#94: Overwhelmed by midlife fitness tips? Here's what to focus on & what to ignore

Confused by the endless (and often conflicting) fitness advice for women in midlife? 

You’re not alone. 

In this episode I break down the mixed messages about fitness and health in midlife and give you a clear plan to feel strong, healthy, and confident. It’s time to cut through the noise and focus on what really works.

In this episode, I:

• Review the most common (and confusing) fitness and health messages for women in midlife
• Clear up misconceptions about cortisol, belly fat, cardio, and more
• Provide a practical, no-nonsense list of what to focus on for your health and fitness in midlife

Resources mentioned in the episode: 

• The viral reel >>
• My free guide to turning things around >>
• Episode #92: The Roadmap to Lifting Heavy
• Episode #67: Sprint Interval Training
• Episode #63: Tips for Better Quality Sleep

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:00 Understanding Perimenopause
• 1:14 Personal Life Update
• 4:29 Viral Instagram Reel Discussion
• 9:10 Importance of Strength Training
• 12:22 Managing Cortisol and Stress
• 17:48 Exercise and Nutrition Tips
• 25:09 Sleep and Belly Fat Solutions
• 29:17 Summary and Key Takeaways
• 32:18 Conclusion and Resources

Transcript

#94: Overwhelmed by midlife fitness advice? Here's what to focus on and ignore


Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach helping women in midlife to navigate perimenopause and build the bodies that they want to spend the rest of their lives in. And today is kind of a random, or let's say impromptu episode, because there has been this one Instagram reel in social media, that's gotten over 10 million views.
And it is a woman who, with a little bit of tongue, tongue and cheek, well, it's a very sarcastic reel, actually. I'll link to it below. And she is talking about all of the conflicting information that is coming at women who are in perimenopause and menopause, all the things you should be doing, shouldn't be doing, all the, all the fear mongering around your cortisol levels. And so I wanted to kind of go through that to clarify, because in the end, this is not as complicated as it might sometimes seem.
But before we get into that, I just wanted to share a little bit about what's going on in my life. So I'm coming to you from my home office. And outside is gray and sleety. And I am making changes to my life right now. And one of the big changes that I've made is to actually hire a business coach. Yes, because I really want to be doing this. Full time so that I can support myself with this work. I love, love, love helping women to get started strength training and get stronger and to just navigate perimenopause a little bit more easily because I know I went through it so in the dark. I was miserable. I was in depression for two years until I finally asked for hormone replacement therapy. I mean, the antidepressants weren't doing anything for me, and I know I'm not alone. Plus the frustrations around the changes in your body, where you start to feel ugly. unattractive, over the hill. You want to start doing it with the lights off all the things. And that's not the way that we have to live the rest of our lives.
And, um, and I get so much joy out of helping women to navigate this a little bit better. So I want to be doing this full time. So anyway, but that has been a huge investment in myself. Almost 10, 000. So that's, that's a lot. Plus all the time and an effort and everything. So I'm walking the walk in the sense that the point of a coach is to get you to where you want to be faster because you don't need to figure it all out yourself, right? That's what you're paying for. And to have somebody who you can ask the questions of. You know, along the way. And that's what I try to do for women in teaching, having my courses, having this podcast and my Facebook group. And, uh, that's what my coach will be doing for me. So remember when you hire a coach, you are making an investment in yourself. And of course. The toughest thing is who to put the money, you know, who to make the investment with. And that's why it's important to get to know the person that you're going to be working with ahead of time.
So anyway, that's where I am right now. So if I am Seeming a little more tired than usual. If you're following me on social media, then, uh, that's why, because I am just really working over time to make this happen, to be able to help more and more and more people. Okay.
So onto the topic of the day, which is this amazing reel. And like I said, in the show notes is a link so you can take a look at it. What she talks about there is all the things that you are told. And I'm, I've got the kind of bullet point list here, so I'll read through them. 
That you've ruined your metabolism by not eating enough. That you're struggling to lose belly fat, that you're not getting enough protein, that you should be in a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight, that you shouldn't do cardio anymore, that you should be lifting heavy three or four times a week, that you need to be getting in 10, 000 steps a day. Oh, but you shouldn't exercise every day and you shouldn't do too many cardio or HIIT classes. And actually those steps are not cardio, even though they kind of feel like they're cardio. That you need to be able to hold 75 percent of your body weight. That perimenopause causes sleep disruptions, but you need to be getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night.
