Why Your ‘Healthy’ Habits Might Be Causing Weight Gain After 30: The 3 Mistakes Sabotaging Midlife Metabolism

In this episode of the Muscles and Mindset Revolution Podcast, Coach Anne Jones breaks down a frustrating but common reality: you’re eating clean, maybe even working out… and still gaining weight in your 30s or 40s.

Anne reveals what’s actually slowing your metabolism (spoiler: it’s not age), and the three most common mistakes healthy women make that unintentionally lead to fat gain, muscle loss, and burnout.

You’ll learn:

• Why muscle loss—not age—is the hidden driver behind weight gain
• How undereating and overdoing cardio backfire after 30
• What to do instead to stop the gain—and finally feel like yourself again
• How real clients reversed midlife weight gain without tracking, restricting, or burning out

If you’ve gained 10–15 lb despite doing everything “right,” this episode is your wake-up call and your next step.

💥 Anne’s private 1:1 coaching project is now accepting applications specifically from six women who have gained 5-10 lb in the past few years despite 'eating clean.' DM the word ENOUGH on Instagram @annejonesfit or click here to apply.

🕒 Episode Breakdown:

• 00:00 – Struggling with weight gain even while 'eating healthy'
• 00:48 – Why metabolism doesn’t slow the way you think
• 02:56 – The real culprit: loss of muscle, not age
• 03:17 – Mistake #1: Undereating calories & protein
• 04:25 – Mistake #2: Over-relying on clean eating & cardio
• 06:54 – Mistake #3: Ignoring hunger cues, stress, and recovery
• 09:10 – What to do instead: strength, fuel, recovery, mindset
• 11:34 – Final thoughts & private coaching invitation

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• [https://musclesandmindset.ca/]

Ready to build strength, feel confident AF, and lose fat without obsessing or stressing over it? [Apply to Join the Muscles & Mindset program here].

Connect With Me:

• Instagram: [@annejonesfit]

• Website: [https://www.annejonescoaching.ca/]

• YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@annejones]

