THI's Live Transformed Podcast

Fat Loss Over 40 — The Truth and the Tools Episode 1: What’s Actually Changing in Your 40s (and What’s Not)

• Adam Kelley • Episode 51

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We bust myths about fat loss after 40 and show how muscle, hormones, sleep, recovery, and lifestyle load shift without stopping progress. We map the levers that still work—nutrition, strength training, daily movement, and mindset—and give a simple weekly challenge to start now.

• real changes with age across muscle, hormones, sleep, and recovery
• why metabolism doesn’t crash at 40
• how lower activity and muscle—not age alone—drive weight gain
• protein targets that preserve muscle and curb hunger
• strength training and progressive overload that still work now
• sleep quality, cravings, and practical recovery tactics
• lifestyle load, hidden calories, and systemizing choices
• the always-something mindset vs all-or-nothing
• simple structures that protect progress when life is messy
• one-lever, one-percent weekly challenge for momentum

If you're tired of trying to do it all on your own, we're here when you're ready.
Here is your challenge this week: pick one lever—protein, strength training, sleep, or stress—and improve it by just one percent. Focus on progress, not perfection.

📚 References for Show Notes:

  • Hughes, V. A., et al. (2001). Longitudinal muscle changes with aging. J Gerontol.


  • Hirshkowitz, M., et al. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations. Sleep Health.


  • Speakman, J. R., et al. (2021). Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science.


  • Leidy, H. J., et al. (2015). The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. AJCN.


  • Hunter, G. R., et al. (2016). Exercise and aging. Comprehensive Physiology.

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SPEAKER_01:

Bottom line, yes, changes are real. Okay, there are true changes that happen. Muscle mass, hormones, sleep, recovery, and stress load all shift. But these changes don't mean that you're broken. Okay. This doesn't mean that this is something abnormal and doesn't mean that you're gonna have to stay this way just because you've reached this age. But they do mean that you need to be more strategic, okay? And that's what this is about.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Live Transformed, the podcast from Transformed Health Initiative, where evidence-based truth meets real life transformation. Lead yourself, integrate health, value what matters, engage in the process. This is how you live transformed. And now here's your host, Adam Kelly.

SPEAKER_01:

