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Fat Loss After 35: What Actually WORKS (Fat Loss Pyramid + Exact Priorities You Can Start TODAY) · The Body Recomposition Revolution | Fat Loss and Strength for Women 35+

0:10
So many women over 35 feel stuck in their bodies.
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They feel or have felt flabby, untoned, and completely unable
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to drop fat. And this is because it's not
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just you. This is because most women are
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focusing on the least impactful fat loss methods like endless
0:31
cardio or cutting out all your carbs.
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Today we are going to go through the five ways our bodies burn
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fat, starting with the most effective and these five ways
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make up what we call the fat loss pyramid.
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At the base is the most effective way we drop fat
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leading up to the top of the pyramid, which is the least
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effective way to drop fat. We are starting at the bottom of
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the pyramid where you get the most bang for your buck, and
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we're heading all the way up to the top of the pyramid where
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endless cardio sits. So let's get into it.
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At the base of the pyramid, at the foundation at the very
1:13
bottom is the most impactful method we utilize for fat loss.
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The base of the fat loss pyramid is called a calorie deficit.
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You must be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.
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Now you might be thinking, what is a calorie deficit?
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A calorie deficit happens when you are consistently eating less
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calories than your body burns through living, existing
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movement, exercise. So you're eating less food than
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your body burns. Now I'm going to throw some
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acronyms at you. You might want to get out a pen
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and paper or just mentally note what these acronyms are.
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And the first one is called your TD EE.
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This stands for the Total Daily Energy Expenditure, and all that
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means is the number of calories your body burns in a day.
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When I was first learning about these acronyms, I was like,
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well, what is BMR and what is TD EE and what is TEF?
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Don't even pay attention to that.
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You just need to know what your total daily energy expenditure
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is because that encapsulates. That includes your BMR, which is
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your basal metabolic rate, just the calories burned by staying
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alive, by existing. If you sat on a couch all day,
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these are the calories you're burning just sitting there and
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existing and not eating. It also includes your NEAT,
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which is your non exercise activity.
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You know, if you're a fidgeter, you have a higher NEAT.
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If you are a stagnant person, a bump on a log, a couch potato,
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you have a lower NEAT. It includes your exercise, which
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is your structured workouts and the TEF, which just Thermo
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effect of food, thermic, excuse me, effect of food.
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None of those acronyms matter in this scenario.
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We are paying attention to the TDE, total daily energy
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expenditure and encapsulates all the other acronyms I just gave
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you. That's what's important here.
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So your TDE is the total number of calories your body burns in a
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day. For example, we have Jessica.
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Jessica is a super busy teacher. She is 40 years old, 5 foot six,
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170 lbs. OK, Jessica's TD EE, which is
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the calories her body burns through breathing, moving,
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teaching, workouts, etcetera, is about 2200 calories a day.
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So let's play out these three scenarios #1 if she is eating at
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maintenance and she eats around 2200 calories a day, her body's
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burning 2200 calories a day. Result, she's staying the same.
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Physically, she's staying the same.
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She has no reason to lose weight and she has no reason to gain
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weight. Let's move into scenario #2
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surplus. So now Jessica's eating 2500
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calories a day. Just a tiny bump, but her body
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only needs 2200 calories a day. That extra 300 calories is now
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going to be stored, and a lot of times it's going to be stored as
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fat, especially if you don't have a lot of lean muscle on
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your body. Over time that adds up and it
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adds up quickly. On one day when you're eating
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ice cream and you're thinking, oh whatever, it's an extra 500
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calories. OK, well, if you continue doing
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that one time week, 2 * a week consistently, what do you know?
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A few months later, you're 5 lbs heavier.
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The last scenario scenario #3 the one we want, this is what
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we're striving for, is a deficit.
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We want to eat in a caloric deficit.
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So Jessica's eating 1900 calories a day instead of her
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2200 calories a day. Now she's missing that 300
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calories a day, so her body has to dip into her fat stores.
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Her body is dipping into where she stores that extra energy,
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which is her fat. Now overtime that's going to
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result in fat loss. Now macros matter.
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Macros matter, protein matters, carbs matter, fat matters.
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But what matters more than that, what is the foundation of fat
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loss is that you are in a deficit because without eating
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less than your body needs, you're not going to drop fat.