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Transcript

0:00

You are eating clean. Maybe working out. But your jeans still don't fit and you've somehow gained 10 to 15 pounds-or more- since your early thirties or forties. If that sounds familiar, and you feel you're doing everything right, this episode is for you and it's a game changer. Welcome to the Muscles and Mindset Revolution Podcast; the podcast for ambitious women who want to build strength, feel confident AF and lose fat for good without counting calories or BS. Quick fixes. I'm your host, Anne Jones, certified life coach, personal trainer and mindset expert, and after 15 plus years in the fitness industry, I know the real key to lasting change isn't just what you do, it's how you think. If you are ready to shift your mindset, build a lifestyle you love and feel confident af you are in the right place, let's dive in. Okay, you guys welcome back to the Muscles and Mindset Revolution podcast. Today's podcast is for the woman who thought that age 30, age 35 would feel like freedom, and in many ways it does. But for this person, weight just kept creeping on, and it's not your fault. I'm gonna tell you why. Guess what? Stopping the gain, that's a win. So here's what a lot of us don't know. After age 30, we naturally lose around 1% of our muscle every year, and we often gain around one third more body fat in its place. That is what slows down metabolism, even if everything stays the same. People think that age is what makes it harder to lose body weight is what slows down your metabolism. It's actually not, the research shows that metabolism, particularly in women. Actually slows in significantly, almost not at all, until the age of 65. So really what's happening is, yes, after the age of 30, it's not that it gets harder to lose weight or your metabolism slows down, it's that you start losing your muscle mass. And if you're not actively building it and rebuilding it. You are gaining more body fat in its place so you feel weaker. This is not ideal for your bone density. This is why your metabolism slows down. So by the age 35 or 40, it becomes very easy to gain a half a pound. Of muscle loss, which equals a half a pound of fat gain per year and over a decade, that's five pounds of real hidden body change just by doing nothing and by doing nothing, I mean, no active strength training or muscle building. But also, you are not doing anything wrong. You're just not. I don't wanna use the word fighting, but you're not working with your body and what it needs at this time of life. So we end up blaming the body and the age and all of this, and that's actually not what it is. And then what happens is from your twenties to your fifties, most women gain about four kilograms. That's what the research shows, four kilograms, about 10 pounds simply from aging and lifestyle shifts like sitting, moving less and hormonal changes. So I just gave you a 15 pound weight gain without you having to do anything. And I am going to share the three most common mistakes that I see healthy women make. Number one, this is so common. Number one. Is most women in this age range, and particularly today I'm speaking to the woman who has tried eating clean or like constantly women are coming and saying. I eat pretty healthy. We eat pretty healthy. Cool. So the number one mistake that I see that this woman makes and then she feels like she's gaining weight or unable to lose weight, even though she's eating healthy, the number one mistake is undereating, undereating, calorically and undereating protein. So this person goes low calorie thinking. Deficit equals result. But biologically, it signals energy scarce and your body clings to fat. I am thinking of a client-- We'll just call her s. My client S when she came to us just six weeks ago, she was skipping lunch. This is super common in my high achiever clients. Right. And I actually see it more in my clients who work from home during C0VID is meal skipping, which is hilarious, right?'cause it's like you literally have access to your fridge in your kitchen. But we get so caught up in this without seeing anyone else take a break. That actually, I do find that those women skip meals more. So my client s was skipping lunch, skipping fluids, right? Not drinking enough water. She felt very foggy. She felt defeated. She, yes, had gained weight and then all we had to do was get her to eat regularly, add balanced meals with protein, and she literally dropped inches. She boosted energy and she reversed that midlife weight creep in six weeks. I just got her six-week feedback survey on the weekend. The number two mistake that I see women make who think that they're being healthy or eating healthy is over-relying on clean eating and cardio. Now, don't get me wrong, veggies and cardio are good, and in fact, I was"victim" to clean eating as well in my early twenties. This was the reign of Tosca Reno, who I do love. I even met her in real life. I went to her workshop, saw her do a one arm pushup, like good for her. And there's nothing wrong with her Recipes that are wonderful and clean eating has taken on its own whole other persona that people just think means eliminating all of these things. We still love vegetables. We still need to do cardio for our heart health, but cardio heavy, zero strength training, plus low physiological stress on the body. So no adding resistance is a stress ball for your metabolism. I'm gonna give you another client story. My client, shout out to Jana. Jana preaches this from the rooftop, so I think I can name her here. Jana was so frustrated. She was entering menopause and she had developed this relationship with the gym and with the scale, which she didn't like and she'd always liked working out. So she felt very frustrated. She was going to HIIT every day, she was going to Pilates every day. And she was like,'WTF, this is not working. What is going on?' She really thought like nothing was gonna work. We started working together over a year ago. We added structured lifting. We added protein and we eliminated counting. She was over it. She did not wanna count a calorie. She did not wanna do a log. I was like, cool. She lost 14 pounds and loves going to the gym again, and has gained so much strength that she feels free in her body again. That's it. Swapping the HIIT in the Pilates, adding in structured lifting, intentional protein and rest. So that's what we do for those over-relying on clean eating and cardio. If this is hitting home and you're listening to us thinking, oh my God, that is me. I want you to know that I created something specifically for you. Right now, we are accepting applications for a private one-on-one coaching project designed exactly for women over 30 who've gained 10 to 15 pounds in the last couple of years despite eating clean and trying to do all the things right inside this project, I will show you exactly how to stop the gain, reverse the weight