What Weight Loss After 40 Really Looks Like For Women

Weight loss after 40 can feel like your body suddenly stopped playing fair. If you’ve tried the old tricks, watched the scales stall, and started wondering whether your metabolism is “broken”, I want you to hear this clearly: you’re not too old and you’re not failing. The rules change in perimenopause and menopause, so the strategy has to change too.

I talk through why midlife fat loss can be slower and less predictable, starting with the physiology: oestrogen shifts that affect insulin sensitivity, appetite and fat distribution; rising stress and cortisol that drive cravings and belly fat; and the quiet but powerful impact of losing muscle mass from our 30s onwards. I also unpack why fast approaches like extreme calorie cutting, over-exercising or cutting whole food groups can create rebound weight gain, mess with energy and gut health, and leave you feeling like nothing works. If you’re using (or considering) GLP-1 weight loss injections, we cover why nutrition and muscle preservation matter so much.

Then we get practical and realistic about what sustainable progress looks like: better energy, steadier blood sugar, fewer cravings, less bloating, and a pace that often lands around 0.5 to 1 kilogram per week. We zoom out from the scale and focus on body recomposition, strength, waist measurement, and the mindset shift that actually keeps results long term: becoming the woman who stops quitting.

If you’re ready for a hormone-aware, personalised approach to perimenopause weight loss and menopause health, hit play, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. If you found it helpful, I’d love a review.

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -

1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Transcript

Welcome And Clinic Announcement

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. I'm Susie Garden, your host. I'm the Perimenopause naturopath, weight loss nutritionist, and proud perimenopause survivor. And before we get into the episode today, I just want to let you know that the Perimenopause Path Clinic is open for business. And I'm so excited that this clinic has launched. This clinic is for women who are peri- or post-menopause wanting support, whether that's nutritional, herbal medicine, help with weight loss, help with symptoms, and it is something I've been really excited about bringing to people that is outside uh the GLO Protocol. The GLO Protocol is my signature program, it is at a higher price point, and the Perimetopause Path Clinic just has is that a little bit more accessible for people. So uh the link is in the show notes to find out more. You can book a package or you can book an individual appointment if you want to just kind of explore a little bit before committing. So uh, yeah, that information will be in the link in the show notes, and I hope to see some of you booking in there.

Why Old Weight Loss Rules Fail

SPEAKER_00 1:56

But today, let's talk about the podcast. So, today we're gonna have a really honest conversation about weight loss because I think one of the biggest reasons women give up on weight loss in their 40s and 50s and 60s and beyond is because they expect it to look like it did when they were 25. So, you know, like when you're 20 in your 20s, it can be quite easy to quickly drop a little bit of weight, or if you put on weight after you go away for a weekend or have a holiday, you can pretty easily get that off. But things change, you may have experienced this in your 30s, 40s, and beyond. Um, and the thing is, even worse sometimes, what people, women expect is that it's gonna look like the promises that they see online. So, you know, lose eight kilos in two weeks, drop a dress size by Friday, reset your metabolism overnight, you know, all of those sorts of claims that we see that we get bombarded with uh in our social media feeds and um ads online, ads I'm seeing a lot on TV. I don't watch a lot of TV. So I've recently watched something that had ads and it was like, oh my gosh, there's so many weight loss ads. So uh I don't know whether they're targeted to me because that's the kind of work I do. So I'm on I'm on obviously, you know, um researching stuff on the internet about weight loss. So perhaps that's I'm getting those ads because of that, or whether that's just being targeted to everyone. I'm not sure. But the thing is when women uh have seen these promises, see these apparent results online, and then they try something and their body doesn't respond like that, they assume that their metabolism isn't is you know irreversibly broken, uh, that they're too old to lose weight, that nothing's gonna work for them. And if that sounds familiar, I want you to know two things. First, you are absolutely not too old. I have women in my program in their 70s. Uh, I've had I've talked to women in their 80s even that are interested in it. Um, so you are definitely not all too old. I think actually the oldest person I know of that's gone through is about 90. So um, yeah, you're definitely not too old. And second, uh, fat loss after 40 can be different. It can be different, it can be slower sometimes. Slower doesn't mean it's impossible, and slower doesn't mean something's wrong or it's worse or whatever. In many ways, what we want is that slow, predictable weight loss. That's what makes it sustainable. So today I want to talk about what real fat loss actually looks like in midlife for many women. Because realistic expectations are one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. And I always want women to feel empowered. So having a realistic expectation of what's possible is gold.

