Weight Gain After 40: The Science and Solutions

The scale's creeping up, but nothing about your diet or exercise has changed. Sound familiar? That frustrating weight gain after 40 isn't your imagination—it's biology. And while it may feel inevitable, science shows it's absolutely reversible.

Your body undergoes significant shifts after 40 that directly impact weight management. Estrogen and progesterone begin their gradual decline, changing how and where fat is stored—shifting from subcutaneous (under the skin) to visceral (around organs) storage. This redistribution not only changes your silhouette but increases inflammation and insulin resistance. Meanwhile, muscle mass naturally decreases by 2-7% per decade unless actively maintained, lowering your metabolic rate and making weight gain easier even without eating more. Add in the sleep disruption and increased stress common in midlife, and you've got a perfect storm for weight gain that has nothing to do with willpower or laziness.

The solution isn't found in restrictive diets or punishing exercise regimens. Instead, focus on evidence-based strategies that address these biological changes: prioritize resistance training to maintain muscle mass; emphasize high-volume, nutrient-dense foods like fiber-rich plants that keep you fuller longer with fewer calories; ensure adequate protein intake (1.2-1.6g/kg daily) to support muscle preservation; and implement stress management techniques to improve sleep quality and regulate hunger hormones. Remember, self-compassion isn't just nice—it's effective. Research shows women who approach weight management with kindness achieve better long-term results than those using harsh self-criticism as motivation.

This journey isn't about shrinking your body. It's about reclaiming your strength, energy, and metabolic health for decades to come. With the right strategies, you can feel strong and vibrant again at any age. Ready to transform your relationship with your changing body? Listen now to discover exactly how to work with—not against—your biology.

Go check out my website for tons of free resources on how to transition towards a healthier diet and lifestyle.

You can download my free plant-based recipes eBook and a ton of other free resources by visiting the Digital Downloads tab of my website at https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/shop

Don't forget to check out my blog at https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/blog

You can also watch my educational videos on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpkQRXb7G-StAotV0dmahQ

Check out my upcoming live events and free eCourse, where you'll learn more about how to create delicious plant-based recipes: https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/

Go follow me on social media by visiting my Facebook page and Instagram accounts
https://www.facebook.com/plantbaseddrjules
https://www.instagram.com/plantbased_dr_jules/

Last but not least, the best way to show your support and to help me spread my message is to subscribe to my podcast and to leave a 5 star review on Apple and Spotify!
Thanks so much!

Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey everyone, welcome to Season 2 of the Dr Jules
Plan-Based Podcast, where wediscuss everything from
plant-based nutrition to themain pillars of lifestyle
medicine.
On medicine hey everyone,welcome back to another episode

(00:33):
of the podcast.
Today we're going to be talkingabout gaining weight after 40
and how to help reverse it.
Now, you didn't change the wayyou eat, you didn't stop working
out, but suddenly the scalestarts creeping up and nothing
seems to work anymore.
Now, if that sounds familiar,today I'll explain why weight

(00:56):
gain happens after age 40, thereal science behind it and what
you can do without fad dietsshame or without starving
yourself.
So if you've been gainingweight after age 40, especially
around perimenopause andmenopause, this is not something

(01:17):
that you're imagining.
Something does change after age40, and it's not that your
metabolism is broken, it's notthat you're doing anything wrong
.
It's your biology that'sshifting and your lifestyle
needs to shift with it.
Now, this is not aboutshrinking your body.
It's about reclaiming yourstrength, your clarity and your

(01:39):
energy, and a healthy weight too.
Now in your 40s, a lot ofhormonal shifts will start to
happen, including estrogen,progesterone and insulin.
Estrogen and progesterone.
They start to decline, and it'snot just about your cycle.
Estrogen helps regulate fatstorage and insulin sensitivity,

(02:02):
and when it drops, fat tends toredistribute to the abdomen.
When estrogen starts to decline, fat will be shuttled from
being stored underneath yourskin to inside of your organs,
so basically going fromsubcutaneous fat storing to

(02:25):
visceral fat storing, and thatcan make insulin resistance
increase, making it easier tostore fat and harder to burn it.
You may also experience highercortisol, especially with poor
sleep and chronic stress, whichpushes fat storage specifically

(02:46):
around your belly, as visceralfat Now we know visceral fat
will be more inflammatory, maylead to more insulin resistance
and increases the risk ofmetabolic dysfunction.
But this isn't about willpower,it's about understanding your

(03:06):
own internal chemistry.
Now, the other thing that mayimpact your weight in your 40s
is your muscle loss.
Now, after 30, we naturallylose anywhere from 2 to 7% of
muscle mass per decade unless weactively fight it.

