As you grow older, dropping extra weight becomes more challenging. Every 10 years, your metabolism decreases by about 5 percent according to Madelyn H. Fernstrom, Ph.D. on the Good Housekeeping website. At age 39, you burn about 100 to 150 fewer calories than you did at 29. While it may be hard to make diet and lifestyle changes now, it will just become more difficult as you pass 40.
Step 1
Eat fewer calories than you burn daily to create a calorie deficit. Use an online calculator like caloriesperhour.com to estimate your daily burn rate based on your 39 years and current size. Strive to eat between 250 to 500 calories fewer per day than your burn rate to yield ½ to 1 lb. of weigh loss per week--3,500 calories equals a pound. Stick to a minimum of 1,200 calories as a woman or 1,500 as a man, unless you are on a medically supervised regimen, advises Medline Plus.
Step 2
Revisit your calorie target number for every 10 lbs. lost, because as Joanne Larson, R.D. at Ask the Dietitian notes, for every 5 lbs lost, your body reduces its burn rate by 25 to 50 calories daily. Accept a slow and steady rate of weight loss--one or two lbs. per week is more likely to guarantee success reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At any age, fad diets and quick weight loss schemes are a bad idea--but at age 39, life circumstances like children, job, travel, illness and other obligations make adhering to a starvation diet that zaps energy and robs your body of nutrition unsustainable.
Step 3
Focus on eating healthy, whole foods. Emphasize lean proteins such as chicken breast, fish and flank steak. Switch to whole grains such as brown rice, oatmeal and 100 percent whole wheat bread. Include lots of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as small servings of plant-based oils and nuts.
Step 4
Eliminate, or at least reduce, your consumption of convenience foods. Avoid sodium, saturated fat, trans fat and added sugars found in packaged snacks, canned soups, frozen dinners, fast food and chain restaurants. When you are burning fewer calories daily at age 39, you have little room for junk foods.
Step 5
Pay attention to your serving sizes. Measure your food at home with a kitchen scale for a few weeks to figure out what 3-oz. of protein and a ½ cup of starch looks like. Recognize that at age 39, portion size counts because of your slowing metabolism and reduced activity levels that come about because of life obligations.
Step 6
Work your way up to an hour of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week as this seems to be the amount that helps yield and manage weight loss. Start with short 10- to 20-minute bouts if an hour seems overwhelming. Go 10 percent longer each week until you reach an hour recommends the American Council on Exercise.
Step 7
Strength train a minimum of two times per week on non-consecutive days to fight age-related muscle loss. Do exercises that target the major muscle groups of the legs, back, chest, arms, shoulders and abdominals for at least one set of eight to 12 repetitions recommends the American College of Sports Medicine. Part of the reason for your decreasing metabolism is a loss of lean muscle that happens as you grow older, replace this muscle by focused training to help you burn more calories at rest and better manage your weight.
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