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In regards to if that weight that's being lost comes from fat
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or lean muscle, that's when we move into the protein quadrant
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of the pyramid. I want to make this really clear
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because after you get past the caloric deficit, this is when
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you make the decision on if you want to be skinny fat or if you
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want to look toned, because either way you need to drop fat.
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And now that we've covered the caloric deficit, this is where
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we determine where that fat comes from.
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And here is where a lot of women make a huge mistake because tier
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#2 of the pyramid is the factor that's going to determine what
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you look like as you drop fat. Are you going to look skinny fat
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and flabby and damage your metabolism and gain it all back
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times 10? Or are you going to eat enough
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protein so that that weight loss does not come from lean muscle
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mass and fat, but primarily from fat, leaving you with your lean
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muscle to look toned and fit, leaving you with a higher
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metabolism so you can eat more, fuel more, feel better?
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This is where programs like Weight Watchers make me want to
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bang my head against a wall because it is not just about
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calories in, calories out. Without enough protein within
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that calorie deficit, the weight you lose is primarily going to
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come from lean muscle. That's that's just the brakes.
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We are moving right along the fat loss pyramid into the
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protein quadrant. We have Jessica.
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She has now gotten into a deficit.
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She's eating 1900 calories instead of her 2200 calories.
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Maintenance check. Most important component of fat
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loss. Done the deficit check.
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Now we have two other scenarios to cover.
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Scenario #1 Jessica is only going to eat 70 grams of protein
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per per day. This is not ideal.
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Jessica wants to be 140 lbs. So on the lower end, Jessica's
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protein goal every single day should be 140 grams of protein,
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the same number that she wants to weigh.
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So if you're Jessica and you want to weigh 140 lbs, then you
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should be eating 140 grams of protein per day.
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Just like Jessica is not doing bad Jessica.
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She's eating 70 grams of protein per day, but she's going to lose
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weight because she's in a deficit.
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Now here's the horrendous part that all of us have done. 50% of
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the weight she's going to lose is going to be her muscle and
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water, not her fat. 50% of that weight loss is muscle and water.
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So now Jessica weighs 140 lbs, but she's still in a bigger pant
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size than she envisioned. She still looks the same as she
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did when she was larger because she is skinny fat.
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She lost all her muscle. She has no tone.
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OK, now we have all been Jessica.
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We have all done those crash diets.
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We didn't count our protein. We ended up looking skinny fat.
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We gained it all back. Now Jessica's going to do what
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we have all done. And if you haven't done it yet,
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now is the time. She's going to do it again, but
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this time she's going to follow the protein guidelines for women
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above the age of 35. So now, every day, Jessica is
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eating 140 to 150 grams of protein every single day, and
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she's still losing weight because she's in a deficit,
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meaning she is eating less calories than her body needs to
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maintain her current larger size.
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That weight loss, every pound that clicks down off the scale
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is primarily coming from her fat stores and not her lean muscle,
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not her water mass. It is coming from her body's fat
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stores. The result?
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Jessica looks stronger. She looks more toned.
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She looks tighter. She looks more defined.
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It is true body recomposition when you drop fat and you gain
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or maintain your lean muscle and you are much smaller overall.
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And the best part, by giving your body what it needed, which
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was adequate protein, you have a higher metabolism, you have
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healthier hormones which affect every aspect of your life.
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Boom, good job Jessica. She has hit the bottom
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foundation of the pyramid which is the calorie deficit.
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This is what you need to make any kind of fat loss possible.
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Boom, she hit the protein intake, the second tier that
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protects her muscle. You can even build muscle while
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in a calorie deficit. This this was debatable 15 years
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ago. You can.
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The science shows you can. And eating enough protein
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ensures she's not just smaller, she's not just skinny fat, but
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she is leaner, stronger, and more metabolically resilient.
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Meaning you can have those cheat days, you can eat those treats,
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you can do those things way more often because your body is
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metabolically resilient. You have increased your resting
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metabolism because you increased your lean muscle mass.
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I remember this line. This is key.
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Calories decide if you lose weight.
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Protein decides if that weight that is lost is from fat or
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muscle. Calories decide if you lose
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weight. Protein decides if that weight
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is from fat or muscle. You want it to be from fat.
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We don't want skinny fat, we want strong.
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OK, so calories have set the stage.
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The protein has protected Jessica's muscle.
