How to lose weight

Losing weight over the age of 40 presents different challenges than those you faced when you were 20.  For one thing, life is often busier and you have less time to plan meals, get exercise and go shopping.  And, you are now face the added challenge of a slowed metabolism.

Your metabolism is the speed or rate at which calories are burned in the body to do a specific task.  For instance, the basal metabolic rate is the number of calories required in order for you to live each day, if you did nothing but lay in bed. Any additional exercise that you may get are just additional calories that you may eat in order to keep your body weight at the same way it is now.

Calories are the unit of measure for energy which expresses how much energy is expended in order to achieve the specific activity.  For instance, there are exercise calculators which allow you to input a specific activity and determine how many calories are required for you to complete it.  The number of calories will be based on your age, height and weight-all of which are necessary factors to determine the number of calories burned during a specific activity.

Using both of these criteria – the number of calories required in order to live in the number of calories you burn with additional exercise – you can now determine how many calories you require on a daily basis just to survive.

1 pound of body weight is equal to 3500 calories.  So in order to lose 1 pound of body weight a week you must eat 500 less calories than you normally do over a seven-day period.  In other words, seven times 500 is 3500 calories and 1 pound of body weight.

The weight loss formula is the same whether you are 20 years old or 40 years old, whether you are on a specific diet plan or you are just watching what you eat.  Weight loss is nothing more than eating less calories each day then you burn.

The challenge is that as you grow older the basic number of calories you require in order to maintain your body weight drops significantly.  So, when you were 20, you may have been able to just \”think\” that you wanted to lose 10 pounds and it magically dropped off.  But, as you grow older, you have to do more than think, you actually have to run.

There are a few things you can do to jumpstart your metabolism and keep it running faster throughout the day, burning more calories and helping you to lose those extra pounds.  The first thing is to get some exercise.  Research has shown that 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week will not only help your heart, lungs and entire respiratory system work more effectively and efficiently but it will also increase the rate at which you burn calories for at least 15 hours after you have stopped exercising. (1)

Researchers recommend strength training and weight lifting, especially for women, to decrease their risk of osteoporosis.  But strength training has the added benefit of also increasing the amount of lean muscle mass that the body carries and therefore the number of calories that are burned at a basal metabolic rate.  1 pound of fat will burn approximately 5 to 10 calories per day while 1 pound of lean muscle mass will burn up between 35 and 50 calories per day.  When you increase the amount of lean muscle mass you carry in your body you can also increase the rate at which you lose weight or the number of calories that you can eat and maintain your weight.

Carefully watch your caloric intake.  If you keep a journal on a daily basis you will probably be very surprised by the number of calories you eat each day.  It doesn\’t take long for a couple of hundred calories to sneak into your diet and your weight loss efforts to be sabotaged.

A weight loss journal or calorie journal will also help you to stay actively focused on your goal.  Personal development experts attest to the fact that we only accomplish what we stay focused on.  In other words, when we lose sight of our goal or become active in other arenas in our life before that particular goal and tasks have become habit we will not effectively achieve successful results.

While it may be more challenging to lose weight over the age of 40, it certainly is not impossible.  By following these simple steps as well is getting some emotional support from friends and family, you\’ll be well on your way to losing those extra pounds that somehow snuck onto your body without your knowledge.

(1) University of New Mexico: Exercise After-Burn; Research Update