So those are, that's like a bullet list of the things that she talks about in the reel. And when, when I listened to that, I hear that there's, there's a lot of good stuff in here, but when you list it out like that, and then throw in cortisol panic, Oh, because you're going to, you know, increase your cortisol, Oh, cause your cortisol is spiking, Oh, because your cortisol, then really, it does sound pretty awful. So I am not surprised that you're confused
 and as a menopause fitness coach, what the algorithm gives me to look at is (a) fitness content and (b) menopause related content. And there are so many of us out there talking, you know, to women who are 40 plus, and some are using a lot of fear mongering tactics. And some are just talking about stuff that is. Just plain not true, but it catches attention. They get a lot of views. People are hoping for the magic bullet, you know, all the things. So anyway, so I wanted to dive into these now today. 
Let's start with kind of the basics. And I've talked about this on earlier episodes. So what is happening to you in perimenopause is that your female hormones are starting to fluctuate in a different way than their steady fluctuations that they've been doing, you know, uh, your cycle that you've had during your childbearing years, your pre menopausal years. It starts to go random up and down. And because they're not in sync, because it's random, then they can cause a lot of different symptoms. And this is very, very individual for every woman. But super common things are things like sleep problems and noticing more belly fat. And what they know is that around menopause, the rate at which you lose muscle, muscle mass, and the rate at which your bones get weaker increases.
So You know, yes, there's the fear mongering of your body is getting frailer and weaker, but actually it is true. You know, it is actually happening at a faster rate as you go through menopause. It's happening all the time from about age 30 through the rest of your life. If you're not doing something about it, it's, it's a natural part of aging, but really, Who of us wants to just naturally age and get weaker and frailer?
I don't think that if you're listening to this podcast, I have a feeling that's not you and it's certainly not me. All right. So when this happens, you know, you get this belly fat around your waist. You start losing your muscles. And another thing that happens is that your tendons and your ligaments and your joints start to weaken as well. And they can get sore, you can get random soreness in your body. And all of these things can be helped with strength training. So the process of lifting heavy actually stimulates various things to go on in your body. And having more muscle is also advantageous. So it's kind of a double benefit whammy, right?
That weight training, lifting heavy stuff is beneficial for you. Because you're building and strengthening your muscles, your ligaments, your tendons, and your joints and your bones, like everything, the whole system is getting stronger and becoming more functional. So that is a huge plus, plus just having muscle is a huge plus.
Now, muscle is important for things like combating insulin resistance. Your muscles are nice storages for the blood glucose that is running around that is causing these kinds of insulin issues. So if you have more muscle, you will most likely. have less problems with that. And women who are pre diabetic, they're often recommended to start weight training so that they put on more muscle.
 She mentions you need to hold 75 percent of your body weight. You've probably heard about that. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you've seen my farmers carry, the farmers carry challenge is that you are able to carry 75 percent of your body weight for a minute.
Now, that requires grip strength, but actually the grip strength is merely, an indicator of your overall strength. So if you were just to sit here, like at your desk for 11 hours a day and take one of those, you know, Grip strength, uh, squeezers, or have a tennis ball or something that you just squeeze in your hands and you squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Yeah, you could increase your grip strength, but that's not, that's like, that is not what we're talking about. The reason that they look at the grip strength is that it's a very good indicator of your overall strength. And the stronger you are, the stronger your grip generally is. And so that's why they use that grip strength measurement. In my last podcast, I talk about how to increase your grip strength.
Now let's talk about another comment that she makes is that if you want to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. And yet on the other hand, you have a lot of people talking about how you've ruined your metabolism by not eating enough. Well, first of all, the fact is that in order to lose weight, you do need to be in a calorie deficit. But here is where there is some cortisol issue going on.
