Weight Loss Calculator For Women Over 40

Understanding Weight Loss After 40

Weight loss after 40 comes with different challenges than the decades that precede it. As mentioned, the reproductive hormone estrogen fluctuates and declines resulting in weight gain, increased appetite, and altered fat storage.

This is often compounded by the decline of muscle mass and physical activity which decreases metabolism. These factors ultimately shape the weight loss after 40 and make it more challenging than ever to shed those unwanted pounds.

Studies show that during this time, body fat accumulated predominately in the abdomen, which is shown to increase the risk of chronic illness including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Because of these changes, weight loss isn’t just about simply eating less and moving more. Considerations of appetite, hormone balance, and preserving muscle mass must be taken to give yourself the best chance of losing weight.

The Importance of Personalized Weight Loss Plans

Personalized weight loss plans' biggest strength is in their specificity. While eating healthy and exercising more can help you lose weight, without clear goals and nutrition tracking, you are leaving your success up to chance.

The key component to weight loss is a calorie deficit, which is consuming fewer calories than your recommended daily calorie intake.

However, as you’d suspect consuming fewer calories can lead to hunger and decreased energy levels. When this is coupled with the menopause symptoms you are experiencing, it can become a very different experience from other women in a similar situation.

A personalized weight loss program can help you navigate these challenges, and ensure that you are getting enough complex carbohydrates to sustain energy levels, protein to maintain muscle mass, and healthy fats to support hormone health and address menopause symptoms.

The more specific you can be with your weight loss plan, the better your chances are of achieving your goals.

How the Weight Loss Calculator Works

• Select Your Preferred Units: Choose between metric or imperial units.
• Enter Height, Weight, Age, and Activity Level: These influence your daily energy expenditure. From here the calculator can create a calorie deficit.
• Specify Resistance Training Habits (yes/no): This calculates and takes into account the energy expended during your workouts.
• Click Calculate To See Your Result— Displays your existing energy expenditure, calorie deficit, and ideal macronutrient ratio for weight loss.

Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body requires to maintain basic physiological processes at rest. Once determined, it can be used to calculate your calorie deficit which is required for fat loss.

Below is the formula for calculating the basal metabolic rate and an example to show you how it works.

Example

• BMR=10 × weight (kg)+6.25×height (cm)−5 × age (years)−161

45 year old women, 80 kg, 170 cm tall.

1. 10 x 80 + 6.25 x 170 - 5 x 45 – 161 =
2. 800 + 1062.5 - 225 -161 = 1476.6 kcal/day

Therefore to enter a calorie deficit to lose weight you would need to eat less than this figure, enabling you to burn fat at rest. If you choose to exercise, that would create a greater deficit, leading to greater fat loss.

Understanding Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Sources show that the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) as the name suggests is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, including your basal metabolic rate, activity level, and the thermic effect of food (calorie burned digesting food).

Below we list the TDEE percentages to illustrate where the majority of your energy expenditure comes from.

• Resting Metabolic Rate: 60–70%
• Thermic Effect Of Food: 10%
• Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (Eat): 5–10%
• Non-Exercise Physical Activity Thermogenesis (Neat): 15–30%

As you can see resting metabolic rate makes up the largest portion of your daily energy expenditure. This means that if you eat fewer calories than your resting metabolic rate, you will be burning fat and losing weight through maintaining basic daily functions.

Adjusting Macronutrient Ratios for Optimal Results

One thing that makes a calorie deficit unsustainable for many is that it means consuming fewer calories, leading to lower energy levels and hunger.

Making this more sustainable requires the manipulation of macronutrients which are carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.

For example, a diet largely consisting of simple carbohydrates and low protein intake will lead to hunger. Research shows that simple carbohydrates are easily digestible, providing a spike in blood sugar, which crashes shortly after leading to hunger and tiredness.

Meanwhile, the lack of protein can contribute to fatigue, mood changes, loss of muscle mass, and weaken the immune system.

A sustainable calorie deficit requires complex carbohydrates and protein. Complex carbohydrates contain three or more sugars bonded together. This means they take longer to digest, providing a gradual increase in blood sugar.

Protein on the other hand is used to maintain muscle mass and is shown to improve satiety. This is essential for preventing loss of muscle mass during a calorie deficit and for reducing hunger.

Below we list the ideal macronutrients for the standard diet and for weight loss to highlight the adjustments required to support weight loss.

Standard Diet Macronutrient Ratio

• Carbohydrates: 45–65% of daily calorie intake
• Protein: 10–35% of daily calorie intake
• Fats: 20–35% of daily calorie intake

Fat Loss Diet Macronutrient Ratio

• Carbohydrate: 40% of daily calorie intake
• Protein: 30% of daily calorie intake
• Fat: 30% of daily calorie intake

Incorporating Physical Activity

The recommended amount of exercise is approximately 150–300 minutes per week of moderating-intensity aerobic activity or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic, alongside a minimum of 2 resistance training sessions per week. For beginners, this can feel overwhelming, however, with correct planning it is achievable.

For example, we recommend starting with 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Divided across 5 days, this is just 30 minutes of brisk walking. As for resistance training, this can be achieved in 30-minute sessions using body weight, machines, free weights, or resistance bands.

Exercise will of course contribute to your daily energy expenditure, increasing your calorie deficit.

