How to eat for women after 40 to maintain weight and health

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Eating rules to help you stay slim, energetic and healthy.

1. Eat protein-rich foods

The weight benefits of protein for middle-aged and older women are supported by research. In an experiment conducted in 2011, women lost more fat and gained more muscle mass over 16 weeks of a high-protein diet (30% of daily calories from protein) than participants on a low-protein diet.

Diet protein increases metabolism and provides a feeling of fullness. This means you can lose weight or maintain weight without feeling constant hunger.

In addition, consuming more protein is associated with less muscle loss with age. This is a key factor that helps protect the body from slow metabolism and even increase muscle mass with strength training.

Every meal or snack should contain protein-rich foods: chicken, fish, beef, tofu, eggs, legumes, milk, cottage cheese, natural yogurt. Many women choose to eat high-protein foods for dinner or breakfast. However, this distribution often does not allow you to consume the right amount of protein per day.

Try to add protein to every meal. Eat scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs for breakfast, cottage cheese and yogurt for snacks, salmon, chicken, and tofu salads for lunch, and meat or legumes for dinner.

2. Add more calcium

Diets high in calcium prevent the risk of age-related skeletal diseases like osteoporosis and help reduce weight and waist.

Bones are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt during the remodeling process. Until the age of 30, this occurs at approximately the same rate, but after this milestone, the rate of destruction begins to slightly exceed recovery.

Calcium helps support bone repair and reduce the risk of bone breakdown. This is especially important for postmenopausal women, as lowering estrogen levels slows down the absorption of calcium.

According to the Ministry of Health, adults need to consume 1,000 mg of calcium per day. This amount is contained in 100 g of hard cheese, 800 ml of milk or kefir. Some nuts and seeds (almonds, sesame, pistachios, sunflower seeds), fish and seafood (sardines, crabs, shrimps), legumes (beans, beans) are also rich in calcium.

However, calcium alone is not enough, since vitamin D is needed for its absorption. The best sources are herring, salmon, mackerel, cod liver, fish oil, egg yolks. It is found in smaller amounts in chicken, pork and beef liver, sour cream and butter.

Also, vitamin D is synthesized in human skin when exposed to sunlight. Therefore, try to be in the sun more often.

3. Get enough fat

Fat contains more calories than protein and carbohydrates, but it reduces hunger, and this greatly affects the size of your portions. Many studies show that low-carb diets are much more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets.

Moreover, fats are essential for maintaining health. If you have dry skin, joint problems, decreased concentration and depressed mood, it is worth checking to see if you are consuming enough fat.

There is a widespread belief that saturated fat threatens cardiovascular health. However, a recent study by Norwegian scientists found that a diet high in fat, half of which was saturated, did not increase the risk of heart disease and led to weight loss.

The type of fat is not so important. Much more important is the quality of the products from which you get them.

Choose butter, fatty dairy products and lard, avoid cheap confectionery and fast food - they contain trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oils that are unhealthy).

Also in your diet should be unsaturated fats omega-3 and omega-6 from fish and vegetable oils. Omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids protect the scalp from dryness, maintain follicular health and prevent hair loss, and keep the eyes and cardiovascular system healthy.

What's more, omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for weight loss. In a study by Samantha L. Logan, participants' base metabolism increased by 14% and fat oxidation by 19% over 12 weeks of fish oil supplementation.

Unlike omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in high amounts in vegetable oils, the omega-3 content in oils, nuts, and seeds (other than flaxseed) is rather scarce. Therefore, getting the required daily minimum of 1.1 mg of omega-3 is quite difficult if you rarely eat fish.

Include salmon, mackerel, tuna, and fish oil in your diet. They provide the body with the most important omega-3 polyunsaturated acids: eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. Walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and hemp seeds are all sources of alpha linolenic acid, which will convert to EPA and DHA in your body. However, this process is not very effective, so you should supplement plant-based sources of fat with fish oil.

Try to include healthy fats in every meal or snack.

It can be two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, two tablespoons of nuts or seeds, half an avocado.

4. Eat more fiber and less sugar

Carbohydrates are essential for the body, but the right sources of carbohydrates must be selected to maintain weight and health. It is best to get your carbs from fiber-rich foods such as grains, vegetables, and fruits.

Fiber reduces bad cholesterol, the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and helps control weight.

At the same time, it is desirable to reduce the consumption of processed foods: sugar, sugary drinks, baked goods, white bread, rice and pasta. These foods contain much more calories than vegetables and fruits, but less vitamins and minerals. What's more, they have a high glycemic index, and spikes in blood sugar after consuming them increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

5. Find your portion

Metabolism declines as you age, making it harder for you to maintain weight with the same calorie intake. You can speed up your metabolism by adding more activity or cutting back on your portion sizes.

Keeping an eye on your satiety is an important factor that will allow you to eat exactly as much as you need. Try to eat without external stimuli such as TV, talking, or driving. Monitor your sensations and stop eating as soon as you feel full.

You will have to get rid of the habit of eating everything on the plate, learned from kindergarten.

Try to figure out your portion. Conduct an experiment: put a lot of food on a plate, weigh the amount and eat consciously, chewing thoroughly and tracking your feelings. Then weigh what's left to find out the difference.

Buy a container that is the right size and use it to determine the serving size. Just keep in mind that the meal should be complete.

6. Make Whole Meals

The norms of the Ministry of Health prescribe that women consume per day:

• 58-87 g of protein;
• 60-102 g of fat;
• 257-586 g of carbohydrates (50-60% of the daily calories).

If you take the lowest values on this scale, you get 1,800 kcal per day. However, the norms do not indicate the age and amount of physical activity, so these values cannot be considered universal. For example, if a woman in her 40s does not exercise much, she may need 1,500 calories a day to maintain her weight.

You can navigate according to the norms of the US National Academy:

• 10–35% protein;
• 20–35% fat;
• 45-65% carbohydrates.

You can calculate your BJU norms as follows:

• Find out your daily calorie intake using formulas or using an online calculator.
• Calculate how many calories should be in protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Average values: 22.5% protein, 27.5% fat, 50% carbohydrates.
• Calculate the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates: 1 g of protein - 4, 1 kcal, 1 g of carbohydrates - 4, 1 kcal, 1 g of fat - 9 kcal.

If you don't want to count grams and calories, try dividing your plate into thirds. Fill half with vegetables: cabbage, carrots, broccoli, peppers, courgettes, eggplant and other vegetables besides potatoes. Leave a quarter for high-protein foods and a quarter for potatoes, pasta and other side dishes. Add a couple teaspoons of healthy fats and snack on dairy and fruit throughout the day.