For anyone looking to lose weight efficiently, working to create a caloric deficit by burning more calories than you consume should be the emphasis. For every pound of fat you're interested in losing, you must burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. Aggressive exercise and healthy eating habits will typically allow for 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week. As a woman in your 40s, you should be aware of certain factors.
Consume Fewer Calories
The easiest way to create a caloric deficit is to eat and drink fewer calories throughout your day. You should definitely not starve yourself, but cutting portion sizes and making healthy food choices will make an enormous impact on your weight loss success. Drink primarily water, which keeps you hydrated and possesses zero calories. Choose low-fat, low-calorie foods. Stay away from fast foods and fried foods, which provided very few nutrients and will devastate your caloric deficit.
Consistent Cardiovascular Exercise
Incorporate three to five days of cardiovascular exercise per week into your routine. Activities such as running, rollerblading, swimming, biking and riding an elliptical machine burn a large amount of calories per unit of time. Complete 30 to 60 minutes for each session. Consistent cardiovascular exercise will make a huge contribution to the total amount of calories you burn and thus is effective in helping to create the caloric deficit needed to lose body fat.
Age-Related Issues
As you get older, your metabolism naturally slows down, meaning you burn fewer calories throughout the day. To combat this phenomenon, you should make efforts toward increasing your resting metabolism to complement calorie burning through regular cardiovascular exercise.
Stay Active Throughout The Day
Being active throughout the day will increase your metabolism. Incorporate small bursts of exercise throughout your day by doing such things as parking where you must walk somewhat of a distance to your destination, cleaning the house and getting up to walk to a co-worker instead of sending an email. It's also beneficial to take 5- to 15-minute breaks throughout your workday to go for a brisk walk. Use part of your lunch hour to fit in a walk. These short bursts of exercise will cause you to burn calories while you're moving, but more importantly will cause your metabolism to stay elevated for a time period even after you're finished.
Strength Training
Strength training can be a big help for middle-age women interested in losing weight. With consistent training, you will increase the amount of lean muscle mass on your body. Maintaining muscle requires a steady stream of calories to fuel the tissues. As a result, your resting metabolism will remain elevated at all times, even when you're at rest and sleeping. Incorporate weight training two to three days per week and complete two to three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise. Use a training program that develops all the major muscle groups in your body, such as chest presses, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, rows, bicep curls, tricep extensions, squats, leg curls and abdominal crunches.
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