HSOS #21: How You Can Eat More and Still See Fat Loss

Weight loss without hunger, cravings, or white-knuckling? Yes, it’s possible. Using a real client story, this episode unpacks the science of why restriction backfires in midlife and how eating more nutrient-dense food supports hormones, blood sugar, and metabolism. The takeaway is simple: when your body feels fed, it stops fighting you. 

Let’s talk.

Welcome to Her Season of Strength—where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices, without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy—registered dietitian, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman when it comes to aging like you mean it.

This show isn’t about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles. It’s about building real strength—physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week, I’ll share straight-talking nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies, and conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin once again.

Menopause is not an ending, it is only the beginning. This is your season of strength.

Episode Summary:

• Client story: doctor surprised by weight loss without hunger
• Why restriction feels hard and why it’s not willpower
• Ghrelin, leptin, estrogen shifts, and why hunger feels louder now
• Restriction, food obsession, hyper palatable foods, and cravings
• Blood sugar swings, irritability, energy crashes, and insulin sensitivity
• GLP one, peptide YY, fiber, cortisol, and feeling “safe” in your body
• Adaptive thermogenesis, eating more volume, and why slow fat loss works
• Click here to learn more about the Fueling for Life program 

Links & resources for this episode:

Fit After 50 Plus Program: 8-Week Nutrition Coaching & Fitness Program for women 50+. Next session starts winter of 2026. Join the interest list today for the best bonuses and discounts offered.

Free cheat sheet: "20 Tips to Crushing Menopause"

Join my free weekly newsletter list and get a new high protein recipe sent to your inbox every Thursday.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome to her season of Strength, where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices, without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy, registered dietitian, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman. When it comes to aging like you mean it, this show isn't about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles.

[00:00:20] It's about building real strength, physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week, I'll share straight talking, nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies. And conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin. Once again, menopause isn't an ending. It's only the beginning. This is your season of strength.

[00:00:39] Hello and welcome back to her season of Strength. I am so happy you are here and thank you for listening in. So today I wanna start with just a quick client story. So I have a program called the Fueling 4 Life Program, and it's just an eight week nutrition coaching program. It's one-on-one.

[00:00:56] Kind of for people who are looking for more accountability, more motivation, [00:01:00] and really wanna kind of dive into their day-to-day routines and figure out what is gonna work best for them when it comes to making small, consistent, sustainable changes in their in their nutrition, in their health.

[00:01:12] So anyway, so I have a participant in my Fueling 4 Life program who happens to be a doctor, and she said something that really stuck with me. She said, I don't understand this. I'm actually losing weight, but I'm not hungry all the time. I'm not fighting cravings. And usually when I restrict calories, I really struggle with these things.

[00:01:30] And that is what ultimately. Makes her quit. Then she asked, it's the protein, right? I is this just because I'm eating more protein? And I remember smiling because that question gets right to the heart of what we're talking about today. Because yes, protein is part of it, but it is not the whole story.

[00:01:46] And I intentionally didn't answer fully in that moment because I wanted her to experience it. And I was really excited. 'cause this is the aha moments that I want with my clients. I want them to realize that. They're making these changes in how they're eating, [00:02:00] but like they're not gonna feel the same way as they did before when they were just restricting calories and that was their main goal, right?

[00:02:07] When they're actually. Eating macro balanced meals, they're gonna find that they are more full and satisfied and they don't have the cravings and they don't have the hunger they had before. So that's, it's always exciting when my clients can come upon that on their own, rather than me just, pounding it into their heads over and over.

[00:02:24] So today I wanna explain exactly what was happening in her body and why so many women are shocked when they finally stop under eating. Because most women, high achieving women especially believe that if fat loss isn't happening, the solution must be that they need more discipline. Discipline. They need more restriction, they need more control.

[00:02:45] And when things feel hard, the assumption is, I just need to try harder. Here's the truth though. It's not willpower. The problem is often that you're not eating enough or that you're not eating the right [00:03:00] foods. I know that feels counterintuitive, especially if you've spent decades being rewarded for eating less.

[00:03:08] So I wanna talk about science for just a minute. I promise it'll be in plain language, it'll be simple. Hopefully it's easy for you to understand. But your body's number one job is survival. So when its senses, a consistent energy shortage, meaning you're chronically undereating, it responds with very predictable biological changes.

[00:03:28] Research shows that calorie restriction actually leads to increasing hunger hormones, decreasing satiety or those fullness hormones, a lower resting metabolic rate, and increased food focus and craving. So this is not a mindset issue, it's a physiological response. The body doesn't interpret it, interpret restriction as, oh, these are my fat loss goals, right?

