Common Weight Gain Triggers To Avoid After 40

Why Can't I Lose Weight After 40?

If you notice your weight starting to creep up once you hit 40, your lifestyle could be having more of an effect than you think!

We all know the obvious triggers such as eating too much and not getting enough physical activity, but there are some sneakier factors that can play a big part in weight gain. In today’s blog post, we talk about some of the most common factors to avoid so that we can keep our tummies trim and within a healthy weight range!
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Too Much Stress

When we struggle to keep our stress levels under control, there’s a good chance that it affects our weight, especially for women. Our bodies release the stress hormone cortisol during stressful periods, and this can make our blood sugar levels go haywire. Studies have found that high cortisol production leaves us craving sweet foods and means we’ll probably end up eating more calories.
 
Cortisol also changes how our bodies use glucose, making it harder to burn fat and easier to store fat. Women are more likely to store fat in their middle section, but this can also be true for men. Abdominal fat has been linked to health issues, so it’s definitely something we want to keep to a minimum!
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Falling Into Emotional Eating Habits

Not taking care of our well-being can mean that we eat in line with our emotions rather than when we’re genuinely hungry. Feeling sad, stressed, lonely, bored or disappointed can lead us to eat to fill an emotional void and crave particular foods... and usually the unhealthy kind!
 
We might feel a little bit better in the immediate aftermath, but in the longer term, this type of emotional eating can have a big effect on our weight. Most of the time, we won’t get a signal to say that we’re full, and it’s all too easy to find that we’ve eaten a lot more than we planned to in a very short space of time. Above all, we probably won’t feel any better afterwards. In fact, we may well feel a whole lot worse as it’s common for emotional eating to make us feel guilty and ashamed of our food choices.

Not Sleeping Well

Poor sleep quality makes us more likely to eat more calories and gain weight. This is because it disrupts hormones that control our appetite. Lack of sleep increases production of ghrelin and decreases leptin levels, which means it’s harder to manage our appetite.
 
Sleeping well is one of the underrated ways to keep our weight in check as our levels of these hormones will be a lot more balanced. It can be hard to prioritize, as a woman with many responsibilities, but it can go a long way towards our health! 

Not Building Muscle Mass

If we spend a lot of time sitting down and not being very active, it doesn’t help us build any muscle mass. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s a common weight gain trigger.
 
Lean muscle boosts our metabolism and makes it that little bit easier to burn calories. When we don’t have much lean muscle, our metabolism doesn’t get this benefit and it’s harder to burn calories.
 
One of the best ways to build more muscle mass is through strength training. Don’t worry, you don’t have to end up looking like a bodybuilder! The idea of strength training is to build a toned body with minimal body fat, rather than the bulky look we often associate with weights. 

Not Eating Enough

Being on a diet means that we’re definitely going to lose weight, right? Not always! Restricting our calorie intake too much slows down our metabolisms and encourages the body to go into starvation mode so that it can run on fewer calories. This also means that we burn fewer calories as our bodies use most of our intake to survive.
 
These kinds of diets are very hard to stick to in the long term. It is very common that people go back to a less restrictive way of eating, yet their bodies can still be more likely to store fat. This is why many people find that they gain weight after coming off a low-calorie diet. 

Eating Low Fat Foods

Just because a food claims to be low fat, doesn’t always mean that it’s going to help us to stay in shape.

A lot of supposedly low fat options are often high in sugar and salt to make them tastier and can also contain a lot of calories. Eat too many of these low fat foods and it's easy to put weight on! 

Tips For Avoiding These Triggers

So, what can we do to avoid these common triggers and get our bodies in the best shape?
 

• Eat a healthy, balanced diet that isn’t too restrictive on calories and stay away from low fat foods that can promote weight gain.
• Be physically active and help our bodies gain more muscle mass.
• Get plenty of sleep to keep appetite hormones in balance.
• Making stress reduction a big part of our self-care routines and finding healthier ways to manage our emotions that don’t involve emotional eating.
• Adopting a more mindful approach to eating so that we don’t eat on autopilot.

Simple Wins:

"If someone was asking about your program I would tell them that they should definitely arrange a coaching call with you. That it would be the best call they ever made because help and support are waiting."

-Simple Swaps Member Brenda

Want Ways To Manage These Triggers?

These weight gain triggers are super relatable, but lucky for us, there are many things we can do to address them! Triggers such as emotional eating, not eating enough & eating low fat foods can be addressed by being intentional and mindful about what we put into our bodies. 

I'd love for you to book a free health coaching call. I want to find out what you are struggling with and give you my best tips to start you on a journey toward a lean and healthy body for life.

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