Latest / Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel / If You’re Over 40 and Trying to Lose Weight, STOP Eating Like This

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If You’re Over 40 and Trying to Lose Weight, STOP Eating Like This · Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're over 40 and trying to lose weight, stop trying to eat healthy.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds strange coming from a doctor, but healthy is a very loose word.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can eat salads, oatmeal, nuts, smoothies, protein bars, avoid dessert most of the week, and still make weight loss much harder than it needs to be.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Women literally tell me, I'm doing everything right, and the scale doesn't move.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand, and it's so frustrating.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not just looking at whether the food is healthy.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at whether it actually keeps you full, gives you enough protein, and helps you lose fat without taking muscle with it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Barbara Hessel.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm board certified in obesity medicine and gynecology.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And after 25 years of working with women on weight and hormones, there are a few eating patterns I see over and over again in women who are doing a lot right, but they still feel stuck.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one usually starts much earlier in the day than they realize.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So stop saving all of your calories for dinner.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds smart when you do it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You keep breakfast light because you're trying to be good.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe coffee is breakfast, lunch is a salad or something small, and then you push through the afternoon because you want to save more of your calories for dinner.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But by five, you're hungry.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: By dinner, you could eat the whole table.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then you eat the meal and you still want something sweet afterwards.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe something salty too.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly you're standing in the kitchen an hour later wondering why you have no self-control.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: The problem didn't start at 8 o'clock that night.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It started hours earlier.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you consistently undereat during the first half of the day, you're making the second half much harder than it needs to be.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I know what people say, but I'm saving my calories.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I understand the rationale, but if saving 400 calories before dinner leads you to eat 800 extra calories afterwards because you were ravenous, that accounting system didn't exactly work out.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your body needs enough food coming in during the day so that you're not arriving at dinner feeling like you've been stranded on a desert island.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or if evenings are where your eating always falls apart, look earlier.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's often where the problem starts.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the next habit makes this worse because a lot of women think they're getting plenty of protein when they're really not.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's stop calling something high protein just because it has protein in it.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't your fault.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The big food companies use this as marketing to sell their products.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: A woman will tell me, Oh, I get plenty of protein.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go through the day.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's peanut butter in the oatmeal, some chickpeas on a salad, and a handful of almonds in the afternoon.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: There might be a protein bar, and then a little chicken, tofu, or fish with dinner.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So technically, yes, protein has entered the building.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when we actually add it up, she's often still way below where she needs to be.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that matters when you're trying to lose weight after 40 because I don't want you to lose muscle right along with the fat.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: The scale doesn't care what kind of tissue you lost.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: It will happily show you a lower number while you're losing something that we want you to keep.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So don't just ask whether protein showed up somewhere on the plate.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know whether the meal has enough protein to actually count.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: For many women, that means roughly 25 to 30 grams at each meal.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Often more, depending on the person and the total weight loss target.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And once you start thinking that way, you build meals differently.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't make oatmeal and then try to sprinkle enough protein into it to rescue.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: You decide what the protein is first, then build the rest of the breakfast around that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't make a giant salad, add six chickpeas, and declare victory.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: You decide what's actually going to make that meal satisfying and give you the protein that you need.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: That might be Greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, fish, tofu, tempeh, edamami, whatever works for the way you eat.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: The point is that the protein needs to do more than make a guest appearance.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when it does, meals tend to hold you much better, which brings me to another pattern I see all the time.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Stop turning your entire day into snacks.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with having a snack.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not coming for your almonds.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is when your whole day becomes a string of little eating occasions and you never really have a meal that satisfies you.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe breakfast was a protein bar, then a handful of nuts later, crackers and hummus in the afternoon, maybe a smoothie somewhere in between, and then a few bites of something while you're making dinner.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, none of those foods are the problem, but you're spending the entire day eating and somehow never feel done.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that gets exhausting because now food noise is constantly running in the background.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Should I eat?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Should I wait?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Was that enough?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can I have something else?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: When am I eating again?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Realistically, for most women trying to manage their hunger and lose weight, three meals are easier than grazing from morning to night.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: A meal with enough protein, some fiber, enough food volume, whatever carbohydrates and fats work for you, and enough total food that when you finish eating, you can move on with your life for a few hours.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all we want.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: We want food to occupy less of your brain, not more.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you need a snack between meals, that's completely fine.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I want the snack filling a real gap, not holding together a day where none of the meals were actually enough.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're hungry every 90 minutes, I'm not immediately assuming that you have a discipline problem.