For women over the age of 40, losing weight and keeping a toned body can be tricky. Many women who have never experienced maintaining their size and shape find that in their 40’s, all bets are off. While eating a healthy diet may help lessen the rate of weight gain, regular exercise is necessary to maintain your desired weight; the type of activity you perform matters most.
Slow Metabolism
As we age, our body’s metabolism naturally begins to slow, causing weight gain and skin elasticity loss. Eating and exercising to boost metabolism are crucial to losing weight and keeping it off. Intense exercise provides one of the best fat-burning boosts both during and after exercise. The proper forms of intense exercise can increase metabolic fat burning while your body recovers.
Your body can receive a natural increase in metabolism through high-intensity long-duration exercising and high-intensity interval training. However, these activities can also increase cortisol production, which is where the scenario becomes a little tricky. If you are pre-menopausal or menopausal, your body is very reactive to the negative impacts of cortisol.
Three factors are necessary for exercise routines to burn fat when increasing metabolism while negating cortisol levels—the exercise’s intensity, the rest and recovery between exercise intervals, and the training duration.
Varied Rest and Recovery
Understanding what your body is communicating to you during and after exercise is vital to achieving a balance between increased metabolism and decreased cortisol production. If you feel sluggish and run down the following day after exercising, your body is telling you to slow down. Intense exercise should be then followed by extended periods of rest between sessions, such as skipping a day.
Skipping a day doesn’t necessarily mean no exercise; it can mean total rest or change of focus. If your ligaments and joints are hurting, recovery and rest will give them ample time to adjust, whereas repeated exercise can cause them to break down too quickly as well as slow or stop lean muscle growth.
Build And Strengthen Lean Muscle
Lean muscle growth helps to increase your body’s metabolism and fat-burning capabilities. You can introduce heavy weight training into your routine to boost lean muscle growth more quickly than circuit training provides. Increasing your intake of protein-rich foods while cutting calories also aids in muscle growth.
Finding What Works For You
Many women over 40 experience a series of ups and downs when trying to find the exercise program that works for their body and their desired results. Online professional trainers are recommended for those who want to work smarter to achieve their weight and wellness goals. Getting started on the right plan and working with a professional to make necessary changes will bring you tremendous success.
