lift weights, build muscle, and let's get you ready for next summer. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next week. Happy training.