Hormones, Muscle, Stress And Metabolism

SPEAKER_00 4:54

So let's firstly talk about why fat loss after 40 can be different. And let's obviously start with the what's going on inside your body. Your body isn't being difficult for no reason. Several things absolutely change in midlife. Obviously, the hormonal shifts. Because estrogen, we always think of it as being involved with reproduction, but it plays a role in insulin sensitivity, in appetite regulation, in fat distribution, in metabolic flexibility. And as estrogen fluctuates in perimenopause and disappears in postmenopause, your body becomes less metabolically predictable. And even if you're replacing estrogen uh with uh menopause hormone therapy or MHT, previously known as HRT, even if you're replacing the estrogen, that estrogen is not necessarily behaving the same way in your body as your natural estrogen. It's still, I think, in many ways a fantastic option for many women, uh, but it's not exactly the same. And uh this is why the same foods, when you're in your, you know, 40s, 50s, and beyond, the same foods can impact you differently. You may store fat more easily around the middle. Uh, you may get cravings that can increase. Energy can feel less stable. That's something I hear a lot with potential clients, is that they get an afternoon slump or that their energy may be hovering around seven out of ten on a normal day, and that's that's not ideal. No one wants to feel a seven out of ten or even less. You know, I'm always aiming to get my clients to that at least eight, definitely a nine, is what I would expect. And that can happen quite quickly once you have the nutrition right. Um, so the hormonal shifts can really have a big influence on how you're feeling on the day-to-day and how you store fat. The other thing is that we start losing muscle from around our 30s onwards. We naturally begin losing muscle mass unless we actively work to preserve it. And muscle matters because it's a metabolically active tissue. And I really noticed this in my 40s that my muscles just disappeared. Like it was like one day they were there, the next day they were gone. I was absolutely shocked at how quickly that happened. Um, and less muscle means you get a lower resting um metabolic rate, so less energy expenditure at rest, poorer uh management of glucose, slower metabolic response. This is one of the biggest reasons me, people um women feel like nothing works anymore, is this loss of muscle. It's hugely important to our metabolism, and we're learning now that's hugely important for our brain health, our cognition. So, muscle, maintaining muscle mass is a huge area of concern and should be a huge area of focus, um, particularly for women. So that's a big deal, and particularly in the context of weight loss, we want to preserve muscle and we want to really target fat. And that's one of the critical things you need to look at if you're assessing what weight loss program is best for me, what is going to happen to your muscle mass on whatever technique you're going to use. And that is something that we're really seeing now with the GLP1. So the weight loss injections is the loss of muscle, it can be quite dramatic, and nutrition is super important. And I have many women uh who are now doing my program, they're also on the GLP 1 injections, and finding that that's getting them the best results because their nutrition is beautifully managed, and they have the GLP1 also to support them with the food noise. Another thing, another like factor, I guess, that's genuinely changing in midlife is stress because midlife is often peak stress season, you know, with careers, teenagers, aging parents, relationship shifts, sleep disruption. It's peak stress season, let's face it. And chronic cortisol, we produce cortisol when we're stressed. Chronic cortisol changes how the body stores and uses energy. When our cortisol is elevated, our fat storage can increase, especially around the middle at belly fat. Our cravings can rise because it impact interferes with our glucose metabolism, blood sugar becomes a little more unstable, that affects our energy, and this isn't a willpower issue. This is physiology and needs to be managed.

