5 Ways to Lose weight during your midlife crisis

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on telegram
Telegram
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on email
Email
Share on print
Print

During your midlife when you are around 40 and 50, some extra weight starts to accumulate and many would blame it on the slowing metabolism which burns less calories.

 

However, a new research has found out that metabolism in midlife doesn’t slow down as what people believed.

 

If it isn’t because of the slowing metabolism, why do a large sum of people still gain weight in their midlife? This is because of many factors like exercise, sleep, diet and even the location of where the person lives. The necessary drugs that many older people take may also slow down the metabolism rate.

 

It is true that metabolic rate decreases as you age, but the biggest factor of gaining weight is actually the amount of food you intake.

1. Watch out for bad food habits from your spouse

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), is not a rare problem among adults which creates excess acid reflux in the esophagus. This can lead to feelings of pain, heartburn, and nausea.

You should lower the consumption of garlic if you have GERD or have occasional heartburns in general. The human body has a lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which is a set muscle that stops stomach acid from coming up the esophagus. A study from Primary Care says that these LES muscles can be weakened by garlic and may cause more heartburn. After you are married, couples in their midlife may influence each other’s bad food habits. You may not eat dessert every day after dinner, but if your partner does that, you might join in and eventually it becomes a bad habit. In order to reverse the bad habits, you have to think about the diet that you were eating due to your own taste and go back to the healthier routine. Unfortunately, bad habits are picked up easier compared to good ones. In this day and age, our environment encourages bad habits, so it is way easier to eat excess food compared to eating fewer calories as our surroundings are filled with tasty, fried, sweet, delicious foods. That is how the big companies make their huge profits, by selling you food that is irresistible.

 

2. Ask your family to assist you in losing weight

Don’t be the sole healthy eater in your household. It will be a very lonely journey. If you want to lose weight, everyone you live with has to stick with the guidelines as well because it’s very difficult if only one person in the family is sticking with a certain diet plan and no one else is Losing weight has a lot of psychological factors. If you want to lose weight, having people going through the journey with you and sticking to a set of rules helps to reduce the emotional and psychological factor and increases your chances to lose weight. Having a supportive partner may lead to lesser weight gain in your 40s and 50s.

 

3. Eat lesser and get moving

This advice is very general, but when people say “eat less”, they have to be more specific. Eat less processed food and eat more whole foods like vegetables. Have you noticed that no one overeats their broccoli or spinach, but they eat lots of processed food like chips, chocolate bars, and ice cream. For the main meal, she recommended filling half of the plate with non-starchy vegetables and adding 3-6 ounces of lean protein like chicken or fish. That leaves less room for starches. However, do not eat too much protein. To be fair, too much of anything is bad. People generally eat much more protein than they should in the US. It is important to do more than just cardio as people grow older. Try to balance it out with some strength training and maybe perhaps try out HIIT workouts that gives you the most efficient exercises with limited time to lose weight. It is very intense though.

 

4. Improve your sleep

There have been studies that have shown not sleeping well will increase your appetite and also affects your willpower. Your chances of losing weight decreases when you don’t sleep well as you are more vulnerable. Plus, when you are tired, you won’t be doing much exercise too. Night sweats, menopause and mood changes can cause sleep disturbances and contributes to the extra pounds gained in midlife women. More than 30% of women in their midlife get less than seven hours of sleep daily, an analysis found by a 2017 study. Optimal bedroom conditions, yoga and meditation can help to improve the quality of sleep.

 

5. Maintain your healthy weight

The difficulty of losing weight that has been accumulated over the years is way harder than maintaining a healthy weight since your youth. However, it is still possible for people in their 40s and 50s to slim down still. Aging does not really make a huge impact on losing weight. Your age already increases your risk for all kinds of diseases. Imagine having excess body fat and obesity, this will increase your risk even more. By losing those excess weight, it will improve your chances of avoiding getting those diseases and have a longer lifespan.

 

 

 

Tagged