How to Lose Weight As a Middle‐Aged Woman
Eliminate refined and processed foods., Limit your sugar intake., Increase your consumption of lean protein., Stock up on healthy snacks., Eat smaller meals more often.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Eliminate refined and processed foods.
Processed food contains substances and chemicals that your body doesn't recognize as food, and that has no nutritional value.
The more highly refined and processed foods you eat, the more likely you are to gain weight – particularly around your midsection.Most of these foods can be fairly easily replaced with their less-processed counterparts without adding too much to your grocery bill.
For example, you can replace highly refined white bread with whole wheat.
It serves the same purpose but has fewer carbs and sugars and isn't as processed.
Look at ingredient labels on the foods you buy, and steer clear of foods that have long lists of chemicals.
Replace these with products that list items you recognize as food as ingredients.
Keep in mind that fresh foods won't keep as long as more highly processed foods, which tend to be packed with preservatives.
This means you may have to go to the grocery store more often, but the food that you're eating will be better for you and help you lose weight. -
Step 2: Limit your sugar intake.
Sugar can cause you to gain weight, but limiting sugar isn't as simple as not eating candy, cupcakes, and other sweets.
Various types of sugar, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, are lurking in some of the most unexpected places.Check the ingredients, even if the label proclaims that the product is low calorie or sugar free.
Sugar substitutes can be just as bad as sugar itself if you're trying to lose weight.
If you have a sweet tooth, buy fresh fruits or dark chocolate to keep the sugar cravings at bay.
When you eat something sweet, try to eat it slowly and savor the taste, rather than scarfing it down.
Avoid sweet snacks or mindless munching, especially late at night. , Protein helps build muscles.
In middle age, your body naturally starts losing muscle mass.
You can help slow this process by eating foods such as eggs, fish, and yogurt that are high in lean protein.Protein also gives you an energy boost.
Adding high-protein foods such as eggs or yogurt to your breakfast can provide you with energy throughout the day.
Keep in mind that you need to consume about 10 percent more protein as a middle-aged woman than you did when you were younger.
Eating high-protein foods not only boosts your metabolism, but enables you to burn more calories during the eating and digestion process than you do when you're eating foods with high fat or carbohydrate content. , You don't necessarily have to eliminate all snacking between meals to lose weight.
However, you do need to be conscious about what you're eating and make sure snacking isn't piling on additional calories you don't need.Almonds can be good snacks, as well as vegetables such as carrot and celery sticks.
Many of these healthy snacks can be found in small packages that are easy to carry around with you or take to work.
However, if you buy a large bag and split it up into smaller portions yourself, you typically can save a little money.
If you decide to buy pre-packaged trail mix or energy bars to snack on, make sure you read the ingredient list carefully.
Some of these so-called "healthy" snacks nevertheless have significant salt or sugar content that can set back your weight loss goals. , As your body ages, you need fewer calories – but that doesn't mean you'll be less hungry.
Adjusting your eating schedule so that you're eating five or six small meals a day can keep your body from storing excess fat.If you allow more than two or three hours to elapse between meals, your body may enter "starvation mode" (even though you're clearly not starving) and start storing excess calories as fat.
You can thwart this process by eating smaller meals periodically throughout the day.
In other words, if you normally eat three meals a day, transition to six meals a day, each of which is roughly half the size of any of the three meals you normally would eat.
Consume the bulk of your calories during daylight hours.
Food you eat during the evening is more likely to go straight to your midsection.
If your schedule doesn't lend itself to six meals a day, you can still keep a similar schedule by having slightly larger meals along with smaller snacks in between. -
Step 3: Increase your consumption of lean protein.
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Step 4: Stock up on healthy snacks.
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Step 5: Eat smaller meals more often.
Detailed Guide
Processed food contains substances and chemicals that your body doesn't recognize as food, and that has no nutritional value.
The more highly refined and processed foods you eat, the more likely you are to gain weight – particularly around your midsection.Most of these foods can be fairly easily replaced with their less-processed counterparts without adding too much to your grocery bill.
For example, you can replace highly refined white bread with whole wheat.
It serves the same purpose but has fewer carbs and sugars and isn't as processed.
Look at ingredient labels on the foods you buy, and steer clear of foods that have long lists of chemicals.
Replace these with products that list items you recognize as food as ingredients.
Keep in mind that fresh foods won't keep as long as more highly processed foods, which tend to be packed with preservatives.
This means you may have to go to the grocery store more often, but the food that you're eating will be better for you and help you lose weight.
Sugar can cause you to gain weight, but limiting sugar isn't as simple as not eating candy, cupcakes, and other sweets.
Various types of sugar, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, are lurking in some of the most unexpected places.Check the ingredients, even if the label proclaims that the product is low calorie or sugar free.
Sugar substitutes can be just as bad as sugar itself if you're trying to lose weight.
If you have a sweet tooth, buy fresh fruits or dark chocolate to keep the sugar cravings at bay.
When you eat something sweet, try to eat it slowly and savor the taste, rather than scarfing it down.
Avoid sweet snacks or mindless munching, especially late at night. , Protein helps build muscles.
In middle age, your body naturally starts losing muscle mass.
You can help slow this process by eating foods such as eggs, fish, and yogurt that are high in lean protein.Protein also gives you an energy boost.
Adding high-protein foods such as eggs or yogurt to your breakfast can provide you with energy throughout the day.
Keep in mind that you need to consume about 10 percent more protein as a middle-aged woman than you did when you were younger.
Eating high-protein foods not only boosts your metabolism, but enables you to burn more calories during the eating and digestion process than you do when you're eating foods with high fat or carbohydrate content. , You don't necessarily have to eliminate all snacking between meals to lose weight.
However, you do need to be conscious about what you're eating and make sure snacking isn't piling on additional calories you don't need.Almonds can be good snacks, as well as vegetables such as carrot and celery sticks.
Many of these healthy snacks can be found in small packages that are easy to carry around with you or take to work.
However, if you buy a large bag and split it up into smaller portions yourself, you typically can save a little money.
If you decide to buy pre-packaged trail mix or energy bars to snack on, make sure you read the ingredient list carefully.
Some of these so-called "healthy" snacks nevertheless have significant salt or sugar content that can set back your weight loss goals. , As your body ages, you need fewer calories – but that doesn't mean you'll be less hungry.
Adjusting your eating schedule so that you're eating five or six small meals a day can keep your body from storing excess fat.If you allow more than two or three hours to elapse between meals, your body may enter "starvation mode" (even though you're clearly not starving) and start storing excess calories as fat.
You can thwart this process by eating smaller meals periodically throughout the day.
In other words, if you normally eat three meals a day, transition to six meals a day, each of which is roughly half the size of any of the three meals you normally would eat.
Consume the bulk of your calories during daylight hours.
Food you eat during the evening is more likely to go straight to your midsection.
If your schedule doesn't lend itself to six meals a day, you can still keep a similar schedule by having slightly larger meals along with smaller snacks in between.
About the Author
Brian Nelson
Committed to making lifestyle accessible and understandable for everyone.
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