Why Fast Weight Loss Backfires

SPEAKER_00 9:44

So let's talk about why quick fat loss is often the wrong goal. Because there is a bit of an obsession with speed. Fast fat loss does sound really attractive. Uh, I think that's one of the reasons that keto really took off a few years ago, is because people could really see a result very, very quickly. Uh, in midlife, aggressive approaches like that often create collateral damage. Uh, when women really, for example, slash calories, if they're on like a 1200 calorie a day diet, that can really uh uh yes, you can lose weight quickly, but often you get a rebound effect or a yo-yo effect from that. If you're over-exercising, if you're cutting out entire food groups, if you're relying on adrenaline and willpower, the body often doesn't really like this. And you may initially lose um fluid, muscle, you may lose some fat tissue, but you know, often it can impact other body systems like your gut health, particularly with keto. We know that we can see really significant changes in our gut microbiome within weeks of being on something like keto or paleo. Um, it can impact things like your thyrogland, it can impact your metabolic flexibility. Uh, this is where you get this yo-yo effect, and why so many women say I've lost weight before, but I always gain it back. Because quick loss often teaches the body that we're in famine. We're in famine, so we need to preserve energy. And if you cycle in between this on and off, I get many women who say they've yo-yo dieted their entire lives, it can get really, really frustrating and impact your mindset and again make it feel like your metabolism is broken and things are just not working. So we definitely don't want that for you. So, what real fat loss actually can look like, sustainable fat loss, honestly, it's a bit less glamorous. It's far more effective. Real fat loss can look like this. So I break it down into weeks. So week one to two. Generally, uh, women on my uh Glow protocol will definitely have better energy within week one to two. It depends how hard their detox process is. We do a little bit of detox at the beginning, which is nothing dramatic. It's just lots of veggies, lots of water. Um, can be lots of fruit, just depends what gets um what your personalized nutrition protocol looks like. But yeah, often energy will go up pretty significantly. Um, the blood sugar will start balancing out, so there'll be fewer cravings for sugar and carbs, there'll be improved gut health, uh, often less bloating really, really quickly. Sometimes there can be dramatic scale movement. I've had people lose two to three kilos a week in the first couple of weeks, and you've got to, you know, assess this, and often it's going to be fluid because what I do with women, I'm not watching calories at all. What I'm watching is reducing, what I'm targeting rather, is reducing inflammation. When we reduce inflammation in the body, we actually release fluid, and that can look like a loss on the scales. It can also look like more flexibility in the joints because often that fluid will accumulate in the joints. Uh, so you know, that is these are really good signs, and uh I love that, particularly those first couple of weeks, because that's when people can really start to feel so much better and so so quickly. In weeks three to six, you'll definitely notice clothes fitting differently. There'll be reduced puffiness, that puffiness can reduce in the first week, even um, sleep can improve, mood can definitely improve because that blood sugar is beautifully stabilizing. Um, appetite is also often something women really notice where they used to really go for an afternoon snack that they don't need it anymore because it their their blood sugar is beautifully balanced, so their appetite is not there for a snack. Um, and often by week six, we're expecting sort of six to eight kilos of loss, uh, depending on how what the weight loss goal is and what how we've um uh kind of put together that nutrition protocol, uh, we will make sure that we are, you know, each individual person is getting the program that's right for them that's going to hit their goals at the right time for them. Um, and the thing is that the longer that the body is feeling that safety, it's feeling well nourished, that inflammation is reducing, the blood sugar is stabilizing, the cortisol is settled, the insulin management improves, and it creates this environment where fat loss becomes easier and you become less likely to put that weight back on because you've lost it in a sustainable