What is up, everybody? Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to the rebranded and feels brand new, but same old gig, the Live Transformed Podcast. So if you're curious on what's happening here, um, maybe not what you're expecting. The last episode we put out, episode 50, was our rebranding episode. I explained why we're rebranding, you know, what was going good with the Went on Purpose podcast, but why I feel like we needed to kind of shift the direction or at least the name. Um, it's still the same purpose, but new name that aligns with our brand, that aligns with the movement that we're creating, the ethos that we're calling people to live by as we continue to walk it out as coaches and as a company and just as a community. And so if you don't, if you don't know what I'm talking about, definitely go back and check out that episode. It's very, very good. Um, it's not just talking about the rebrand, it's not just talking about why we made changes, but it explains the Live Transformed ethos, the movement. Uh, Live is an acronym, so it's pretty good. I might give some of my own personal testimony and intertwine in there of how you know Live Transformed became a thing. And um, you definitely want to check that one out. So make sure you do. But anyway, I hope you guys like the new little intro. A little bit different, sounds very upbeat and all that. You know, I want something that is going to not just teach people but inspire people and really just bring positivity and light. So I feel like it sounds pretty good, but um, you guys let me know. You know, leave comments, uh, leave send me a DM. If you don't like it, let me know because I'd rather change it up and appeal to the people that are actually listening. Because who cares what I think? It can't matters what you guys think because we are doing this to provide you value and you content that you can utilize in your journey to transform your health and therefore transform your life. So, as I said, welcome to the live on trans live, welcome to the live transformed podcast. If I could speak today, it'd be great. Where we help high-performing adults take control of their health with evidence-based tools, real world strategies, and a whole lot of truth. So if you like truth, you're gonna get it here. All right. I'm your host, Coach Adam Kelly, owner of Transform Health Initiative here in Moore, Oklahoma. Um, and today we're gonna kick off a brand new series. How appropriate is it? You know, new name, rebranding, brand new series. And this one is titled Fat Loss Over 40: The Truth and the Tools. Okay. So if you're in your 40s, 50s, or even 60s, or hey, even 30s or 20s, you've probably felt it. Your body doesn't respond like it used to, right? Maybe you're working harder than ever, but not seeing the results. You know, you feel like you're going all in, you feel like you're being disciplined, but it's just not showing up. Maybe you're feeling more aches, less energy, or you've even wondered if fat loss is still possible at all. So if you don't mind, um, let me cut through the noise right here. It absolutely is. Fat loss is very much attainable no matter what your age is. But to succeed, you need a clair, you need clarity on what's actually changing in your 40s, and just as importantly, what's not changing. Okay, and again, this applies for 50s, 60s, and so on. And that's what today's episode is all about. All right, we are gonna get right into this thing. So, what really changes with age? That's the question that we're asking here. And undoubtedly there are some undeniable changes that happen as we age. So, we're gonna break those down, okay, of what's actually happening. So, number one is muscle loss and strength decline. So, starting around age 30, this is why I said this applies to people that are younger than 40s as well. Most adults begin losing about 3 to 8 percent of muscle, 3 to 8, 3-8, not 38% of muscle per decade. And that rate speeds up after 60. Okay, this has been shown in multiple studies. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, so the less that you have, the less, the lower your resting calorie burn, and the easier it is to gain fat. Okay, this kind of a double negative here. But here's the key this isn't inevitable. Strength training can reverse this decline even in older adult adults, okay? So there's still hope no matter where you're at. Number two, hormonal shifts. Okay, men experience a slow decline in testosterone, about 1% per year after their mid-30s. Now, mind you, that's if their lifestyle isn't promoting regular healthy testosterone levels. Women experience a dramatic shift in perimenopause and menopause as estrogen and pro progesterone fluctuate and then decline. Okay, so there is a hormonal change that happens in women. This is why I actually have a women's fitness specialist certification. And I wanted to do that because, you know, in my practice, the majority of people that I work with happen to be women. And it happen to be women who are, you know, either they're they've already had their kids or, you know, they're raising their kids, or they've already raised their kids, and now they're looking at grandkids and they're trying to make sure that they're setting themselves up for long-term health success because they want to be there for their kids and their grandkids and live life and be there for their spouse and feel good and not just slowly rot away as we think aging is supposed to be. Another thing that changes is growth hormone and IgF-1 also decrease gradually with age, impacting recovery and lean tissue. Okay, can make it a little bit harder to gain and keep lean tissue and a recovery between exercise bouts. Okay, it's definitely something we want to keep in consideration. So these changes can influence fat distribution, appetite, and energy, but they do not make fat loss impossible. Okay, again, we just have to be strategic