Losing Weight Over 40. How Primal Bod Helps Women Achieve Lasting Weight Loss

How To Lose Weight After 40: Discover Surprising Fat-Burning Secrets

Why Weight Loss Becomes More Challenging After 40

Key Takeaways

  • Discover why traditional weight loss methods stop working after 40

  • Learn how insulin, not just estrogen, affects weight gain during perimenopause

  • Explore science-backed strategies for sustainable weight loss in your 40s

Reaching your 40s brings wisdom and experience, but it also introduces new challenges when it comes to weight management. Have you also noticed that your tried-and-true weight loss methods aren't working like they used to? And have they ever really worked? In my early 40s, all of a sudden, my body was different. Something must have changed. But what was it? 

The Hidden Truth About Weight Gain After 40

Traditional advice focuses heavily on declining estrogen levels when explaining weight gain in perimenopause, but there's a crucial factor that many experts overlook: insulin sensitivity. During perimenopause, women often experience:

  • Increased insulin resistance

  • Changes in fat distribution, especially around the midsection

  • Slower metabolic rate

  • Decreased muscle mass

  • Disrupted sleep patterns

I started to follow different doctors and health influencers online, but was getting more and more frustrated. Everyone was focusing on decreasing estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels. If we all went through the same transition, why did we all have different symptoms and experienced perimenopause differently? 

The majority of ‘experts’ were saying that Hormone Replacement Therapy was the only solution. But that didn’t resonate with me. I am the girl who always tries to find natural solutions. So I was stuck, confused about my next steps.

When we didn’t already have enough on our to-do list, we now have a body that we don’t recognise anymore. We just want to feel good again and didn’t think we would feel this old in our early 40s. I wasn’t ready to settle for my perimenopause body that wasn’t functioning the way I wanted it to.

I needed to know more. 

The Insulin-Weight Connection: What Every Woman Over 40 Should Know

I continued to feel stuck following random advice form ‘experts’ online, until February 2024 when I stumbled upon Candi from Primal Bod on Instagram. All of a sudden, it all made sense. What I thought was a healthy diet, was actually keeping my blood sugar levels spiked throughout the day which made me overproduce insulin. And what I learned in Primal Bod was: insulin is the fat-storing hormone. The more insulin you produce, the more fat you store. 

I learned  that insulin, also called the "fat-storing hormone," plays a more significant role in weight gain than previously thought. The Primal Bod program addresses this by focusing on:

  1. Blood sugar management

  2. Insulin sensitivity optimization

  3. Natural hormone balance

  4. Metabolic health restoration

  5. Circadian rhythm alignment

Eating the rainbow was not making me healthy but steering me straight towards insulin resistance?!? I was shocked. Why wasn’t anyone talking about this? Up until then, my body was able to handle my insufficient diet, but with the hormonal changes inside of me and decades of  just winging it, everything shifted. 

Every symptom my body was showing me was a cry for help. My body needed help to function again. I was not giving it what it needed. The problem wasn’t the decreasing estrogen, it was the poor diet I ate and the lifestyle I was leading that left my body struggling.

Not Your Body Is The Problem, Your Environment Is

Primal Bod taught me that it’s not your body that’s broken, it’s your environment. Our bodies are always striving for health and optimal physique. We are unknowingly hurting our bodies by the food we eat and the lifestyle we lead. 

Our bodies are still functioning on the same principles from thousands of years ago, but we have put them into this modern world that constantly disrupts its natural flow. Our bodies are battling to return to homeostasis, yet we don’t let them do what they are meant to do: function in optimal health. 

“We don’t make the rules, nature does.”

Experiencing premature aging in our 40s is not normal, we should be thriving and be at the prime of our lives, yet this is not what’s happening. Time to get curious and learn what our bodies need in order to return to optimal health.

I was ready to take action. I found out that I needed to master insulin if I wanted to master weight loss. Who would have thought! This is what you learn in Week 1 and 2 of the Primal Bod program: all about insulin and fat storage. 

When everyone else is focusing on correcting estrogen and progesterone, insulin was the real problem. The root of my weight gain and me not being able to lose stubborn belly and thigh fat was found in high blood glucose and high insulin.