[00:03:54] It interprets it as scarcity. Oh no, I'm being starved. [00:04:00] So there's two hunger hormones that matter a lot right here. One is called ghrelin and the other one is leptin. Ghrelin is our hunger signal. Leptin helps to regulate our fullness and our energy balance. So when we undereat, we see the, our rein increases, so we feel hungrier more often, and our leptin decreases.

[00:04:23] So our brain thinks that our energy is low. So now let's layer on perimenopause and menopause. As our estrogen fluctuates and declines, our leptin sensitivity decreases, right? That means that our body has a harder time recognizing our understanding fullness and our energy sufficiency. So when women say, I never used to feel as hungry, or, I don't remember cravings being this intense, they're not imagining it.

[00:04:52] Their physiology has changed, and our restriction it, it hits harder now. Okay, so one of the most consistent [00:05:00] findings in nutrition research is that restriction increases food obsession. So when our food intake is limited, either physically or mentally, our brain becomes hyper-focused on food. Does that sound familiar to anybody?

[00:05:14] Studies show people who restrict our calories, they think about food more often. They crave high energy foods more intensely. They have a stronger drive to eat when food does become available. And what's really sad is those cravings, typically aren't going towards oh my gosh, I really want a solid, or I really want a chicken breast.

[00:05:35] They're usually targeting sugar. Refined carbs and then those fat and carb combos, the, that the companies create because they are hyper palatable. They are something that we start eating and we can't stop. Is there any foods out there that you guys have said that before of oh no, I can't eat an Oreo because if I have just one, I'm gonna want 10 or 20.[00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] There's a lot of foods like that. And it is not your fault. It is because these foods are specifically created. With the mouthfeel, with the taste, with the salt, with the sweet, with the certain types of fats that make you not be able to stop eating them. So it's not because you're weak, it's because your brain is wired to prioritize energy when it's sensing that there's a shortage or a restriction.

[00:06:25] Makes sense. Another big reason Undereating backfires is blood sugar instability. And I've talked about blood sugar instability on many different episodes of the podcast of just because this is so important for women as we go through these hormonal changes. This is, if we can regulate and control pled sugars.

[00:06:44] We know that it's gonna overall just help our energy levels. It's gonna help how we feel. It's gonna help inflammation, it's gonna help our overall health in general. So meals that are too small or too low in protein and fiber can cause our blood sugar to rise. [00:07:00] Quickly and then drop like that rollercoaster.

[00:07:03] So that crash is going to trigger poor energy levels or fatigue. It's gonna affect our moods and cause more irritability. It's gonna cause more urgent hunger and stronger cravings. And estrogen plays a role in our glucose regulation as well. So midlife women are more vulnerable to those swings. We aren't as sensitive to insulin.

[00:07:28] So if you're skipping meals or eating light, you're setting up yourself for this. Kind of vicious cycle. So now I wanna flip the script for just a second. When women start eating enough, especially protein, fiber, and balanced, high fiber, carbs, several things happen physiologically or in our bodies, our protein increases hormones like our GLP one.

[00:07:53] No, it's not the drug GLP one. This is our natural hormone GLP one, and something called peptide [00:08:00] YY. And these two things are gonna increase our fullness and decrease our appetite. So fiber slows down our digestion and it helps to stabilize those blood sugars. Balanced meals are eating regularly, meals that are nice and macro balanced.

[00:08:17] So they contained all those, all the different macros. It's gonna help to reduce cortisol levels and you know that cortisol is that stress hormone. And also when our cortisol levels are higher, we are gonna see more storage of weight and fat around our midsection. And consistent energy intake is gonna tell the body we're safe, we're being fat, we're being nourished.

[00:08:42] So when our body feels safe, it's gonna stop screaming for food. So back to my client's question. So is this just because I'm eating more protein MA matters? Absolutely. Research shows higher protein intake is gonna improve our feelings of [00:09:00] fullness or satiety. It's gonna decrease our overall calorie intake.

[00:09:04] Naturally it's gonna preserve on muscle mass, especially when combined with, you guys know what I'm gonna say? Strength training, weightlifting. And it's gonna support metabolic health. But here's the key. It's not just the protein. It's that combination of protein, fiber, balanced carbs, adequate calories. So we're not talking about, restricting down to 800 or a thousand calories a day, but adequate calories and just that larger volume of food that is nutrient dense.

[00:09:38] That combination is gonna quiet hunger and cravings. This is where a lot of women have that aha moment. So before working together, this client was eating a smaller quantity of food, but it was more calorically dense. And she could definitely tend, skip meals or just grab, because she's busy.

[00:09:57] She's a doc, she never knows, if she's gonna get [00:10:00] really busy and have to miss a meal. So now she's eating a larger. Quantity of food, but it's nutrient dense. So more volume, more bulk, more fiber, more protein. All these things are gonna create more satisfaction and fewer cravings because fullness isn't just about calories, it's about volume, nutrients, and blood sugar stability.