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She is now moving into the third quadrant, the third tier of our
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fat loss pyramid, which is lifting weights.
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Now, lifting weights is my favorite pastime.
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I just want to preface this section because so many women
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are so lacking in the confidence arena.
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They don't want to walk on a gym floor.
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They don't. They don't want to take up
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space. They don't want to touch the
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dumbbells. They don't want to wait for a
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machine. They don't want to feel awkward.
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You have to get over that. You have to.
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Nobody's looking at you. Nobody cares.
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The only person who cares is you.
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And the only thing you care about is how you look to other
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people. So get your butt out there.
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Lift your weights, take up space because you are not there for
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anybody else besides yourself. You are not there for anybody
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else in that gym besides yourself.
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So who cares what they think? And I promise you from somebody
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who has been in the gym for 15 years, anybody who is
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consistently in that gym, if we see somebody who has never
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touched a weight walking around like a lost puppy, the only
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feeling that we have towards you is admiration.
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Total admiration. Because every woman who is a
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seasoned lifter who has been on that floor knows the feeling
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that you are going through. And we are only looking at you
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in the same way that you might look at a child at the park who
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is getting on a bike and you see them falling down and you know
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they don't want to try again, but they do.
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And you in your head are just cheering them on.
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You are happy for them. You want to help them, but you
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don't want to make them feel uncomfortable.
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We all feel that way when we see women enter the gym floor.
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We are happy you're there. OK?
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Jessica is now on the weight floor.
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She is in a caloric deficit. She is eating enough protein and
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now she is lifting weights because that is what's actually
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going to build and shape her body.
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Lifting weights is what's going to build and tone your body, not
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endless cardio, because every time you lift a weight, you are
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applying a stressor on that muscle.
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You're applying a stressor on that muscle and that signals
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your body body. It signals your body to say,
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hey, I need this muscle. Don't let it go.
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I know we're in a caloric deficit and you're going to
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start letting go of things we're holding on to like fat.
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But the first thing your body is going to want to do is let go of
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muscle because it's the most metabolically expensive tissue
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in the body. And the only way that you can
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signal to your body, hey, keep this is by eating enough protein
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and by lifting weights. It's truly telling your nervous
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system hold on to this. We obviously I need it.
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I need to preface this next part.
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Runner ladies, I love you. I have many runner friends.
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But if you are just running, your body's not going to hold on
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to those muscles. You're not going to have a lot
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of shape. You are running your body.
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The last thing your body needs is muscle.
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So without lifting, but if you're still in a caloric
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deficit, you will have a skinny fat but smaller version of
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yourself. So the weights in combination
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with the protein, that's what sculpts your body.
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That is body recomposition. Remember this line, protein
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protects your muscle while you're in a deficit, but lifting
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weights improves it. That's how you go from just
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losing weight to actually reshaping your body.
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All right, Jessicas, moving into the 4th tier of fat loss, the
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one I am so afraid to talk about because I am horrible.
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I am so horrible at this one. It is sleep.
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Sleep is the 4th tier of fat loss.
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Jessica is in a deficit, which is the foundation of the
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pyramid. She's hitting her protein goals,
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which is the next layer. She's lifting weights.
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Now, if Jessica's constantly running on five hours of sleep,
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her body is going to fight her. So that lack of sleep raises her
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hunger hormones, which is called ghrelin, and it lowers your
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satiety hormones. I can never say satiety.
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Satiety, basically what makes you feel full, which is her
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leptin and makes her crave quick carbs, quit carbs like chips or
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Cheetos or candy. Those are quit carbs.
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Plus, she's not going to be able to recover from those lifting
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sessions. I am Jessica.
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I'm literally my face is getting warm because this is this is me.
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But I really, I'm really doing everything I can to remedy that.
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So under the guise of Jessica, I'm going to continue talking
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about how horrible I am at this tear.
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So sleep is not the foundation. It's not as critical in terms of
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losing fat as being in a deficit.
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And the other two, which was lifting weights and protein.
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But it's like the support beams, OK?
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It keeps everything else standing strong.
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And you need 7 to 9 quality hours of sleep if you are
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somebody like me who is constantly on go.
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I don't know if I'm just born that way, but I, I swear I was.
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I've been just naturally on speed since the day I was born.
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I'm an early riser. I move, I go, I don't stop
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talking. It's just the way it was made.
