Birkhead - Fit Over Forty For Women: Lose weight, reclaim your energy and get back into your favourite clothes

First published in Great Britain in 2021

by Rethink Press (www.rethinkpress.com)

Copyright Rob Birkhead, Train Eat Gain Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The right of Rob Birkhead to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cover image Shutterstock | OSTILL is Franck Camhi

Contents

Introduction

I speak to many women who have tried everything to lose weight, but since turning forty, nothing seems to be working. They cant seem to get the number on the scales to drop. Many of these women tell me they are losing hope. They think it is part of the ageing process and they will just have to accept it, despite the huge impact it has on their confidence, energy levels, relationships, career and more. It breaks my heart to hear this. The weight loss industry is letting these women down and thats why I wrote this book.

You may wonder why a man in his thirties made it his mission to help women in their forties and fifties lose weight. It began when I was studying a Masters in engineering at the University of Bath. I had always been a skinny teenager and had low self-esteem as a result. That lead me to start studying nutrition and exercise in my spare time alongside my studies. I used what I learned to change my own body and I was shocked that this changed how I felt. My self-esteem went from rock bottom to starting to believe in myself. I stopped hiding away, came out of my shell and started living life to the fullest for the first time in years. I wanted to help others feel the same way. I realised my true passion was not engineering, but health and fitness.

Instead of pursuing a career in engineering, I started from scratch. I qualified as a personal trainer and started helping everyone and anyone male and female, young and old. I quickly realised it was easy to get results with men, regardless of their age. It also wasnt difficult to achieve good results with the younger women I coached. For both groups, I could help them to cut back on food or booze, do a bit more exercise it didnt matter what type and the weight would start falling off.

It was a different story for the women in their forties and beyond. Nothing I had learned up to that point high-intensity interval training (HIIT), other forms of cardio, cutting out carbs or hugely reducing calories seemed to work. The fitness industry had the men and younger women covered, but they had forgotten women who were older, whose hormones were changing and whose bodies didnt respond so easily.

This took me on a journey of discovery. I dedicated the next five years to learning what made these women different, and what I discovered shocked me. The changes happening under the surface for women over forty were beyond anything Id heard about. Not only were things like menopause not properly understood and accounted for by the weight loss industry, but other changes that happen to women as they get older, such as the stress hormone response, were being ignored. This meant women were routinely being given diets and exercise plans that didnt work. Many made things worse, not better and I heard from countless women wasting their time, money and energy on a weekly basis, which I felt was unacceptable.

I developed a simple system called the Fit Over 40 method, which helps women in their forties and fifties lose weight by optimising their hormones and get the scales moving again in a healthy and sustainable way. With the Fit Over 40 method, you can lose 12 stone every 12 weeks without giving up your favourite foods, having to go to the gym or eating separately from your family. All of this is achievable with a busy full-time career.

This book sets out the step-by -step programme so you can start getting results fast.

The Fit Over 40 programme covers these key steps:

1. What progress to expect
2. The Diet Makeover
3. Low-impact strength training (LIST)
4. Understanding calories
5. The Stress Shield
6. Lifestyle
7. Goal-getting

You will hear from a wide range of women Ive worked with over the past decade whove put this programme and these tools into action and transformed their bodies and lives as a result.

By the time youve finished this book, youll have that understanding and know more about losing weight for women over forty than most personal trainers and doctors. Youll know how to find the time to eat healthily and exercise, keep yourself motivated no matter what, balance your life in all areas, avoid self-sabotage and lose weight in a fast, healthy and sustainable way.

Dont be intimidated by the idea or process of losing weight over forty. Anyone can do it and there is no hidden magic that you cant learn.

PART ONE

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

W omens bodies and hormones change dramatically with age, and these changes start years before menopause.

This means that the strategies that used to work for losing weight in your 20s and 30s actually prevent you from losing weight over 40. They will make you flabbier, more fatigued and increase joint aches and pains.

In order to succeed, you need an approach that works with your changing body and hormones, rather than against them.

In this section youll discover the extent and impact of these changes, so you not only understand the complex biological shifts that are happening underneath the surface for any women over 40, but also how to work with them to get the scales moving in the right direction again in record time.

The Over Forty Weight Gain Trap

T he over forty weight gain trap does not happen overnight. It is a snare that tightens over time, and the more you try to wriggle free of it, the more you get stuck. Clothes that fitted perfectly are now tight. Joints creak and ache, and many forms of exercise only make them worse. Lethargy and exhaustion have become the norm and pick-me -ups like caffeine and sugar are now essential to get through the day.

Worst of all, methods that used to work to shift the weight have no effect, and even after a focused week of eating well and exercising, the number on the scale wont budge. Sometimes it even goes up. Its little wonder that many women give up entirely, assuming that it is all part of the ageing process. Not because they dont want to feel fit, healthy and confident, but because becoming tired, old and frumpy seems inevitable.

Many women Ive worked with were on the brink of accepting this fate. Their youthful spirit had faded away. Their zest for life turned into a terror of ageing. Special events became a wardrobe nightmare. Holiday photos made trips abroad something to dread. Where was the fit, confident woman who used to love life?

The answer is simple: methods that work for those in their twenties and thirties dont work for women over forty . Yet many women keep trying the same things that used to work for them, hoping for a miracle to melt the fat away. This is born out of a fundamental misunderstanding in the fitness industry that not only should women do the same things as men, but that all women should follow the same approach regardless of age. This has cost us dearly in failing health, failing confidence and half-wasted lives.