Aerobic exercise training is shown to significantly increase energy expenditure for 24 hours, increasing resting metabolic rate (RMR) and sleeping metabolic rate (SMR). The exact amount varies depending on height, weight, age, and activity level.

Monitoring Progress and Making Adjustments

The weight loss calculator identifies your basal metabolic rate and macronutrient breakdown for sustainable weight loss, which is vital for your weight loss plan. However, to accompany this, setting goals, tracking nutrition, and measuring progress is essential to ensure you are progressing toward your goal.

Here is a list of ways to record your weight loss progress:

• Set Goals: Use the S.M.A.R.T. method to make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
• Scale Weight: Weight yourself first thing in the morning and at the same time each day you check in. This will give you a true representation of your weight.
• Measurements: Record shoulders, chest, waist, hips, and thigh measurements.
• Monitor Clothing Sizes: Clothing sizes can be a great way to see weight loss progress. They can also give you a reference of how centimeters loss translates to your waistline.
• Before and After Photos: Take a photo on your first day of measurements and every check-in day under the same light, location, and pose, using the same camera. This will give you a visual record of your progress.
• Energy Levels: Record energy levels throughout the process and note factors that may be contributing to elevated or declining energy levels.

The more of these you use, the better picture you will have of your progress. For example, measuring weight can determine if you have lost weight, however, it does not take into account the changes to body composition and your energy levels.

Furthermore, if one or more of these hasn’t shifted, it may be a sign to make tweaks to your nutrition plan.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Weight loss is one of the hardest things to achieve for our overall health, as it challenges us physically and mentally. Below is a list of common challenges you may face, and solutions to help you stay on track with your plan.

Staying Consistent

Remaining consistent with your nutrition and training is by far one of the most difficult things to do during your weight loss plan. During your weight loss, several variables can alter your results, and interfere with your routine.

Whether this is a disruption to your routine, low energy, plateauing weight loss, or just a simple loss of interest, these challenges can make it difficult to trudge on for another day or week of clean eating and enthusiastic exercise. The key here is to identify the problem and directly address it.

For example, if your energy levels are low but you are still losing weight, then maybe an increase in calories and more sleep will help.

If you are losing interest, perhaps a change of nutrition plan, training routine, or a deload week (lighter training load week) will help.

We recommend aiming for sustainable, incremental progress. While it is far from exciting, small weight loss and improvements to health are far easier to achieve and sustain, leading to greater long-term health.

Weight Loss Plateaus

Weight loss plateaus are an inevitable part of the dieting process. However, just because the weight hasn’t shifted, doesn’t mean you throw in the towel.

As we know, a calorie deficit is required to burn fat. However, as we lose weight the body’s basal metabolic rate decreases, reducing the calorie deficit, which can stall weight loss.

For example, say your basal metabolic rate is 1600 kcal/day and you are in a calorie deficit of 200 kcal, allowing you to consume 1400 kcal/day. However, as the months pass and you successfully lose weight, your basal metabolic rate decreases to 1400 kcal/day, meaning that you are no longer in a deficit.

To adjust for this, a further decrease in calories is required to continue losing fat. This can be challenging, however, with the correct balance of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats it is achievable.

Hunger and Low Energy

Calorie deficits can lead to feelings of hunger and low energy, which can make it difficult to sustain your weight loss plan.

If you are still losing weight, this may be a sign that your daily calorie intake is far too low. We recommend increasing your daily calorie intake and reviewing your nutrition plan to ensure you are meeting your macronutrient targets.

Alongside this, we recommend reviewing your sleep patterns, as it is the most important factor when it comes to weight loss and overall health.

Studies show that it is crucial for regulating many of the body’s systems, and when you are deprived it can impact mood, energy levels, and appetite, and lead to several health disorders including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

Overcoming Emotional Eating

During a weight loss plan and calorie deficit, we can almost guarantee you will feel the urge to emotionally eat.

Whether it is due to a long day at work, life events, or just frustration with your progress, emotions, and old habits can creep up, leading to indulging and overeating, blowing through your daily calorie allowance.

To address this we suggest identifying the common triggers and plan to prevent the start of your emotional eating.

For example, if stressful work days lead you to your favorite fast food, have a healthy option planned, prepped, and ready to go when you get home. This way you can eat immediately, killing your hunger and cravings.

Better yet, find a healthy meal that you love in your current nutrition plan. That way you can look forward to something delicious which can help you break and forget those unhealthy options.

Additional Resources

Calorie deficit is a globally recognized, evidence-based practice for healthy fat loss. Below is a list of additional resources that explore the proven weight loss method to provide you with greater insight and tools to help you achieve your goals.

"The Lean Muscle Diet" by Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon

• A practical guide focused on calorie deficit, strength, and macronutrients.

"Fat Loss Forever" by Layne Norton & Peter Baker

• In-depth book on sustainable fat loss using science and macros.

"Burn" by Herman Pontzer

• Focuses more on how the body uses energy, based on research with hunter-gatherer populations.

Reverse Health is the leading weight loss app for women over 40. Unlike other apps on the market, it tailors nutrition and workout plans to navigate the challenges women face in their fourth decade of life and beyond.

The apps and website contain incredible resources that discuss weight loss, balancing hormones, nutrition plans, and exercise.

Sources

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