creep, and feel like yourself again. There is zero tracking, zero extreme dieting, and there is always a strength first mindset. We're only taking a handful of women. It's almost full. There's just a couple spots left and applications closed tomorrow. Canada day's last day. So if you're even a little bit curious, DM me the word enough on Instagram at@annejonesfit and I'll tell you if you're a fit. I'll also put the application for it in the show notes. The number three mistake that I see a lot of healthy, healthy, quote unquote women make is ignoring hunger cues, stress and recovery. So last week on the podcast, I talked about intuitive eating and how one of my favorite parts of intuitive eating is that it teaches you how to tune back in with your hunger cues, which is one of the most important things that we can do metabolically and nutritionally. And that rings true here as well. So one of the biggest mistakes that I see women making is ignoring those hunger cues, and of course, ignoring those fullness cues as well. Ignoring stress. How many times have I asked a client or I remember when I was a massage therapist, this is classic, when I was a new massage therapist, and I would ask, you know, we're supposed to ask about their stress levels, and people would be like, oh, I don't have any stress. I have very low stress. And then you'd get them on the table and they'd be like, my dog just died and I'm going through a divorce and I'm in court for this. And you're like, whoa. I thought you just said you had no stress. We as a society, as a culture have been taught that the things that are actually stressful are like, not stressful. That's not me. Or I'm resilient and I can, you know, hack it. So we see that as not being under stress. That's a whole podcast for another day. But often what happens in this third group of women who are ignoring hunger cues, stress and recovery is they're pulling the'super disciplined' card. I'm super disciplined, I'm super disciplined, or they wanna be super disciplined. They're trying to be super disciplined, I find often means ignoring your hunger, slogging through stress, pushing through shirking, rest and sleep. And then what's the result? Their hormones freak out, their cortisol spikes, their nervous system is completely dysregulated, and they gain fat badda. Boom. I have another client example. My client, Hannah, mom of three also working from home, skipping meals, right? Skipping meals, feeding her kids, not feeding herself. Classic. All we did was go from skipping meals to eating based on her hunger. We taught her how to build a plate. She didn't have to track anything. We added movement and sleep, and she lost 10 pounds. And she feels completely calm and clear like she has found herself again, which I know sounds so cheesy, but it's so true. So the top three mistakes that I really see, quote unquote healthy women making. Undereating protein and calories over-relying on clean eating and cardio and ignoring their hunger cues, stress and recovery. Here's what you want to do instead. The first thing we need to do is stop the gain. We really like skip over this part. I mentioned at the beginning, after the age of 30, if we are not replacing that muscle mass that is being lost, you are going to gain weight. And the other thing that happens is just lifestyle factors of more sitting caretaking, you know, not being as active. Those are, that's low hanging fruit in my opinion. So forget losing weight first. You have to stop gaining weight. Again, like I said, it's normal for those reasons to gain around half a pound to a pound per year after the age of 30. So if we can stop that, that's a huge win because in 10 years that could be an additional 10 pounds. And then we begin to reverse it with the things that I mentioned. A balanced nutritional intake, full epic meals with protein, fats and carbs not living off of lettuce or bars or your kids' goldfish, crackers or the drive-thru. Like eat like a grown ass woman. Strength training at least three times a week. No, you know, at least two. To three times a week, not negotiable to rebuild muscle and metabolism. These can be 20, 30 minute workouts you guys. This needs to happen. Otherwise, you are going to lose that muscle and gain weight. That's number two. Number three is nervous system support. You need to rest. You need to be able to listen to your body when it's telling you to pause. Learn how to recover and breathe. This is essential. And then lastly, mindset reset, which is different from nervous system. Consistently showing up with compassion for yourself, not perfection. Perfection is what draws us into all or nothing thinking and actions and causes people to stop. So when we go into our perfectionist tendencies, when we're pulled in by all or nothing thinking, we go all, all, all. And then when it gets exhausting or it doesn't fit into our life, we stop completely. And what happens? We fall back into that lack of sleep, and then we're not training and we're not eating. You know, properly and hydrating properly, and then the weight starts to come back up. So if that's not a reason to be compassionate with yourself, I'm not sure what is, and this is the method my one-on-one clients use to not only stop that creeping gain, but to reverse it without obsession. We are not obsessing over food. We are not obsessing over macros, and we are not. Going to the point of burnout. If you are someone who is over the age of 30, if you are gaining weight or have gained weight despite quote unquote eating healthy and you are ready to break the script, you're not failing. You've just been told the wrong rules. Right? So if this episode felt like I was talking directly to you, it's because I was, this is something that I help clients with. This is exactly what we do. I created this private coaching project for the woman who is ready to stop blaming herself and start working with her body instead of against it. And that's a wrap on this week's episode of The Muscles and Mindset Revolution Podcast. If your weight has been creeping up, even though you are quote unquote, eating healthy and trying to do everything right, please hear me. You are not broken. You just need a new approach that works with your body and not against it, and honestly just feels easier. I created this one-on-one coaching project for the woman who's ready to stop the gain and start getting results without dieting, obsessing, or burning out. Doors close tomorrow, July 1st, and we're only accepting a few more women. And yes, there is a Canada day bonus! But if it's after that, don't worry. You can still DM me the word enough to apply. I'll tell you if you're a fit and what your current options are. So if you're ready to lose five to 10 pounds without losing your mind in the process, dM me the word"enough" on Instagram at@annejonesfit and I'll tell you if it's a fit. Thanks for being here. You've got this and I will see you next week.