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But now I'm 37 years old and it is doing a massive disservice to
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me. So I'm in the process of
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remedying that. I'm getting my hormone panels
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done in the next few weeks. But until then, I'm going to
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talk about the the havoc that low sleep has wreaked on my
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body. So #1 getting less than 7 to 9
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hours of sleep, which that's hard for me to even say because
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I'm so jealous of anybody who can naturally just do that.
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The first negative impact is the hormone regulation.
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So having poor sleep increases ghrelin, which is the hunger
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hormone. It decreases leptin, the
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fullness hormone. And this makes Jessica, AKA me,
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hungrier and more likely to crave high sugar, high fat
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foods. And they do this makes a calorie
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deficit so incredibly hard. It really does.
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I have a lot of mental tricks up my sleeve that I pull out when
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I'm in this type of phase, this mental phase at night where I
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want all the fats and treats I do.
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One of them is to just brush my teeth.
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Another one is to have tea. And that taste in your mouth
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just kind of puts you in a state of relaxation and not not needy
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enough to get off the couch or get out of bed to go get some
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snack foods. Although I have done it.
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The other thing, cortisol rises with lack of sleep, which not
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only increases your fat storage bridge, especially belly fat,
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but also makes muscle recovery slower.
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Definitely seeing that in my body composition.
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I've never struggled with sleep quite as much as I do now.
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And I'm in the process of just checking all the boxes, trying
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to do all the things before I go down a more intense route of
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remedying the lack of sleep situation.
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But the biggest thing that happens, well, the biggest thing
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in my mind that happens while you're sleeping in deep sleep is
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the body releases growth hormone.
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And growth hormone is crucial for repairing the muscle that
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you tore while you're lifting. Because when you're lifting,
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you're putting tiny little microscopic tears in your
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muscle. That muscle needs to be repaired
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in order to get bigger and stronger and give your body that
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toned look. That can only happen if you have
18:08
enough deep sleep because that is the only time your body
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releases growth hormone. Very unfortunate for me.
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Not without that sleep. Jessica may train hard, but her
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muscles are not going to recover optimally, which means less
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strength gain and less visible definition.
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Horrible. And when Jessica and I under
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sleep, our workouts are heavier, our motivation drops, our form
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suffers, it blows our training session, it blows our calorie
18:37
burn. It really is pretty
18:39
counterproductive to even go in for a lifting session when I'm
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running on five hours of sleep. But since I have habits and
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systems so deeply ingrained in my body, I can't skip it.
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I'm sorry, I'm a flawed human. I won't.
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I just go there and go through the actions and then go home
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annoyed that I didn't sleep. I'm working on it.
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It also, studies have shown that chronic sleep restriction
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decreases insulin sensitivity, which just means it makes it
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harder for your body to use carbs for energy and instead
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store them as fat. Atrocious.
19:08
Horrible. So bottom line, sleep doesn't
19:11
directly cause fat loss? Like a calorie deficit, but
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without it, Jessica's body and my body and your body is working
19:18
against you because more hunger means harder to stick to the
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deficit, slower muscle recovery, which means less definition, and
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higher cortisol, which means more fat storage.
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Here's the key line for this. If protein and lifting are how
19:31
you shape your body, sleep is the recovery tool that locks
19:35
those results in. And last but not least, and also
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one of my favorite methods that I overuse all the time, cardio.
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The 5th and final tier of the fat loss pyramid.
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Now, cardio, cardio is pretty much where all women start to
19:53
lose fat and that's where they start spinning their wheels
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because they are on that elliptical, that treadmill, that
19:59
stair climber for hours a day. And they're like, why do I just
20:02
feel tired? Look, puffy, can't eat anything.
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When I do, I blow up. Well, it's because you started
20:08
at the top of the pyramid instead of the bottom.
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And nothing's going to happen until we go from the bottom up.
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Now cardio has its place. I'm a cardio lover.
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Cardio is awesome for your heart health, for your stamina, but it
20:20
is not the driver of fat loss. OK, so if Jessica tries to
20:25
outrun her fork, she's just going to end up exhausted,
20:29
swollen, frustrated, hormones out of whack.
20:32
All the above, which basically is the majority of my clients,
20:36
when they come to me, they're cardio Queens and I actually
20:38
love that because I know they work hard.