in how we go about things. Look, I know what it feels like to be frustrated with your health, trust me. To feel like you're doing everything right, but nothing seems to be sticking. That's why our coaching isn't about perfection. It's about building a system that works even when life gets messy. At Transform Health Initiative, we help busy adults rebuild their health, rewire their habits, and redefine their identity without shame, without overwhelm, and without starting over every Monday. If you're tired of trying to do it all on your own, we're here when you're ready. All right, back to the episode. Number three, recovery and sleep. So research shows adults in their 40s and 50s often get less deep sleep and more fragmented sleep. And a lot of us can attest to this. I'm actually in my mid-30s, but your boy's been through some life, you know, I've lived a couple different lives, it seems like. So I feel like I've done some premature aging, self-inflicted, and just by happenstance. But um, you know, this is something that you'll definitely notice happen. Uh, if you if you're not in this age group, maybe you're in that. Sorry about my alarm clock that's going off in the background. Just ignore it, please. Um, but if you happen to fall within this age core category, 40s, 50s, 60s, or even leading up to it, you may notice that sleep just isn't quite the same. Like you can get the same amount of sleep, but it always doesn't always feel very rejuvenating. You tend to be more tired more often. Also, life stressors, you know, from these age groups, the different cycles of life that we're in can also affect that as well, or sleep quality. Uh, and you know, probably you're starting to notice that you wake up more frequently throughout the day, or throughout the day, throughout the night. You know, it's harder to stay asleep for the full time that you're down. Maybe you have multiple bathroom breaks, um, or you just you get restless. A lot of my clients they say, you know, sorry guys, this alarm is taking forever to go off. Everything likes to go off when I'm recording podcast episodes. It could be the the office phone that literally never goes off any other time. It's the stopwatch this time, it's my cell phone. There's always something, gotta love that. Um, but anywho, like I said, you may notice that just a lot of well, I know from my own experience and my clients that you know, waking up around two or three in the morning and just can't go back to sleep, and they're tossing and turning, or end up just getting up because you can't sleep. Then maybe you finally go back to sleep, but now you only got an hour or two and it's disruptive sleep, it's not very good quality. So this is definitely a big one. Um, then poor sleep impacts appetite regulating hormones like ghrelin and leptin, which are appetite regulating hormones, making you hungrier and less satisfied after eating. Um, I'm actually recording this in mid to late September. You guys won't be hearing this until like the second week of October, but I actually just posted a video on my social media talking about how this is a real thing and how I'm literally experiencing this today. Um, I my just basically I had a couple of my clients who are bodybuilders, they competed in a show this past weekend. So throughout the weekend, just you know, going to support them as just a fan. Um, and then just everything that transpired through that weekend, my sleep was definitely off. Like Saturday night, I got like two hours, three hours of sleep, very poor two to three hours of sleep. Um, the night before I got like four or five hours of sleep. So basically just super fatigued, and it's like it, I swear, it's like it's just continued to expand from there each day. Like the last three nights, because today's a Wednesday, so last three nights I've gotten at least seven hours all the way up to eight and a half hours of sleep, and it still feels like I've gotten no sleep. So definitely feeling that. And I tell you what, my hunger and cravings are through the roof. And this happens every time that my sleep really gets thrown off, especially if it's consecutive days. So, you know, like I've had my breakfast, I've had a couple protein bars, I've had some fruit, I just had my lunch not too long ago, probably 20 minutes ago, and I literally feel like I could eat an entire house right now. So even just one night of mildly poor sleep can disrupt those hunger hormones, those appetite-regulating hormones, and make you feel like you could eat your arm off. And that's when adherence typically goes down. And when you perpetuate that, it's just a losing cycle to be in. And then, lastly, on this, recovery from workouts also takes longer, which means smart programming matters more. Okay, we can't just bounce back from six, seven days of training back to back and just recover in between. You know, we may have to be a little bit more strategic, but again, there's still a way, and you should absolutely be training regardless. And number four, point of things that change is lifestyle load. Okay, so by your 40s, you typically jug you're juggling more, right? You've got your career, you've got your family, you know, kids, maybe even caring for aging parents. I know this is very normal anywhere between that 40, 50s, and 60s. Um, a lot of my clients, well, I have a few clients who, you know, their parents are in nursing homes right now, they're dealing with dementia, or their parents are just sickly and they're trying to take care of them on top of finishing raising their kids, or in the middle of raising their kids, or expecting grandkids. Uh, so it's a lot more on your plate, you know what I mean? And the stress and time pressure can reduce daily activity and increase reliance on convenient foods, which has a much a which has a big impact on your weight as psychology does, or as much of an impact on your weight as psychology