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at what you ate.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Often the meal simply did not do its job.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're over 40 and you feel like you're doing all of this work, but you're still not sure what your body actually needs, you can reach out to my clinic.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a link in the description where you can learn more about working with me and my team.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: We look at your hunger pattern, what you've already tried, and where your current plan might be making this harder than it needs to be.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because the next pattern is the one I see women double down on the minute the scale stops moving.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Stop cutting more food even though you hit a plateau.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: You start a diet, lose a few pounds, and then the scale stops.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you cut another 200 calories.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: It moves again for a little while, then it stalls again.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So now breakfast disappears, carbs get smaller, cardio goes up, and pretty soon you're eating less than than you ever have while somehow getting worse results.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, you have to wonder, where is this going?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are we eventually eating one grape and doing two hours on the treadmill?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's a limit to how much you can keep cutting before the plan stops working.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't mean calories stop mattering after 40.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: They matter.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between creating a reasonable calorie deficit and treating every slowdown like an emergency that requires even less food.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: When progress slows, I want more information before I cut anything.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: How much protein are you eating?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: How hungry are you?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is your energy like?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are you getting stronger or weaker?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you been dieting?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you maintaining muscle?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are you actually losing fat?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we just chasing a lower number on the scale?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because if your answer to every plateau is eat less, you can end up with a plan that technically creates a bigger deficit, but is impossible to live with and won't make the scale move.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hunger gets louder, training gets worse, energy drops, and eventually the whole thing snaps back in the other direction.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then you assume that you failed again.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather see a woman lose weight at a reasonable pace while staying strong, eating enough protein and managing her hunger than lose incredibly fast on a plan she can't wait to quit.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there's another reason I don't like blindly cutting food.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: The same eating plan can work beautifully for one woman, but be completely wrong for another.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So stop copying the way someone else lost weight.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now imagine there's four women who all want to lose 20 pounds.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: The first can eat a full meal and still feel like she could keep going.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: The second gets full easily, but two hours later she's hungry again.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: The third tells me she barely eats and she's exercising constantly, but her weight has barely moved in months.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth can follow a plan perfectly all day, then stress hits and she's suddenly in the pantry.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: They all want the same outcome, but they do not have the same problem.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I use something I call the hunger code.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I look for four different patterns: the hungry brain, the hungry gut, slow burn, and emotional eating.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Most women can recognize pieces of themselves in more than one, but usually one pattern is causing more trouble than the others.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And once I know which pattern I'm dealing with, the plan becomes much clearer.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if you get hungry again very quickly after eating, I'm looking closely at what's in those meals and whether they're actually holding you.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you've spent years eating less and less and your strength and muscle have gone down with it, I may be much more interested in rebuilding than cutting again.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: If stress is what sends you toward food every evening, another list of foods that you're forbidden to eat isn't going to solve the problem.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if you never seem to get a strong fullness signal, I'm thinking about that differently too.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is where women get frustrated with generic diets.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your friend skips breakfast and loves it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: You skip breakfast and you want to chew through drywall by three o'clock.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: We should stop pretending that those are the same situation.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So what would I change this week?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Start with the first half of your day.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: If every night ends with overeating, snacking, or fighting cravings, look at what you ate before dinner.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Were you trying to survive on coffee and optimism until noon?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Were you eating enough at lunch?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then look at your protein.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: At each meal, ask yourself one very simple question.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where is the protein coming from?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can you point to it?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And is there enough of it to make a real difference?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then look at how often you're eating.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you're grazing from breakfast until bedtime, try building meals that actually satisfy you and see whether you can create more space between each eating occasion.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if the scale has slowed down, resist the urge to immediately start cutting things.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Look at your hunger, look at your strength, look at your energy, look at how long you've been dieting and what your body composition is doing.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then decide whether eating less is actually the right move.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: When I tell women over 40 to stop eating like this, I'm not telling them they can never eat bread again.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the pattern of eating too little early, getting very hungry later, patching the day together with snacks, and then responding to every plateau by cutting even harder.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can eat extremely healthy foods and still get caught in the cycle.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And once you get out of it, weight loss tends to feel a whole lot less chaotic.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to understand why your hunger may behave completely differently from another woman, watch the next video.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you the different hunger patterns I look for, how to recognize which one sounds most like you, and why that changes what I would have you do next.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the screen now.