#103: Get Toned for Summer 2025: A simple strategy to lose fat and build muscle

If you’re feeling a little "off track" after the holidays and wondering how to look and feel your best by summer, you’re not alone.

In this episode of 40+ Fitness for Women, I share my strategy to get toned for summer and how you can do the same - without extreme diets or endless cardio.

In this episode, I cover:

• My proven two-step strategy for toning up
• The optimal time to start a calorie deficit
• Steps to effectively prepare for fat loss 
• Two must-dos to hold onto your muscle when you're dieting

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Sign up for my Fat Loss Workshop >>
• Start weight training with my Learn to Lift programs >>
• Listen to Episode #102: The benefits of muscle

Enjoy the episode!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:52 Personal Challenges and Stress
• 5:14 Planning for Summer Fitness
• 7:23 Calorie Deficit Strategy
• 8:37 Building Muscle Before Fat Loss
• 9:32 Upcoming Fat Loss Workshop
• 15:10 Final Tips and Encouragement

Transcript

#103: Tips for Getting Toned for Summer

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a personal trainer and a certified menopause fitness coach. And today I really wanted to talk to you a little bit about fat loss and how to get ready for summer. And this comes from my own thoughts and thoughts that I've heard from my members, which is they might be feeling like after the holidays, a little bit heavier, or let's say more fat on your body than maybe back in October.

And you feel like you just want to get rid of it. Of course, we're women in midlife, and so it is maybe no longer just a matter of getting back to normal routines and it'll just, you know, melt off. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that today. My own story with it this year, because I'm [00:01:00] normally I haven't had this kind of issue.

At the end of last year, uh, actually the beginning of November, we got some Really, some awful news, um, unfortunately, I can't share any more details than that because it's not my news to tell, it's my boyfriend's, which really kind of shook our lives and, and then, so that was that started in November, so already at that point like the stress levels were higher and sleep was a little bit harder to come by.

And then December rolled around and I got sick and after that my dog almost died she spent three nights in intensive care and two of those we really did not know whether she would be alive the next morning she's now luckily fine thank God. Yes, 7, 000 euros in vet bills and that's [00:02:00] about 7, 000 for those of you in the U. S. The euro and the dollar are quite Similar at the moment, so huge, huge bill for this little dog, but, but we're thankful that she's okay. But that was right right before Christmas. And then I was hosting Christmas I started preparing for Christmas, like literally buying the food and everything about two days before Christmas where normally I would have bought it two weeks before I would have had my whole plan.

I would have had the decorations everything.

So everything got delayed. And when you're feeling that much stress, at least when I'm feeling that much stress, my stress bucket was overflowing. So if anything any small sound woke me in the middle of the night, I was up for hours. I had to make use of some sleeping pills on some evenings as things were just, you know, going around.

And what I noticed is that when I'm stressed and I haven't slept enough, then my hunger and satiety [00:03:00] hormones just go crazy out of whack. And I eat more, I want candy, I want carbs, I want sugar, I want caffeine all the time. And so that means that I'm like constantly eating and then I get in the habit of constantly having something in my mouth which that is not good.

And then when you're exhausted the last thing you want to do is exercise. And for me I use my walk pad every day here while I'm working because I'm here at my desk working, putting out content, taking care of clients, doing podcasts for eight to 10 hours a day. So I don't actually have time in my schedule to go outside and walk.

So I have bought myself a walk pad and I generally walk on that six to 8, 000 steps a day. But when you're exhausted and you Like are not moving. I, I, I was honestly skipping my walk pad [00:04:00] and all of those things combined. So not moving, not sleeping, eating too much, stress levels being high. And yes, things went off the rails.

And now it's January well January 21st when I'm recording this and. I'm ready to get back on the rails. So I was thinking, and this may be something you're thinking about too, that okay is this the time to go into a calorie deficit? And my feeling on this is I want to look great in the summer. Now I live up north where. It's cold we're about to get another, like, I think it's, uh, translates to about six inches of snow tonight. So I'm out in pants, long sleeves, sweaters, whatever. So the fact that I'm carrying an extra pound or two of weight is insignificant at this time of year. [00:05:00] Even if I was carrying six pounds of extra weight it would be insignificant.

Like nobody would notice it. So I don't have like a desperate need right now to be in bikini shape or, you know, fit into my summer clothes or feel more comfortable in, in less clothes. So for me, what's most important is that by summer when I want to wear like little sundresses, the sleeveless tops, I want to be in a bathing suit and I want to feel good in those.

That that's really the time when I want to be maybe at my lightest. And so, that's still some months away so here, I would say like end of May, beginning of June would be a nice time to feel Like I fit into my clothes really nicely again and I figure that it takes about eight to ten weeks To get to the point where I'll be really happy because I'm not gonna do this with a huge calorie [00:06:00] deficit because a huge calorie Deficit is pretty hellish to live through and then also more recent studies are showing that When you go into a larger calorie deficit versus like a more mild one, you lose more muscle.

So the more radical your deficit, the more muscle you lose, um, when you are dieting. So, okay, so there's all my logic there. So what I'm planning is to start my calorie deficit end of March. Beginning of April because that gives me enough time before I want to be in summer shape I know i'm 53 I do this for my health.

Yes, but I am still a woman and I still want to look good in my summer clothes Okay So there are the two sides of me and maybe there are two sides of you too But so i'm thinking about this strategically that Now [00:07:00] is the moment that I want to not gain more weight or more fat. So I am going to get back to my habits, back to eating my five feedings a day, as I call them, and eating my normal foods, not going out as much, not Keeping chocolate in the house and having candy.