(03:27):
And although I don't have anydata to back it up, I have heard
the saying that something like90% of people will not sprint
after age 35.
I think most people becomeprogressively less active as we
age, and not just that agingcauses muscle mass decline, it

(03:52):
compounds if you're moreinactive and sedentary Now.
Muscle is a very metabolicallyactive tissue and it burns more
calories at rest.
Active tissue and it burns morecalories at rest.
So if you have less muscle youhave a lower BMR, or basal
metabolic rate.

(04:12):
And if you have less muscle youhave less strength.
And if you have less strengthyou're more easily fatigued,
which typically leads to lessdaily movement and a slow and
steady weight gain.
So not just the hormones thatare changing.
Muscle mass is changing andtypically drops with age, and

(04:37):
with age people naturally moveless.
And if they move less, theamount of calories they burn
while active or even at restgoes down.
So BMR goes down because musclemass goes down, and muscle mass
goes down because people tendto naturally move less with age.

(04:58):
So the solution is toprioritize resistance training.
Even just a few sessions perweek can make a big, big
difference.
Now hormonal chaos isn't justhappening below the neck.
It's happening in your brainand nervous system too.

(05:19):
Increased stress that's commonculprit in adults with young
kids or busy moms that aretrying to keep the family going
and all of the chores done havehigher levels of stress.
Hormones like cortisol andcortisol does increase cravings

(05:41):
and increase the deposition ofbelly fat or of visceral fat.
Now high levels of cortisol cannegatively impact sleep quality
and sleep quantity becausebefore going to bed your
cortisol is supposed to declineas melatonin rises and cues
sleep.
So if your cortisol is highbefore going to bed, you have

(06:05):
poor quality sleep and thatleads to lower leptin levels
that's the satiety hormone andincreased ghrelin hormone levels
, which is your hunger hormone.
Now people who are sleepdeprived can eat anywhere from
300 to 400 more calories per daythe next day, often from

(06:28):
processed foods that are rich inrefined carbs and added fat.
Emotional eating and late nightsnacking and fatigue-driven
choices do become more frequentas stress levels increase and
sleep quality goes down.
My main tip there is to build acalming nighttime routine.

(06:50):
Even 15 minutes of screen-freewind-down time could improve
sleep and reduce stress eatingcycles.
Now you see that everythingkind of is interlinked right.
See that everything kind of isinterlinked right.

(07:11):
As you age, your hormones change.
Your BMR goes down as yourmuscle mass goes down.
Women in their 40s typicallyhave higher cortisol levels
because of higher stressfullives.
They have kids, they have work,they have chores.
Their hormones are changing,their moods are changing.
They're in perimenopause.
Cortisol levels tends to go up,sleep quality tends to go down,

(07:33):
ghrelin goes up, leptin goesdown and they find themselves
craving more ultra-processedfoods.
And after a poor night's sleep,calorie consumption goes up.
Processed foods and after apoor night's sleep, calorie
consumption goes up.

(07:55):
Now, considering this change inhormones change in BMR, muscle
mass, sleep quantity and satietyand fullness hormones the foods
that worked for you in your 20sand 30s might now be too
calorie dense for your currentneeds.
You want to try to limit orrestrict ultra processed foods,
which typically have morecalories and less volume and
lead to less fullness.

(08:15):
And after 40, eating smarterbecomes more important than
eating less, and the key is highvolume, low calorie density
meals like huge salad soups orveggie stir fries or bean bowls.
Including whole plant foods inyour diet is more important than

(08:35):
trying to restrict food groups.
Now you want to try to focus onfoods that weigh a lot but that
contain few calories, likefiber-rich plants, legumes,
chickpeas, beans, lentils, soyproducts, fruits and whole
grains.
Now what actually works overthe long term is having a

(08:59):
strategy that is backed inscience.
Now here's what the researchshows could help reverse midlife
weight gain.
Number one strength training andNEAT.
Neat is non-exercise activitythermogenesis.
It is the calories burnedthrough involuntary exercise.