does. So um one thing I would like to also add on this is that uh that I didn't put into my show notes is that also when you're usually in the 40s, 50s, 60s, we tend to have more income in general. You know, you've you've probably established yourself in your career or your spouse has, you know, maybe you're past raising kids, so that's a huge expense that you're no longer, you know, fishing out money for every time you turn around. Um, people typically just are doing less in general, overall, so spending less money overall. And so you can afford eating out more, you can afford some of these very tasty foods. Where before in your 20s and 30s, or when you're raising kids, you just didn't really have the expendable income to buy whatever you wanted when you wanted to. And this is a big problem for a lot of people, especially when they get in that habit of, oh, we've got extra money. We it's just us two. You know, our kids are grown, they're out of the house, we can go out to eat whenever we want. That's a vicious cycle you can get stuck in. So, bottom line, yes, changes are real. Okay, there are true changes that happen: muscle mass, hormones, sleep, recovery, and stress load all shift, but these changes don't mean that you're broken, okay? This doesn't mean that this is something abnormal and doesn't mean that you're gonna have to stay this way just because you've reached this age, but they do mean that you need to be more strategic, okay? And that's what this is about. So, this next part, we're gonna talk about what doesn't change and why it matters. So, here's the good news the fundamentals don't change, all right? There's a lot of misconception when it comes to aging, there's a lot of misinformation out there of you know, metabolism drop-off, of all these different things that supposedly happen after 30s and 40s, and we're gonna see that that's not the case. So, metabolism doesn't crash at 40. A 2021 study published in Science looked at over 6,000 people across 29 countries. Okay, this is a massive study. It showed that metabolism stayed remarkably stable from ages 20 to 60 with no significant drop until after 60. Okay, and this is this has been repeated in study after study, meta-analysis after meta-analysis. We don't typically see true metabolic shifts just due to aging independently until sometime after 60. And some people, it just if they stay active, they keep the lifestyle not even after 60. And you know, so the idea that just because you hit 40 and you're gaining some weight, that it's because it's your metabolism, sorry, but we cannot blame our metabolism for this. At least our metabolism independently of our lifestyle, okay. Yes, your metabolism may be wacky, but that probably has to do with your lifestyle, not with your age. Okay. What most people experience as a slowed metabolism is usually a drop in muscle and daily movement, things that you can control, okay? So, you know, as we age, we tend to be less active. Again, we're not running around with the kids, taking them everywhere, going to practices, going to the zoo, going doing all these things outside of our work. Usually people move into a place in their career as they age, usually to where they're less active. Maybe they work the warehouse and they become manager and then they start running their own warehouse. So they're more sedentary, you know, they don't have the active lifestyle, and then aces and pain start happening, and you know, we get set in our habits, and then all of a sudden we're just barely moving our bodies and we're losing muscle, and that will slow your metabolism, okay? Those two things specifically. And then for some nutrition principles that don't change, calories, protein, and food quality remain the biggest drivers, okay? Your food intake, your nutrition still is the biggest factor when it comes to gaining weight or losing weight. Higher protein intake, roughly like 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day, supports fat loss, preserves muscle, and increases satiety across all age groups. In the study, um Liddy or Letty et al. from 2015. I'll put it in the show notes. I always butcher names, so sorry, don't shoot me. Um, training principles don't change. Okay. The human body at 25 or 55 responds to progressive overload. Okay. I don't care what your age is, your body will respond if your training is good. Resistance training builds muscle, strengthens bones, and supports metabolism at every age. So literally, it helps prevent and reverse a lot of the aging processes that we see happen, especially in younger people that we're starting to see more and more as it's becoming more and more normal to be under muscled and just very low levels of physical activity, poor sleep, high stress loads, things like that. Um, but strength training can totally still give you all the benefits that it gave you when you were 25. The difference is that recovery needs more attention. Okay, this is where a lot of people do get it wrong. You might train smarter, not harder, but the stimulus still works. Okay. So if you got the right plan, aka working with the right team of professional coaches who are great at what they do and can help people at all ages. And we specialize in people from 35 to 55 that are busy adults and trying to live life and get regain their health and feel better and feel like they did when they're in their 30s or 20s, but yet still be able to handle all of life's processes and things that are happening. That is a good thing to have in your corner. We'd love to help you there. Unshameful plug, shameless plug. Um, and then, you know, habits still rule the game. This is very important to understand. Quick fixes don't work at 20 and they don't work at 40, okay? The people who succeed are the ones who build systems, they create structure and practice consistency, okay? Those still win. Systems, structure, consistency are still