Luckily, most of that has already been eaten from Christmas. We got so much candy as Christmas presents. It's unbelievable. But in any case, so now I'll go back to my normal habits so that I can maintain my weight to what it is right now, and I'm going to train. I am going to spend the next approximately 10 weeks Building as much muscle as I possibly can.

And the beauty of building muscle when you're in maintenance is that it is much easier to achieve. You have [00:08:00] energy, your sleep's better, your recovery's better, you have calories to create muscle from. So all those things are much easier to do, or building muscle is much easier to do when you're not in on a diet, like in a calorie deficit.

So for 10 weeks, I am really going to focus on being consistent in the weight room, pushing myself, recovering well, eating my protein, and then At the end of March, I am going to start my calorie deficit. And this year, and this is the first time I'm doing this, because I have so many members that have mentioned this, I am going to set up my calorie deficit with you if you want to join.

So I will do a fat loss workshop, a live one, where we will be online together in a zoom meeting and we will go [00:09:00] through all the things and you can plan yours at the same time and we'll think through these things together. It's, it's like group coaching on a, on a weight loss, but I think it's going to be something a little bit less extreme.

I haven't quite a hundred percent figured it out yet exactly how the format is going to be. This is the first time I'm doing it, but a lot of the women who already have signed up for the waitlist are women in my weightlifting programs.

Anyway, so if you are interested in doing this as well, I am collecting names for the waitlist so that I can let you know as it approaches, it is not going to be anything heavy or expensive or anything like that.

It is just. How to apply all the practical tips that I have provided here in the podcast and my own experience and experience working with women on fat loss so that we can set that up together [00:10:00] because it can feel very intimidating to do it like in a more healthy way than deciding not to eat at all or going crazy with your exercise and these kinds of things.

There are a lot of different aspects that are good to take into account and more lifestyle changes than merely Reducing your calorie intake. So so anyway, I wanted to give you a heads up on that.

So my Advice to you, if you want to be in really kind of trim, toned, feel good in your body is start now.

Okay. It is January. It feels like what, why am I starting in January for the summer? I can start it in June and be fine for July or whatever. But come on guys, really these get fit in four weeks kind of thing or eight weeks, it [00:11:00] is not going to bring you the results that you want. And our bodies are different at this age and very stressful for our bodies when we do the fat loss very radically.

And the other piece of that is that if you are not weight training when you are in a calorie deficit, then up to 35 percent of the weight that you lose is going to be coming from your muscle tissue, this precious muscle. 

So in the past two episodes, I've talked about the benefits of weight training and the benefits of having muscle.

 So if you didn't listen to last week's episode about why it is so important and so wonderful to have muscle on your body, please go back and listen to that one. But so my advice to you is to spend the next 8 to 10 weeks, depending on when you listen to this, building muscle.

And then you continue to build muscle during the [00:12:00] whole fat loss phase. And the reason that I would start building the muscle now and not wait until you're doing the fat loss, though, at that point, please latest start. So you can hold onto some of your muscle. As you go into that calorie deficit, 

the reason why it's best to start now is that if you haven't been weight training before, like in a serious way, it takes a little while to actually kind of get up and running and get to the point where you're challenging your body, where you are stimulating the muscle growth plus weight training when you're in a calorie deficit is just harder because you don't have the energy, you don't have the recovery, you don't have the strength.

 The last time I was in a calorie deficit was two years ago, so it's been a while and I remember from it so well how awful it was to go to the weight room because I [00:13:00] wasn't making progress. You know, at the point in my weight training journey, where I was still getting stronger all the time, I was able to do more reps, I was able to increase weights at a fairly nice pace.

I mean, now, now that I've been lifting longer, it's a slower pace than it was back then, but back then it was like I kind of stopped progressing. I just had to push myself to stay at the same level because my body was tired because I wasn't fueling it enough. So, so for that reason, I really would recommend that start the weight training now and shameless plug my do it yourself programs.

They have 10 weeks worth of training in them. So. Perfect timing. 

You could start on the do it yourself program now, then join the fat loss workshop and start losing fat closer to summer. And then by summer You'll be [00:14:00] stronger. You'll have less fat on your body and you will be super happy that you got started in January, even though that might seem like a crazy idea.

All right. So those are my thoughts for today because so many women are talking about, Oh, I'm feeling a little bit after the holidays. So take advantage of that extra weight that you have on you and start. Building muscle it's like extra energy that you've got on your body.

If you now stop gaining weight, so stop overeating, overindulging what we've been doing in the holidays, start eating and maintenance and then start weight training very consistently to build muscle and then come March, come to the workshop, let's set up your fat loss phase and then You can enjoy your fat loss phase plus the weight training, of course, always the weight training when [00:15:00] you're in a calorie deficit because you don't want to lose muscle.

So two things if you take away from this episode nothing else is. Whenever you're in a diet, make sure you're weight training, so you hold onto your muscle, and eating protein. So those are the two things you can do to help you hold onto your muscle and actually lose fat and not just scale weight, which includes your muscle as well.

And by the way, if you're on Ozempic, because that is so common now, I have people in my membership and clients who are on Ozempic, you should always be weight training and always be paying attention to your protein so that you hold on to your muscle. One of the biggest criticisms of the weight loss drugs is women And men are losing their muscle and muscle is so important.

We are waking up to the fact that muscle is so important. And that's one of the biggest concerns [00:16:00] that doctors have. 

Of course being overweight is very, very unhealthy. So that needs to be gotten under control. But add the weight training in when you are losing fat.

And with that, I will leave you and remind you that in the show notes is a link to sign up for the Fat Loss Workshop so that I'll send you the details as it comes closer. And if you're not weight training yet, and you're looking for a program, a basic beginner program to get you started then I have those too and the link is in the show notes for those as well.

So until next time, I wish you Happy training!