20:40
I know they're not afraid to do what they need to do to get
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things done. They're just doing everything
20:43
they can do plus more, and nothing's happening.
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We're just going to start at the bottom and go to the top instead
20:48
of that reverse pyramid. Quick overview of the entire fat
20:53
loss pyramid starting at the bottom.
20:55
The foundation is the deficit. This is where weight loss
20:59
happens. Coming in at tier #2 is protein.
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Protein is going to protect the muscle you have.
21:05
Protein is also going to build some muscle.
21:08
It decides what you lose. When you're losing weight, are
21:12
you going to lose fat or are you going to lose muscle?
21:15
Protein determines your body composition.
21:17
Don't look skinny fat or do you want to look toned?
21:20
You want to look toned. Eat enough protein into tier #3
21:25
is lifting now. Lifting is what's going to shape
21:28
your body. This creates the shape of your
21:31
body. You want a bigger butt?
21:32
Lift heavier on the glutes. You want more capped shoulders
21:36
to have a really athletic frame? Lift your doubts more often.
21:40
Lifting. It's what's going to build your
21:41
frame. You decide what you want your
21:44
body to look like. That's what I love about lifting
21:47
sleep, the shame. Sleep supports recovery and
21:51
hormones. You need this, I need this, I'm
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struggling. You need sleep.
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Don't let it slip away from you. And if it has, do what you need
21:59
to do to make it right. I'm actually preparing the
22:01
entire episode on this in hopes that I can remedy the situation
22:04
for myself and speak about it. OK #5 the very tip of the fat
22:08
loss Pyramid, Cardio, cardio. View it as your, your extra
22:12
credit. You know, if you're sitting on
22:13
this podcast listening about the fat loss pyramid, I know you're
22:17
somebody who likes extra credit. You're going to do that cardio.
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Do it. It is the salt of life.
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I have so many clients who love cardio.
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I just had a client last week do an incredible relay.
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She's 50 something and she did an incredible job with a team of
22:33
other women. I think it was a 10K relay.
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Oh my gosh. She runs.
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But you know what she does differently now?
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She lifts and she eats enough protein and she was stronger and
22:41
faster and better than she's ever been before.
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So all that being said, that is the fat loss pyramid.
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You don't start building a house from the roof down.
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You don't start dropping fat from the top of the pyramid
22:56
down. Start at the foundation, start
22:58
at the base. And if you're like me when you
23:00
first started, you're probably wondering, wait, back to the
23:03
calorie deficit, the foundation. How do I know what my TD EE is?
23:08
How do I know what protein I should eat and how much and how
23:11
many carbs and how many fats? I can help you with that.
23:13
In the show notes, you can click on my e-mail address
23:18
racfitnessmn@gmail.com, RAC fitnessmn@gmail.com and I can do
23:26
a customized macro plan for you. It's comprised of three quizzes.
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They don't take long. If you do want to do it, please
23:33
have a tape measure handy. Please.
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You wouldn't believe how long this holds people up.
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If you need your macros customized, shoot me an e-mail.
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I can give you a very detailed one page PDF on what macros you
23:43
should be eating, when you should be eating them, what you
23:46
should be eating, etcetera. There's also some really great
23:50
online calculators you can do that will give you a relatively
23:54
detailed outline. I have a program that gives you
23:58
your carb tolerance type as well as your macro amounts.
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But before I started using that program, I would just go on to
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calculators.net and use the macro one.
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It's a great place to start to just determine your TDE.
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Follow it for a couple weeks. If you're following it to A and
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you're not dropping weight, well then you're not in a deficit.
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That's the facts. If you want to start losing
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weight, you have to track your food.
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That's a non negotiable. There's no way around it.
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Not until you're seasoned with understanding exactly what you
24:28
are eating. It's a learning experience, as
24:30
is everything in life that's worth pursuing.
24:32
OK, thank you for joining me. And again, if you want help
24:35
calculating your macros, go to the show notes, click on my
24:37
e-mail address, shoot me an e-mail.
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I can do an individualized macro plan for you.
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I'm not taking on clients at this moment, but I can't.
24:44
And do those individualized macro plans that include your
24:48
carb tolerance type. This has been another episode of
24:51
the body Recomposition revolution with Robin and I'll
24:54
be back with more science backed strategies next time.
24:57
Until then, thank you for listening and keep lifting
25:00
ladies.