(09:22):
So obviously you want tovoluntarily exercise, but you
also want to modify yourenvironment where you're moving,
without really noticing it.
It can be like just having astanding desk at work or parking
further from the door at work,putting yourself in situations
where you're moving more, andthese small steps that you

(09:46):
accumulate during the day, theydo add up.
Now you also want to focus mostof your diet on whole,
minimally processed foods in theway Mother Nature created them
or as close as possible to it.
In this way, you're naturallygoing to be choosing foods that
are higher in nutrient densitybut lower in calorie density.

(10:11):
These foods will contain morefiber, more water and will keep
you fuller for longer, and thesefoods may actually help
recalibrate different hormonesthat impact calorie consumption,
like leptin, ghrelin andinsulin.
You also want to make sure toeat enough protein to preserve

(10:36):
lean mass.
So obviously 90% of thestimulus that leads to muscle
growth is resistance training,but 10% relies on eating
adequate protein.
Now, the RDA signals a 0.8 gramper kilogram per day as a
minimum to prevent proteindeficiency, but most experts

(10:59):
would recommend consuminganywhere from 1.2 to 1.6 grams
per kilogram per day of proteinin order to protect muscle mass
Another very important part ofthe diet to consider is your
fiber consumption.
Something like 95 to 97% ofCanadians are deficient in fiber

(11:22):
.
To 97% of Canadians aredeficient in fiber.
We should be probably eatinganywhere from 25 to 35 grams of
fiber per day at a minimum, butconsidering that we probably
evolved on diets as high as 50to 75 grams per day, it's very
important that we at leastconsider increasing.

(11:43):
Now, fiber only exists inplants and it exists in all
types of plants, whether it'sfruits, veggies, legumes, nuts,
seeds or whole grains.
The more the merrier.
But if you increase fiber, youwant to go slow, as if your gut
is not adjusted, it might causebloating and it might upset your

(12:08):
tummy.
So that will simply decrease orreduce the compliance to high
fiber foods.
Now we know that high fiberdiets will reduce hunger.
Hormones helps regulate insulin,lowers cholesterol, blood
pressure, cardiovascular risk,cancer risk.
Fiber helps feed your gut bugsthat then reward you by

(12:31):
producing short-chain fattyacids.
These short-chain fatty acidsget reabsorbed into your
circulation, cross theblood-brain barrier and impact
everything from satiety to mood,to concentration and to
cardiovascular and metabolicrisk factors.
So fiber is probably the mostimportant nutrient in your diet,

(12:55):
yet it is the most deficientone one.
Now.
Another useful tool for certainpeople could be versions of
fasting or intermittent fasting.
It can help, but only ifappropriate and if it fits your
life.
What people need to understandis that fasting regimens do

(13:17):
typically lead to lower calorieconsumption throughout the day
and to weight loss, but if yourcalorie deficit is too high, you
may put yourself at risk forlosing muscle mass if you're not
resistance training or eatingappropriate amounts of protein.
The other thing you need toknow is that during that eating

(13:39):
window, if it's restricted, youneed to have a very high quality
diet, because if you're fastingand simply eating in a six to
eight hour window, it's going tobe very difficult to hit all of
your nutrient goals.
Eating enough protein andenough calcium and enough
magnesium in a very restrictedeating window can be hard.

(14:00):
Restricted eating window can behard, and losing weight and
keeping a healthy weight on isimportant, but only if it's done
responsibly.
And the most important thing ofall is probably having
self-compassion.
Now, women who are kinder tothemselves actually lose more
weight and keep it off longer.

(14:21):
This isn't just about bodyweight, it's about body
composition.
The goal is to be strong andenergized.
Now at my clinic, where we work.
We've acquired a scanner calledthe InBody 580.
It's a body compositionanalyzer and what it does?
It actually measures not justyour weight but your muscle mass

(14:46):
, your lean body mass, fat massand your water weight.
So that way we can measure ifpeople are losing fat or losing
muscle when they're in acalorie-restricted diet.
Now what the science shows isthat women that go through
perimenopause or menopause don'tjust tend to gain weight.