Breaking Down the Science of Metabolic Health

Our metabolic rate naturally decreases as we age, but this decline becomes more pronounced in our 40s. Your metabolism is the sum of all chemical reactions that occur inside your body. The worse your cells communicate with each other and give unclear or wrong signals, the more symptoms we will experience. 

Your metabolism involves complex interactions between:

  • Thyroid function

  • Mitochondrial health

  • Hormonal balance

  • Cellular energy production

Our slowed down metabolism requires a more strategic approach to both nutrition and exercise to achieve sustainable weight loss. And I was on it. I wasn’t ready to age at the rate I did. I was starting to feel stiff when waking up and felt the need to stretch before getting out of bed. Where was my old, energetic self?

What I learned in Primal Bod was that the two most important factors of your metabolism are your thyroid and your mitochondria. 

The hormones made by the thyroid gland influence your metabolism and tell the cells in your body what to do. When the thyroid is not functioning properly, our whole body is affected, from weight gain, hair loss, depression, muscle aches and sagging skin. The list goes on.

In order to support our thyroid, and basically all our cells, one major action we need to take is supplementing with iodine. In Week 6 of Primal Bod, you learn all about iodine and how important it is for our overall health and wellbeing. 

Our mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, they produce the energy we need to live well. We need to support our mitochondria not only with the food we eat but also with morning sunlight, something you learn in Week 4 of Primal Bod. Morning sunlight charges you up, light from our screens suck the energy out of our mitochondria. Another important charger for our mitochondria is DHA. For our bodies to function well, we need to eat foods rich in DHA like certain seafood, or we need to supplement.

Candi will teach all about getting a fiery metabolism so you can burn that stubborn belly and thigh fat.

How Primal Bod Transforms Weight Loss for Women Over 40

Evidence-Based Nutrition Strategies

When you hit your 40s, your body will show you that you are not getting enough nutrients anymore by coming up with all kinds of symptoms. Earlier in our lives, our bodies could wing it, but now it becomes apparent that we need to eat smarter and more wholesome.

Here are the key factors of eating that you need to take into consideration:

  • Nutrient-dense whole foods that support hormonal balance

  • Appropriate fat intake

  • Sufficient protein intake

  • Strategic meal timing aligned with circadian rhythms

  • Targeted supplementation 

  • Fasting

Exercise Optimization for Women Over 40 - Smart Exercise to Burn Fat & Balance Glucose

Choosing the right exercise routine is very important. Exercises like HIIT classes and CrossFit can be very stressful for the body resulting in heightened cortisol levels which will increase your blood glucose. This makes you produce more insulin and favour more fat storage, making it hard to lose weight and keep you on a plateau.

Research-backed movement strategies include:

  • Low-impact, high-effectiveness exercises like walking

  • Squatting to enhance insulin sensitivity

  • Weighted vest walking for bone density and good muscle tone

  • Strategic sprinting for visceral fat reduction

I love the Primal Bod exercise routine because it incorporates minimal time and effort for maximal results. 

Cold and heat therapy for metabolic enhancement

To me, this is the icing on the cake, or the butter on the steak :)

Cold and hot therapy are excellent ways to burn fat and I can attest that these are, besides the Primal Bod diet, my personal favourites that I get the most out of. There are too many health benefits to list and you’ll learn all about them in the Primal Bod program.

Circadian Rhythm Optimization: The Missing Link in Weight Loss

Understanding your body's natural rhythm is crucial for:

  • Leptin sensitivity improvement

  • Melatonin production optimization

  • Better sleep quality

  • Enhanced fat burning

Practical Implementation Steps:

  1. Morning sunlight exposure

  2. Blue light management

  3. Strategic meal timing

  4. Sleep optimization

Learning to honour your body’s natural rhythm is essential for weight loss and overall wellbeing. You have an inner clock that dictates what you need at certain times of the day for your body to function properly. We have created an artificial world and way of life that puts our bodies in an environment that our bodies fight against by gaining weight and feeling sick.

We are not doing the right thing. Our job is to find our way back to vibrancy as that is our natural way of being. We need to follow the rules of nature.