So one of the side effects of your estrogen levels declining. As you go through perimenopause and then flatlining in menopause is that estrogen has actually been helping your cortisol levels to stay lower. So when you get rid of the estrogen, your baseline cortisol levels are higher and that's natural. That's the way it is, but it does lead to some things that you need to think about a little bit differently. Once you know that, Hey, my, my cortisol levels are just a little bit higher. It means that you need to manage your stress a little bit better. Okay. Think about the things that increase your cortisol levels, like what stresses out your body. I mean, there are good stresses and there are bad stresses. There can be a good stress, like you're planning your wedding. There can be a bad stress, like somebody died or, or a stress like dieting, because when your body is not getting enough nutrients, it, I mean, it's trying to survive, right?
So it says, holy cow, I'm not getting enough food. What am I going to do? I need to stop using so much energy and whatever. It's, you know, think about it. Like your body is responding the same way as if you get the news that you lost your job, you don't have an income coming in. Right. Then you start thinking like, Holy cow, how am I going to manage? How am I going to be able to make this smaller amount of money last longer? That's what your body thinks about when it thinks it's not getting enough food or when it knows it's not getting enough food, it gets stressed out. And so that is something just to be aware of, like how much. Stress you are putting on your body. And the, the other thing that stresses your body is exercise. I mean, quite frankly, it's a good thing in the sense that yes, exercise is good for you, healthy for you, but too much is too much. And at this, stage in life or you know, the rest of your life you're going to need to find a kind of a new balance for this stuff for you.
Okay. And so It may be that before your body could handle adding a lot of exercise, uh, and decreasing your calories and it would lose weight. And now it like really goes into this mode that holy cow, I don't have a job, I don't have any income coming in and I have all these expenses, you know, it's like really, really stressing your body out. So. Think about that. So for that reason, some women do actually find that when they increase their calories a little bit, their body stops being so stressed out about the lack of nutrients coming in and it does better. Okay. And when you decrease the crazy amount of, cardio that you're doing, then it does better.
And you can have situations where your body shuts down. I had one woman reach out to me because she hit perimenopause. She'd always. exercised a lot and been very strict with her eating and hit perimenopause and started gaining weight. And she doubled down. She ate even less. She exercised even more. And she did that till she was in the hospital. Her body just like, It was just too much stress for her body and it shut down and it took her months, you know, to get back into a balance. 
So, this is, this is a real thing, right? It, it does happen. But if we think about it from a practical application standpoint, it is just understand that your cortisol levels are a little bit higher, which means your stress tolerance is not what it used to be. And you need to think about your whole stress picture. Do you have stress at work, family, your parents, all the things. And just, if you have a lot of stressors that you can't get rid of, then maybe don't, don't diet right then, or, you know, don't overdo your exercising right then. Plus maybe add in some ways of. Reducing stress, like some meditation, five minutes a day, or breathing exercises. You could even do them in the shower, you know, so like little things that you can do to help to manage your stress, that's going to be really important. Pet your dog, cuddle with your kids, you know, there are a lot of things that you can do.
All right. So that, that got pretty long, but I wanted to talk about the, the cortisol piece, because I think that is something that's talked about so much as adding fear to your life. And I really wanted to, explain it in a way that, Hey, it is one of these things that you can manage. Yes, it's there. And there are some strategies for you to manage it.
And related to this are the things she says about cardio that some people are saying, don't do any cardio, don't exercise every day that you're doing too many cardio and hit classes. This is partly related to the cortisol thing, but if you're strength training, actually building muscle, it goes like this, that you're stimulating your muscles. When you're doing your weight training session, then you have your protein. You need to have your protein. We'll talk about that next. And then afterwards is when the magic happens, when your body actually does the muscle protein synthesis to build muscle onto your body. So recovery days are important and More is not more.
 We're Gen Xers. We were raised on burning calories. We were raised on paying for, you know, Oh, I ate some cake. Now I'm going to go for a run or now I'm going to do a cardio class. We were raised with that thinking. And we need to let go of that thinking that burning calories is going to give us permission to eat. 
I think one of the things that I would recommend that women in midlife try to get rid of is this mindset where you pay for your food by exercising, that if you eat a cookie, you need to go running. If you had some birthday cake, you need to go work out to burn it off. That no longer serves us at this stage in life.