(15:08):
They tend to redistribute thatfat mass.
So instead of storing fatunderneath their skin in the
subcutaneous storage, they tendto redistribute that towards the
visceral fat storage, meaningthat fat is now stored inside of
the organs around the organs,and that tends to more

(15:32):
negatively impact metabolichealth.
It leads to more fatty liver,more insulin resistance, and
that also has negative metabolicimplications.
So if you're feeling frustratedwith your body lately, remember
this that you're not broken,you're not lazy, you're not

(15:52):
alone.
You're simply living in a bodythat's adapting to a new phase
of life, and now that body needsa new plan.
With the right strategies,weight gain after 40 isn't
inevitable.
It's actually reversible.
More importantly, you can feelstrong and clear-headed and

(16:14):
energized again if you justfocus on the right things now.
I know that it's an unsexy andunpopular scientific opinion,
but it is based in high qualitydata.
We all tend to gain a littleweight when we get older, but

(16:38):
it's not all hormonal in nature.
We also tend to work out less,to move less.
We tend to lose muscle mass,and if we lose muscle mass
because we don't lift as heavyas we used to or we spend less
time in the gym, our basalmetabolic rate will go down.

(17:01):
Our basal metabolic rate willgo down If we also have higher
stress levels.
Our stress hormones will behigher.
That leads to changes in how weredistribute fat, much in the
same way as visceral fat willaccumulate more when women lose
their estrogen and theirprogesterone after menopause.

(17:25):
If you have higher stress levels, you'll also have poorer sleep,
and with poorer sleep you'llhave increased levels of ghrelin
, the hunger hormone, lowerlevels of leptin, the satiety
hormones.
People who sleep less tend toeat more the next day.

(17:47):
Some studies have shown thatsleep depriving people to less
than six hours of sleep pernight can increase calorie
consumption by up to 400calories more the next day, when
compared to people who haveadequate amounts of sleep.
Add all of that together andthat clearly explains why people

(18:10):
are gaining weight.
So if you're like, look, I'vebeen eating the same, I've been
doing everything the same,nothing has changed, but I'm
gaining weight, why is it?
Your hormones are changing,your muscle mass is changing,
your sleep quality are changing,your stress hormones are
probably higher, your calorieconsumption is higher and you

(18:33):
need to review your plan.
What you were doing in your 20sand 30s might not be working in
this new body that you're livingin, and it's more important
than ever to maintain musclemass.
That's probably the mostimportant things Now.
The solution isn't this complex, ultra hard, unattainable

(19:01):
strategy.
It's eating more plants thatare higher in fiber and lower in
calorie density.
It's lifting weights to protectmuscle mass.
It's increasing protein, whichwill help you feel fuller for
longer and will help protectmuscle mass.
And it's making sure to havestrategies to manage your stress

(19:22):
, like a wind down routine soyou get high quality sleep that
favors your stress hormones, butalso your hunger hormones.
And if you can do all of that,you have a fighting chance to
not just stabilize your weightbut achieve a healthy body
weight.
And, like I've said a few times, the goal is not body weight

(19:45):
but body composition.
We want to make sure that ifyou're achieving a healthy body
weight, that you're also doingit while maintaining a healthy
muscle mass.
Your muscle mass is the mostimportant predictor of your
basal metabolic rate and thistends to go down with age.

(20:08):
So we need to double down onmaking sure that we maintain our
BMR by maintaining our musclemass Right on.
If this episode resonated withyou, please share it with a
friend who's navigating thissame journey.
Go check out my website forfree advice.

(20:29):
Go check out my website forfree advice.
You deserve to feel good inyour skin at every age and I
want to help you get there cool.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We'll see you at the nextepisode.
Hey, everyone, go check out mywebsite plantbaseddoctorjulescom

(20:51):
to find free downloadableresources, and remember that you
can find me on Facebook andInstagram at Dr Jules Cormier,
and on YouTube at Plant-Based DrJules.