[00:10:25] So chronic calorie restriction leads to something called. Oh, sorry. This is a really big word. Adaptive thermogenesis. Okay. The body adapts by lowering our metabolic rate so that we don't burn as many calories in general over the day. It's gonna become more efficient, increasing efficiency, and it's gonna increase those hunger signals.

[00:10:50] This is all a protective mechanism for your body, so it makes sense, doesn't it? So that's why pushing harder often leads to those. [00:11:00] Weight loss plateaus. So when we eat enough strategically is often what allows for fat loss to resume. So how can this look in real life? It's gonna mean, starting your day with breakfast with a decent amount of protein in it, okay?

[00:11:17] Eating meals that actually fill you up. And keep you full for an extended period of time, not skipping meals to be quote unquote good or skipping meals because you're like, oh, I'm going to eat dinner out tonight, so I need to save a few calories for that. Not trying to burn off undereating with more exercise or like I had a cookie.

[00:11:43] I need to go and work on the treadmill for an hour, to burn off those extra calories. When meals are satisfying, food noise decreases. We hear that's like a hot term nowadays is food noise, right? Because of the GLP ones, [00:12:00] because we've determined that they decrease food noise. Okay?

[00:12:06] And when food noise decreases, consistency improves. So women often notice fewer cravings. They notice more stable energy levels, better moods, better workouts, improved digestion, and that was another I was so excited to hear. This client that I'm talking about, she talked about how, even when she's consuming less calories, she's losing weight.

[00:12:30] She's actually seeing more progress in the gym. She still has good energy for her workouts and she's actually seeing that she's getting stronger still, which is super exciting. I love that. So some other things you might notice eating this way, you're gonna have improved digestion because when we're eating these macro balance meals, they typically are gonna be higher in fiber.

[00:12:52] They're potentially gonna contain those good ba bacteria, those probiotics. Typically, another thing I'm [00:13:00] recommending is good fluid intake. 'cause we know that helps also to fill up our tummies and to help things to con, to move along well. And these things are all gonna work together for more sustainable fat loss.

[00:13:15] That's your body responding to being fueled well being fueled adequately. Taking it back again to my client, the reason she was losing weight without the hunger and cravings she used to feel wasn't, it wasn't magic, right? It wasn't just protein, though. Protein played a big role. It was higher protein levels, higher fiber intake.

[00:13:40] Balancing her meals. So that means, having regular meals, not just like a tiny little breakfast in a giant, lunch or a giant dinner. It was stabilizing those blood sugar levels. So stopping, maybe grabbing the quick and easy high sugar breakfast that you blow through quickly, and then it [00:14:00] causes that blood sugar high and drop, and then has you searching for that next, pick me up, whether that's sugar or caffeine, and then just eating a larger.

[00:14:10] Quantity of nutrient dense food instead of a smaller quantity of calorically dense food. There's a huge difference there, right? You understand? So like typically those foods that are higher in fat and higher in sugar, they're gonna have more calories in them. But they're typically not gonna have good fiber or good protein intake.

[00:14:31] Okay? When a food is nutrient dense, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has a lot of calories. It just means that it has those good things like the fiber, like the protein, like vitamins, minerals, okay? So my client's body wasn't fighting anymore. It felt supported. It felt like it was being fed. It was being nourished.

[00:14:52] So your takeaway, if take one thing from today's discussion would be you don't need [00:15:00] more willpower. You need more nourishment. So when you need, when you eat enough of the right foods, our cravings are gonna calm down. Our energy is gonna improve and we are gonna see. More fat loss that becomes sustainable.

[00:15:13] When I wanna put a little caveat in there. When we understand that fat loss, when we're really doing focused fat loss and trying to maintain good muscle, it's a slow process. We can't expect to drop five pounds in a week. Okay? We're looking for maybe one to two pounds per week. Because we're able to focus on just losing fat and maintaining that muscle.

[00:15:40] So when we lose weight faster, we're gonna be losing more muscle, right? And then that's gonna cause a drop in our metabolic rate, which we wanna avoid. We wanna maintain that muscle. So nice, slow and steady. That wins the race, right? So it's not because you know you tried harder, it's because you finally worked with your body.

[00:15:57] If this episode resonated with you, [00:16:00] I'd love for you to leave a rating, share it with a friend, or message me what clicked for you today. And if you're interested in learning how to fuel your body better, improve your health. Promote fat loss or just support your changing hormones. The Fueling 4 Life program would be a great place to start.

[00:16:14] This program pulls it all together. I give you weekly meal plans, easy nutrition action steps, one-on-one, expert accountability and motivation. I'll rolled into one. If you'd like to learn more about the Fueling for Life program, I will put the link in the show notes. And remember, this is about progress over perfection.

[00:16:31] We are in this for the long haul and this is yours. Season of strength. Have a great day.