I know it's what we were raised on. It's really a tough mindset to change, but instead I really want to encourage you to think of it as your nutrition, what you put in your mouth, that is how you're going to control your weight. And then think of your exercise choices as the things that will determine how well your body functions and how strong it is. Exercise for strength, for cardiovascular fitness and for health reasons, right? That is why you're doing the exercise and focus on choosing your exercise selection based on what you want to be doing. 30 years from now, if you want to be picking up your grandkids or walking, around a golf course, think of that the longterm, how are you going to keep this wonderful machine, this car, our physical being in shape and exercise is the way you're going to be able to do that.
That would be a mindset shift that will, I think will be very helpful if you can manage to think that way.
Now, where are some ways that we can make sure that we can eat more, that we don't need to be keeping our calorie amount low, right? Of course you want to be giving your body enough fuel, enough energy for it to do the things that you want it to do and not extra because the extra then shows up as extra fat on our bodies.
Okay. So, how can we as midlife women, make sure that we can keep that calorie amount as high as possible? Well, one is by your food choices, and this is where the eat more protein part comes in. The goal is one gram per pound of body weight. And that's if you're at a fairly normal body weight, if you're very much overweight, then aim for your ideal body weights, amount of protein in grams. And what is that going to do? It's going to help you maintain your bones and your muscles. And also when you're strength training, it's going to help you build more muscle. You need that and you need it every single day. Okay. 
 Another thing that is going to help you be able to eat more is having more muscle because muscle is more metabolically active. In other words, it burns more calories, even when you're laying on the couch. And in addition, having more muscle is going to help you avoid insulin resistance and becoming pre diabetic.
So eat more protein, get more muscle on your body. And then the third thing is about movement. So you actually burn more calories in a day with your non exercise activity. That means when you go wash the dishes, when you're walking around your house, you're folding laundry, you know, if you have a job where let's say you're a doctor in a hospital and you're going from patient's room to patient's room. Or you're working at the office and you got to walk around and talk to colleagues, those steps, your arms moving, all that, that burns more calories every day than even that exercise session that you do, after work. So That's where the 10, 000 steps comes in, because how can you measure how much of this non exercise activity you're doing? The easiest way is by tracking your steps. It's not perfect. It's fine that it's not perfect. It's just a way to encourage yourself to move more, to stop sitting still all the time. Okay? So those are three things you can do to help yourself so that you don't need to be so strict with your calories so that you can eat more food. Okay.
Then she talks about, you need to lift heavy three to four times a week. Now, absolutely a hundred percent. I agree. Weight training should be one of the cornerstones of your exercise program, but two things with that comment, which I think are worth opening up. One is it doesn't need to be three to four times a week, two times a week works wonders. Okay. So if you don't have time or if you. Hey, weight training, don't torture yourself, go twice a week, but get a good program. Because I've seen tons of poop programs where it's really not hitting your muscles, your whole body. And you do want to get your major muscle groups covered in that session. And it's only twice a week. You need to program it properly to hit. All your muscle groups 
and the second thing is, yes, lifting heavy, but you don't want to go in day one, lifting heavy. And I have a whole episode about that. Couple episodes ago, it's called the roadmap to lifting heavy. So you don't want to go lifting heavy on day one. You really need to build up to that. And that's, even if you're like me, who was going to body pump classes and I was used to moving weights around still, it's a different ballgame when you start actually progressively weight training
And then finally the sleep piece. And this is one where I have even had comments on my posts that, Oh, easier said than done, you know, get some to eight hours of sleep. I know, I know it is so much easier said than done. I struggled with sleep issues for years and I did a whole episode on this. I'll link it in the show notes, but the sleep part is really important.
And I think if your sleep is bad, start there. That, you know, if you want a step by step plan of what to work on, start with your sleep. And there are going to be a lot of different things that you can do. In the podcast I have all kinds of tips for getting better sleep. For me, it took cleaning up my sleep hygiene and then the hormone replacement therapy helped. I also take magnesium before bed and actually I take melatonin as well. But everybody is individual in what is going to work for them. And that's why in the podcast, I have many things you can try and, see if they work for you.