the keys to success, no matter what your age is. So while the physiology shifts, the levers you can pull are the same and they're still powerful. All right. This next part we're gonna look at is why mindset becomes your multiplier. Okay. This is the part people underestimate big time. Number one, the all or nothing trap. When you're younger, you can push the extremes or get away with it for the most part, right? You can pull all-nighters, double up workouts, crash diets, fad diets, all the crazy extremes, and you can still bounce back pretty well. Like I remember many nights not getting hardly any sleep, still getting up, going training for two, three hours in the gym, going working a full day, coming home. I've been a parent basically my whole adult life, so taking care of the kids. And, you know, I was able to keep bouncing back until I couldn't. All right. That ended up with me having a severe spine injury that I still deal with today. So definitely wouldn't advise taking that route. No matter how well you recover, it will catch up to you. But in your 40s, it definitely can backfire. You don't recover as fast, and life is too demanding to keep starting over, right? It's easier just to give up and not try at all than it is to continuously try or try to start over again and again. So, what's the solution? Shift from an all or nothing to always something mentality. Okay, let me repeat that. From an all or nothing to an always something mentality. And let's look at that. So, always something wins. Even when life gets messy, you can do something. 10 push-ups, a 15-minute walk, packing a lunch instead of grabbing fast food. These small actions keep you anchored, reinforce identity, and compound over time. And most importantly, they don't require a lot of time, they don't even require a lot of energy. Like go for a stroll, right? You don't have to go out and power walk and work up a big sweat and be out of breath. Go walk the dog, go walk with your spouse, go play with your kids, go play with your grandkids. Like just move your body around and it can pay off big time. Structure beats chaos. Okay, looking at the structure part of this. So in your 20s, you can totally wing it, right? Like again, you can get away with so much. But in your 40s, you're probably gonna need some systems that are intact and in play. Things like meal prep, calendar blocks, check-ins, things that hold you accountable when life is crazy because the phase that we're in, if you are 35 to 55, your life is probably pretty hectic still. So, you know, having those systems intact can really move the needle in the direction you're trying to go. These structures protect you when willpower is low and when life is hectic. There it's like a safeguard for you. And then coaching multiplies consistency. At this stage, most people don't need more information. They've heard it all. Everybody pretty much knows what to do, right? We know we need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We know that we need, well, hopefully, we know that we need protein. We should know that we need fiber, even though, you know, the whole low-carb carnivore, keto world would probably fight against that. But for long-term health purposes and for pretty much all good things, fiber is important. Um, you know, we know that we need to move our bodies more. We know we need to do some sort of cardiorespiratory or cardiovascular work to keep our heart strong. We know that we should probably be doing some sort of strength training to keep our body strong and capable and things like that. So we know that we need to be getting sleep, right? Like we know these things, but just because we know it doesn't mean that it's actually going to be implemented. So, you know, people in this stage, they need clarity, they need accountability, they need proven systems, they need things that they can fall back and depend on no matter how crazy life is. And that's where coaching helps cut through the noise and makes progress sustainable. Okay. Again, shameless plug. You want to work with us because we're kind of good at what we do. So here's the truth, guys. Yes, some things change in your 40s, muscle, hormones, recovery, stress, but the fundamentals don't change. Your metabolism isn't broken. Nutrition, training, sleep, and mindset still drives results. So the question isn't can I lose fat after 40? The question is or should be, am I willing to adjust my strategy and mindset to match this season of life? Great question, right? So here is your challenge this week, okay? I want to give you something practical that you can start implementing today. I want you to pick one lever, one lever that you can control. Protein, strength training, sleep, stress. Pick one, guys, one that's within reach, whatever is most practical to start with. And then commit to improving it by just one percent this week, guys. I'm a big pusher of 1% or 0.1%. Again, always something mentality. So just try to improve a little bit. If you're only eating 60 grams of protein, try to go for 80 grams of protein. Don't try to go to one gram per pound of body weight just because that's what people say to do. Like just anything more than you're doing now is gonna have a positive benefit. So just try to get a little bit better this week and focus on per progress, not perfection. Okay, because perfection is a myth, it's not possible, and you are just running yourself into the ground trying to be perfect. So focus on progress, not perfection. And side note, if you're ready for a blueprint design for this exact season of your life, that's exactly why we built Transform Health Initiative. So when you're ready, we will help you live transformed for good. But until next time, do something good for yourself, something good for your health, something good for those you care about. Make sure you went on purpose and live transformed. We will talk to you next time.