Losing Weight After 30 Doesn’t Have To Be Hard | There are things you can do to keep your tummy trim & stay within a healthy weight range. Read about how to avoid these 6 sneaky triggers that play a big part in weight gain.
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Are you worried about losing weight after 30? Did you notice your weight start to creep up once you hit that age? Your lifestyle could be having more of an effect on your weight than you think.
We all know the obvious triggers that lead to weight gain: eating too much and not exercising enough. Let’s face it, for most women thirty and over, we can’t eat the way we used to without it hitting our waistline.
But you may not know about the sneakier factors that can play a big part in weight gain. Here we’ll go over six of the most common weight gain triggers.
And we’ll give you tips for avoiding them along with a cheat sheet to help you stay accountable. Follow along and you’ll find losing weight after 30 doesn’t have to be hard. You can still keep your tummy trim and remain within a healthy weight range.
Losing Weight After 30
Trigger #1: Too Much Stress
Struggling to keep your stress levels under control? There’s a good chance that it’s affecting your weight – especially for women.
Your body releases the stress hormone cortisol during stressful periods, and this can send your blood sugar levels haywire. According to studies, high cortisol production leaves you craving sweet foods which can cause you to eat more calories.
Cortisol also changes how your body uses glucose, makes it harder to burn fat, and makes it easier to store fat. Women are more likely to store fat on their stomach, but this can also be true for men. Abdominal fat has been linked to health issues, so it’s something you want to keep to a minimum!
Lose Weight Tip
- Make stress reduction a big part of your self-care routine
Trigger #2: Falling Into Emotional Eating Habits
Not taking care of your wellbeing can mean that you eat in line with your emotions rather than when you’re genuinely hungry. Feeling sad, stressed, lonely, bored or disappointed can lead you to eat to fill an emotional void.
And it can lead you to crave particular foods, usually the unhealthy kind!
You might feel a little bit better in the immediate aftermath, but in the long term, this type of emotional eating can have a significant effect on your weight.
Most of the time, you won’t get a signal to say that you’re full. When this happens, it’s all too easy to find you’ve eaten a lot more than you planned in a very short space of time.
And you probably won’t feel any better afterward. In fact, you may well feel a whole lot worse as it’s common for emotional eating to make you feel guilty and ashamed of your food choices.
Lose Weight Tip
- Find healthier ways to manage your emotions that don’t involve emotional eating
- Adopt a more mindful approach to eating so that you don’t eat on autopilot
Related Article: How to Burn More Body Fat: 10 Must-Follow Tips For Success
Trigger #3: Not Sleeping Well
Poor sleep quality makes you more likely to eat extra calories and gain weight. This is because it disrupts hormones that control your appetite.
Lack of sleep increases the production of ghrelin and decreases leptin levels, which makes it harder to manage your appetite.
Sleeping well is one of the underrated ways to keep your weight in check as your levels of these hormones will be a lot more balanced.
Lose Weight Tip
- Get plenty of sleep to keep appetite hormones in balance
Related Article: Learn How To Get Better Sleep To Avoid Weight Gain
Trigger #4: Not Building Muscle Mass
If you spend a lot of time sitting down and aren’t very active, you probably don’t have much muscle mass. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s a common weight gain trigger.
Lean muscle boosts your metabolism and makes it that little bit easier to burn calories. If you don’t have much lean muscle, your metabolism doesn’t get this benefit, and it’s harder to burn calories.
One of the best ways to build more muscle mass is through strength training. Don’t worry, you won’t end up looking like a bodybuilder! The idea of strength training is to build a toned body with minimal body fat rather than the bulky look we often associate with weightlifting.
Lose Weight Tip
- Having more muscle mass makes losing weight after 30 that much easier. To get a toned body with lean muscles click here to check out these Workouts.
- Be physically active and help your body to gain more muscle mass (try the 30 Day Squat Challenge or the 30 Day Plank Challenge)
Trigger #5: Not Eating Enough
Being on a diet more often than not means you’re definitely going to lose weight, right? Not always! Restricting your calorie intake too much slows down your metabolism and encourages the body to go into “starvation mode.”
This is so your body can run on fewer calories. It also means you burn fewer calories as your body uses most of your intake to survive.
These kinds of diets are tough to stick and aren’t an ideal option in the long term for losing weight after 30. Chances are, you’ll go back to a less restrictive way of eating, but your body can still be more likely to store fat.
This is why many people find that they gain weight after coming off a low-calorie diet.
Lose Weight Tip
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet that isn’t too restrictive on calories.
Trigger #6: Eating “Low Fat” Foods
Just because a food claims to be “low fat” doesn’t always mean that it’s going to help you to stay in shape. A lot of supposedly “low fat” options are often high in sugar and salt to make them tastier. These foods can also contain a lot of calories. Eat too many of these “low fat” foods and you’re probably going to put weight on!
Lose Weight Tip
- Stay away from “low fat” foods that can promote weight gain
Related Article: How To Lose Weight on the Whole Food Diet
Tips for Avoiding These Triggers
So, what can you do to avoid these common triggers and get your body in the best shape? Download this handy Cheat Sheet of 6 Weight Gain Triggers and Tips To Avoid Them. Use this tool to help you follow these tips and you’ll find losing weight after 30 doesn’t have to be hard.
In Closing
Losing weight after 30 is possible and it can be done without too much heartache when you take steps to avoid these common weight gain triggers.
What About You?
Did you find your weight creep up after 30? Are you ready to take charge and follow these tips to avoid weight gain? What steps will you follow first to lose weight at this age? Comment below. I’d love to know.
All of this is so true. But reducing stress isn’t always easy. Though it’s a great start.
Agreed. For many of us, it’s a constant struggle, but one worth continually working on as the benefits are plentiful.