And then finally, the one that we all hate the most is the belly fat. Yes, we are struggling to lose that belly fat. No, there is no exercise that is going to quote unquote snatch your waist in four weeks or 10 days. Oh my God. How many, how many reels have I seen that claim that, and there are things like somebody holding a weight above their head and marching in place, and that's going to snatch your waist in, in like days. No, sorry. If that were the case, Everybody would be walking around with a tiny little snatched waist if it was that easy. 
In perimenopause, when the estrogen levels start to decline, our body fat shifts and it shifts to our midriff. Coupled with the fact that we're more sedentary, we have less muscle, our muscle mass is disappearing. faster. It's being replaced by fat. We're also most likely gaining more fat on our bodies. And so what is going to turn that around? Well, it's things like heavy lifting, and that may sound really odd. But I just recently got pictures, uh, from a client who spent 10 weeks in my learn to lift at home. So she was working with dumbbells at home. She was training twice a week. Okay. And she sent me the before and the after picture. And of course you don't, Build a ton of muscle in 10 weeks, you will feel stronger, but you're not, you know, it's, it's not like you're going to have this, Whoa, you know, like ready to go on stage in a bikini fitness contest. That's not going to happen in 10 weeks. It's going to take years to get there. But what was remarkable was that in the 10 weeks she managed to lose belly fat  Now, this is something that has been talked about by Dr. Stacey Sims, who's one of the leading experts in this area about how to get the visceral fat moving in midlife is to lift weights. And it is also one of the first things that I noticed myself when I started weight training and I went in and I had, body composition scans done. And my visceral fat was a. First thing to drop. So not everybody's going to have as radical changes as what she had, but this is one of the ways to start getting rid of it. So that is how you can work on that belly fat. And the other thing that helps get that body fat shifting is sprint interval training. I have an episode on that too, as you might imagine. So I will link that in the show notes as well. 
All right. So this is probably one of the longest episodes I have done in a long, long time. So let me summarize the key takeaways here. So if you want to think about what you should be doing as a midlife woman, where you should be focusing your efforts,
one is that, yes, your baseline cortisol levels are higher. And that just means that you need to learn to live with that and work with that and, you know, manage your stress in a little bit different way.
You're gaining belly fat, and that is a natural part of your estrogen levels changing. What will help is strength training. And sprint interval training. It'll help get that visceral fat moving. And of course, if you are overweight, then dieting can help with that as well.
Concentrate on getting better sleep. That would be my number one priority. If your sleep is screwed up, start there. And that will help you have more energy to get through your life. Your hunger and satiety hormones will work better. They'll signal to you, you know, when you're full and when you're hungry.
I know myself. If I haven't gotten enough sleep, I'm, I'm a maniac for sugar and carbs, and I just overeat because I'm just trying to get some energy to make it through the day. So sleep is critical, 
strength train, at least twice a week. So strength training itself is good for your body, and then having muscle is really important for your health. And also for your ability to function and not get frail as you get older, plus gives you that amazing toned look that you're after.
Move more. So instead of sitting still all day, get steps into your day. And I use a walk pad because otherwise it just would stress me out too much to try to go for a walk to get enough steps or take enough breaks from my work. So I have a walk pad so I can work and move at the same time, instead of just sitting for 10, 12 hours a day.
And finally, eat more protein. That is going to help you build and maintain your muscle. And also keep you feeling more full. I have had clients say that once they started focusing on the protein, they actually lost weight because they were just eating less. And I noticed the same thing for myself when I'm eating enough protein in a day, I don't feel like I'm constantly a little bit needing something else or hungry. You know, that kind of feeling goes away. And so it's much easier to not overeat. 
Okay. So I hope this was helpful. And I dig into many of these topics in earlier episodes, please check the show notes. And if you want the keys to turning things around in midlife, I have a little guide that summarizes it. So you don't have to remember this whole podcast. You can print it out and have it there for yourself. You can find it on my website at www.befitafter40.com/turn, and I also have the link in the show notes, that really summarizes the things that midlife women should be focusing on to turn things around because you've been doing a certain things when you're younger. Then you notice, Oh my God, these are not working anymore. I'm gaining weight, losing my muscle tone, feeling like crap. So what do you need to focus on to turn things around? And that's what that guide will tell you. So check that out.
Okay. And if you have any questions, then please feel free to reach out at Instagram. I love it when you message me. So go right ahead. I'm, I don't bite. I promise. And with that, I leave you till next week. Happy training.