The hormones in our bodies are heavily influenced not only by the food we eat but also by the natural rhythm of our day. Light affects us just as much as food.

In Primal Bod, we schedule our days in accordance with the natural rhythm of our body. We support our bodies with food and actions at the right time of the day when our bodies most need it. We eat when we are most insulin sensitive in the morning and we expose ourselves to the sun to support the production of the hormones that help us feel our best during the day and at night. 

And we give our bodies time to rest and repair. In Primal Bod, we give our bodies what they need. We fuel it during the day when we are active, and we have digested our food when we go to sleep, so our bodies can clear and clean our system which is important for staying young and healthy.

Stress Management and Weight Loss Success

Cortisol management through:

  • Mindful lifestyle adjustments

  • Strategic exercise timing

  • Natural stress reduction techniques

  • Coffee consumption optimization

Chronic stress leads to elevated cortisol levels, which does promote weight gain, especially around the midsection. A busy lifestyle, never ending to-do lists, mental stress and physical stress form a rigorous exercise routine will result in increased cortisol levels which throw your sex hormones out of balance. Our lives are becoming more and more busy, we often feel bad taking time off and we take our worth from achieving. We want to do and have it all, don’t we! 

Gaining weight in our 40s is a clear sign that we are overdoing it and a call to step back. We were never meant to be everything to everybody and our bodies are letting us know this. Most of us use coffee to keep us going not realising that coffee is making us produce even more cortisol. It’s a never-ending cycle of go-go-go. Time to throw our to-do list in the bin and focus on what is really important.

If you are not healthy, you cannot enjoy all that is in your life. Health is the foundation to everything. 

The Detoxification and Fasting Connection to weight loss

Incorporating evidence-based approaches to:

  • Natural detoxification support

  • Strategic fasting protocols

  • Cellular cleanup promotion

  • Metabolic flexibility enhancement

Detoxing

When we hit our 40s, our bodies have accumulated a lot of build up. If we want to feel better and give our bodies a chance to heal and return to balance, we need to rid ourselves of all the toxins that we’ve been piling up over the years. The Primal Bod diet itself will help with detoxification, especially as we are not eating harmful plants loaded with oxalates. Iodine plays a huge role in clearing out your body as well as hot therapy. 

Fasting 

When we intentionally incorporate fasting into our weekly schedule, we mimick the lifestyle of our ancestors who didn’t have food available all day every day. Fasting is aiding your body with detoxification and makes your body use its own fat for energy instead of using the energy (glucose) from the food you eat. In Primal Bod, we call it “Feasting & Fasting” which helps you have a high functioning metabolism while cleaning up your body regularly. 

The Primal Bod Approach to Sustainable Weight Loss

Conclusion: Your Path to Sustainable Weight Loss After 40

I admit, this sounds like a lot but sooner than you think, all of these actions will feel like second nature. The Primal Bod program offers a step-by-step system that eases you into the Primal Bod Lifestyle. . Candi will take you by the hand and make sure you reach your goal physique one day at a time. Weight loss after 40 doesn't have to be an uphill battle. With Primal Bod's scientifically-backed approach and personalized support, you can achieve your weight loss goals while improving your overall health and vitality.

The program offers the structure, guidance, and understanding needed to navigate this important life stage successfully.

Take Action Today

Ready to transform your body and approach to weight loss that lasts?

Primal Bod will help you master weight loss for good by teaching you the following:

  • The optimal human diet that is in harmony with our ancestral DNA

  • The best exercise for weight loss and fat burning

  • How to leverage your natural circadian rhythm for weight loss

  • The importance of weight management and hormonal health by lowering cortisol

Mastering these topics will ensure weight loss that lasts. This program has transformed my entire life and I am so grateful I trusted the process. I have reached my goal weight and I cannot believe when I look in the mirror how young and healthy I look. I want the same for you. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or go to the Primal Bod FAQs.

PRIMAL BOD MASTERCLASS

In this masterclass, Candi will teach you the 3-step system helping women with stubborn fat naturally ignite their metabolism and obtain their dream body. This system promises you to achieve 20 pound off in 6 weeks or faster, off for life!!!

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Nina Stegelmann