Why Women Over 40 Can’t Lose Weight

by Gabrielle O'Hare

We need to have an honest conversation about why sticking to a diet is so hard after we hit 40. Yes, menopause changes our bodies, but this makes it harder, not impossible to lose weight. The truth is we ignore the biggest weight loss barriers because we’re too ashamed. Ashamed we can’t control our eating habits, that we have no willpower and no motivation.

Yet for all the secrecy, the same scenarios are playing out in the homes of middle-aged women day after day. Have you ever found yourself standing in front of an open fridge full of food unable to decide what to make for dinner, then ordering a takeaway instead? Do you eat tiny breakfasts and lunches before caving in to 3 p.m. cravings and eating non-stop until bedtime? Have you ever tried to keep unhealthy food out of the house (so you don’t eat it) but relented because the family won’t compromise on their favourites?

Welcome to the secret world of habits and social pressures that ruin our attempts to stick to a healthy diet. I know all about this because I do exactly the same. I struggled with cravings for most of my adult life, which went off the scale when I hit perimenopause. Unable to find answers to why I felt like this, I became a personal trainer during Covid, hoping to find the answer myself.

It didn’t take long before I attracted a full client base of 40-something women who also wanted to lose weight. Despite their desperation to shed unwanted pounds, they couldn’t stick to the diets I gave them either. The same barriers came up repeatedly and I started to notice a pattern emerging. My mind was blown. I’d imagined I was the only one experiencing these challenges, but the reality was most of my clients felt the same.

I realised we needed to be having a different conversation. My clients didn’t need more advice on what they should or shouldn’t be doing, they needed someone to take the shame and guilt away from how they were eating and to help them break the patterns that were keeping them stuck.
DISCOVER WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK

Read how stress, menopause, workloads, and how friends, family, and even the food industry influence your eating habits.


FIND FREEDOM FROM DIETING

Learn how to free your mind from obsessing about dieting and calories and discover how to eat healthily, without being deprived of the foods you love.

REIGNITE YOUR MOTIVATION

Uncover what’s truly important to you for the next stage of your life. There is more to happiness than dieting and discovering your real goals will fire up your motivation to create a healthier lifestyle for good.

FIND THE JOY IN EXERCISE

When you stop thinking about exercise as a way to burn excess calories, you will embrace exercise as something that boosts your energy and makes you feel strong and capable. Only then does it stop being a chore and become something you look forward to.

REDUCE STRESS & CALM YOUR MIND

At this age we're often tormented by an overactive mind and stress and anxiety can go off the scale. Learn how to reduce stress, turn off the nonsense in your head, and get your brain back.

ALSO

Easy-to-follow recipes
Beginners Strength Training exercises
Access to free Facebook Group

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2022

About the author

I lost my job just before lockdown began, plunging me into uncertainty. But like many clouds, there was a silver lining. I retrained as a personal trainer specialising in training women over 40.
What I learned from my clients became the inspiration for my book.
Today, I work from my garden gym. I continue to train and have set up a podcast. My goal is to write a second book. I don't have a clear outline for it yet, but its gradually forming in the back of my mind!
Away from work, I love travel, paddleboarding and spending time outdoors, and my partner and I are planning a cycling trip in the Alps for Summer 2023.

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is has a lot of useful info! It is NOT about a miracle diet. Instead, it offers realistic solutions based on what the author has found worked well for her and helped clients of hers too as a personal trainer.

The words about the power of exercise and eating well are presented in a way that I found easy to relate to as she lets us into her life at home, understanding the ups and downs of a busy lifestyle and that no one is perfect. The overarching message is to learn and follow the principles she outlines and get back on track when you veer off sometimes.

I was pleasantly surprised by the large number of recipes at the end of this book too - And there are strength training exercises as well. There are many tables to fill in, too, for goal setting, exercise, and more, to put the strategies to use.

I was gifted this book by the author in return for an honest review.

[Gabrielle O'Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased because I wrote this book, but I am also incredibly proud of it. Women spend a lot of time on diets, or trying to diet. There is so much advice about what we should or shouldn't be doing - but no-one talks about why it's so hard and why we struggle so much. By tackling this, I help readers see that they are not to blame, they are not lazy or unmotivated. When they understand what's really holding them back, they learn how to move forwards.