Trying to lose belly fat can feel like a losing game, especially for women. Does this sound like you?  You want to make a change and everyone around you tells you to spend more time working out or just cut back and only eat salads and you will see results?  And then it doesn’t work. The formula makes sense in our head but it’s not producing the results we are looking for. It’s actually producing no results. As a personal trainer, I get to talk with a lot of women. When I have the opportunity to talk with them over the phone, I always ask about their current routine.  95% of the time, these ladies say what they were doing as far as eating well and working out is no longer working for them as they age.  First of all, as an almost 42-year-old mom of 3, I’ve personally been there. I was doing all the right things a few years ago, but seeing and feeling ZERO results. So I get it! If that speaks to you, know that you are not alone. It is also very true, what you did and ate in your 20s and even in your early 30s, will not work for you in your 40s, 50s, and 60s. Here’s the good news, it is OK and even better because there’s a solution for all of us aging women out there.  When talking to clients, the problems usually stem around the 2 mistakes below. Find out what they are, and what you can start doing today, to get your body into fat-burning mode.

2 mistakes that keep you from burning fat.

1. Ineffective Workouts

  The first mistake that I see women make is that they engage in the wrong workouts. Have you been guilty of spending hours on cardio machines or in cardio group fitness classes thinking that’s the best way to lose fat and lean out?  I have!  In fact, I spent decades in that mindset. Does it work in your 20s and early 30s, yes somewhat, but it’s not the best use of time and it certainly is not sustainable fat loss. It’s important to understand 2 things here, one is as we age, starting in our 20s, we begin to lose muscle mass.  Muscle mass is what will fire your body into fat burning and muscle mass also changes your body composition, meaning,  you will look leaner.  And here’s a bonus when it comes to muscle mass, when you have more muscle on your body, you burn more calories at rest. This means you burn more fat while watching your favorite Netflix series.  That’s a win!  The second thing to understand here is the science of EPOC. EPOC stands for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.  It’s an increase in oxygen uptake above resting levels that occurs after exercise. Increased oxygen consumption requires energy, so EPOC means that you burn calories even after an exercise is over.  The purpose of EPOC is to restore the body to its resting state and create physiological changes that will help your body handle the same amount of exercise-related stress more easily in the future.  EPOC is the greatest immediately after exercise.  Some studies have found that EPOC lasts up to 24 hours. EPOC is higher during interval-based and strength training workouts. This means you are burning more calories and fat hours later when you train this way. So guess what, it’s time to strength train!  Will you gain bulky muscles? No! Will you gain lean muscle, change how your body looks, increase your energy and increase your metabolism? YES!  I teach my clients with a step by step system, how to use strength training correctly and in the most time-efficient way possible for lifelong results. So now that you know what you should be doing for your workouts, let’s take a look at the second biggest mistake I see women making when it comes to fat loss.  

2. Under-eating 

  The second thing that will sabotage your fat loss efforts is under-eating.  Have you ever gone on a diet where you restrict your calories and find yourself hungry ?Possibly you lost a few pounds on the scale but after a few weeks or months you find yourself right back where you started, right?  Or what about the ever-popular low carbohydrate diet? Have you gone low-carb for a while and ended up either hangry or found that’s not a sustainable lifestyle for you?  You’re not alone! I’ve been there too!  Eating fewer calories is NOT the answer. Our bodies require food as fuel so when we under-eat, we under-nourish our body...and you know HANGRY is not fun to be around!  Most women I talk to eat around 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day which was exactly what I was doing years ago.  It’s not sustainable.  To give you an idea of what I eat now and what my clients eat daily, I typically have my clients eating 1800 to 2000 calories a day.  I personally eat closer to 2300 a day.  It’s a method we use in the BFF program called, eat more to burn more.  I teach our BFF clients how and why to eat more food to burn more fat with a research-based systematic approach that IS a long-term lifestyle…and guess what, the best part is you do not have to give up all your carbs to have success!  

How to get rid of stubborn fat

  It’s always easy for us to do what we know. If cardio and eating less as worked for us before it is hard to believe it won’t work again. We get stuck in the trap that we need to take it to a whole other level, but the only results we get are burnt out and frustrated. Understanding what our body needs as we age is important if we want to see the fat melt away.  It comes from a different approach. Hopefully, these two mistakes have helped you see what you want to be doing if you want to lose fat. We make changes to our lifestyles as we get older, why wouldn’t that be the same for how we care for our bodies as well. Adding strength-training to our workout routines will help us build muscle that will burn fat. And if we want our body to be able to build muscle and burn away the fat, then we need to give it fuel to complete those processes. If you enjoyed these two tips and found them beneficial, you might be interested in our next free training opportunity. If you want to hear more about ways to tweak your current wellness routine and feel your best as you age, I am hosting a FREE 5-day training called 5 Days to Burning Fat and Increasing Energy.  You will receive daily training videos as well as access to me to ask questions throughout the week through a private FB group.  The link to join us is below and you can always message me with questions.  https://burnfatandfeast.com/5-days-to-burning-fat/  

Which tips will you start today?