The Real Timeline Of Progress

SPEAKER_00 14:48

way. So your body feels safe. But you know, what we've what's really the game changer is that recomposition of the body. So the scale is not the only measure of progress, and this is really, really important. Uh, sometimes women can get, and men can get really focused on a particular number on the scales, and but this is not the only measure of progress because if you're strength training, if you're preserving muscle, if you're eating enough protein, all of those sorts of things, you may be losing fat while gaining lean tissue. So there may be a net weight uh loss of zero, or you may even have a net weight gain, depending on what your body composition was like previously. That means same weight, different body. It can mean a smaller waist, which means you're metabolically healthier, your cardiovascular risk reduces with that smaller waste. You may have um a sense that you have like a shape that is better for you, more strength, more energy. This is good body composition. It's one of the most powerful changes women can create in midlife. We want to be strong, we don't want to be frail. There is what I'm seeing now in the media, a real movement towards being skinny and almost looking frail. And I find that terrifying because for many women they aspire to that sort of look, but in terms of health, it's not great. And I think most of us know that it's actually not great to be super skinny. You need muscle, you need muscle so that you've got good bone strength as well, so that you have a better quality of life. And I would I'd put money on it that a lot of these women in the public eye that we're seeing now that are starting to look more and more skinny, I'll put money on it. They're having issues with sleep, they're having issues with energy, they're probably having gut health issues as well. They're not necessarily actually doing well behind the scenes. So that is just my opinion, but that that would be my thought process having worked with women in this area for nearly seven years now. So let's talk about why having sustainable weight loss that's more like that 0.5 to one kilo a week rather than dramatic loss, why that can be better. The slow fat loss tends to protect muscle. It absolutely is better for you hormonally, it is better for you metabolically. We keep that metabol metabolism fired up rather than slowing down because there's concerns about you know starving. Um it teaches sustainability because habits required a realistic, not punishment, not white knuckling through hunger. I don't want anyone hungry on my programs. Um, you're not miserable, there's just consistency, there is structure, there is support, and that's what lasts. And the other thing I guess I wanted the final thing I should say I wanted to to touch on is mindset and the mindset shift.

Mindset, Support And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Because this is really where mindset matters, is and this is why I tend to address mindset right up the beginning of the protocol, is not getting super focused on the number, even though the number is there, and I always talk to women about setting achievable numbers, uh, and it becomes not so much how fast, how quickly can I lose this weight that I want to lose, but more how can I become the woman who keeps going? What is the identity change needed to create lasting change? So things like you know, thinking about well, it's a more holistic approach when we get into our 40s and 50s and beyond. It's not just what you're eating. What you're eating is a huge part of weight loss, but it's also how you're moving, it's also how you're managing your stress, how you're um preserving your sleep, all of these sorts of things. That's where mindset matters. It's not just about the number on the scales, it's not just about the speed, it's the other aspects that are going to contribute to your long-term health and are going to help you keep that weight off long-term. The women who succeed aren't the most motivated, they're the women who stop quitting. And that's really important. And that's why we know from research that having a good level of support from a nutritionist or an atropath that actually understands weight loss and weight loss mindsets, that is gold. That is absolute gold. Um so if you've been feeling discouraged because your progress feels slow, please let this be your reminder that slow progress is still progress. And in midlife, slower can often mean smarter. Um, if you're ready to stop guessing, if you want a personalized nutrition plan that creates real sustainable fat loss and preserves muscle with qualified support, that's exactly what we do inside the GLOBE protocol. Uh, you may or may not know, I actually have another naturopath working with me now, Erin, who is amazing. And between the two of us, we support women inside this protocol. And it's a structured protocol, it's hormone aware, it's realistic and designed specifically for women in this chapter of life. Uh so yeah, I'll put the link to that also in the show notes. So even if you're thinking, Oh, is this for me? There's so many options. You can book in a single appointment at the Perimenopause Path Clinic, and that will be with Erin, and she can help, she'll obviously do an assessment of you. And if the Glow Product is something that may be of a value to depending on what your goals are, then she can talk to you about that. Um, otherwise, if you're just you're really thinking, no, I just want to do the full Monty, give me the my entire protocol, then that's a peri weight loss assessment with myself. And that's where, again, I I have uh a really in-depth discussion with you. I understand what you're wanting to achieve, where you're at now, what the blocks to your weight loss might be, what your symptoms are that you want addressed, and we put together uh a program for you. I talk to you about what that might look like, and then you decide whether or not you may want to go ahead with it or not. So thank you for spending this time with me on this episode. If this gave you some inspiration or some hope, please share it with a friend who needs to hear it. Uh, I'm just a one-man band here in terms of the podcast, so any support I can get from you guys spreading the word, I really, really appreciate it. Um, until next time, take care, be well, and I will see you next week with a fresh new card. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimenopause Park. I would love to connect with you.