Transcription
Five months ago, I listened to a fascinating podcast about fitness and food tips for women. Over the last five months, I put these tips into practice and got terrific results, and I just had to share them with you. In this video, I'll share seven valuable tips for women to be fit, strong, and healthy.
To let you know, these aren't my tips; I learned them from Dr. Stacy Sims via these podcasts, so a shout-out to her for sharing her wisdom. A quick bit about me before we get started: I started weight training two years ago at the age of 40. Before that, I did lots of running, circuit training, high-intensity interval classes, things like that. I thought that was one of the best ways to be fit and healthy, but after some extensive health tests, it showed I was "skinny fat," meaning I had high body fat and low muscle mass. This was having a negative effect on my health and would also cause me problems later in life.
So that brings me nicely to my first tip, and it's probably the most important one in this video. Looking at the marketing from a lot of fitness companies, it seems that losing weight means doing a lot of cardio. But this message seems to have got stuck in the Dark Ages. At a Paddington, London gymnasium, we pay a visit to the weaker sex. This fine flexing movement is called "Elephant Walk," swinging to and fro, and the first thing you know, none of those spare tires around the middle. Dr. Stacy Sims strongly encourages women to do weight training. I'll explain why in a minute, but first, let's look at the downsides of doing lots of cardio exercise, also known as chronic cardio.
You know the image: seeing someone frantically working out on exercise machines in an attempt to lose weight and stay trim. This approach of chronic cardio isn't effective, especially for women, and more so for women over the age of 40. This chronic cardio puts unnecessary stress on the body, increasing cortisol, disrupting female hormones, and in some cases, instead of burning fat, it can actually encourage the body to store fat.
Doing lots of cardio can also cause the body to lose muscle, which isn't ideal as we get older. Every year over the age of 40, the body loses 1% of muscle and 3 to 5% of strength. This can be worse in women over 40 due to fluctuating hormones and a decrease in estrogen and progesterone. This decrease in estrogen causes bones to become weaker and increases the risk of injuries to muscles, tendons, and ligaments, which, as you can imagine, isn't ideal for optimal health.
But there is something we can do to offset these natural decreases in muscle strength and bone density and encourage our body to burn fat and be healthy, and that's with weight training. Now, when I say weight training, I don't mean doing a Les Mills Body Pump class, you know, the one where you do weights to music. It's not a circuit training class doing lots of different exercises, nor is it HIIT or CrossFit training. Surprisingly, these are all chronic cardio in disguise.
I'll explain why in tip two. Weight training, or resistance training, is exactly what it sounds like or how you would imagine it: using weights to build muscle and strength. You'd use either a barbell, dumbbells, weight machines, or a mixture of all, doing it in a strategic way using sets and reps in order to get results. If you're a woman and you're thinking, "Well, I don't want to do weight training because I don't want to get muscly," us women haven't got the hormone profile to get muscly like men. All that will happen is that our body will firm up, we'll get stronger, we'll feel better, and the increase in muscle will increase our metabolic rate, therefore helping burn body fat. It's an absolute winner.
This was what I looked like when I did chronic cardio, and this was me after nine months of weight training. I can't believe the change. I didn't even like weight training before, and now I love it. I just wish that I'd started it sooner. Sims recommends doing three to four weight training sessions a week, allowing enough recovery in between workouts so the body can adapt. For women over 40, she recommends focusing on strength training, doing lower reps and using higher weights for certain exercises to improve strength and keep bones, muscles, and joints healthy.
If you're not doing weight training or strength training already, it's probably best to follow a program because it can be difficult to know what to do otherwise. I'm following a great program that incorporates strength training, so I'll leave a link to that in the description. If you're tempted to start weight training, which I hope you are, or if you're already doing it, I'd recommend giving Vivo Barefoot shoes a try to improve performance and get better results.
The flat sole of a Vivo Barefoot shoe means you can plant your feet into the ground and get good stability. This is especially helpful in things like the overhead press or when doing lunges. Unlike conventional shoes with a narrow toe box, which squeezes our feet and toes into the wrong shape, Vivo Barefoot shoes have a wide toe box, allowing us to spread our toes, providing us with a good base to balance on and a stable position to work from.
It's why you might see people in the gym doing certain exercises with no shoes on, so they can spread their feet and toes, get good stability, and push their effort and force into the ground. But there's no need to take your shoes off; just wear Vivo Barefoot shoes. Any of the Vivo Barefoot trainers are ideal for weightlifting, but my personal favorite are the Motor Strength. These are robust, lightweight, and flexible, keeping my feet in position when doing weightlifting.
If you want to try Vivo Barefoot shoes, use LauraTR20 for 20% off, and they offer a 100-day trial to make sure you get on with them as well. Just because we've swapped chronic cardio for weight training doesn't mean not doing any cardio at all. Before I share what the right kind of cardio is, let's look at what we're told to do by a lot of the big fitness companies.
It's common to think that doing long cardio sessions is the best way to burn fat and be healthy, but this medium-level Zone 2 exercise isn't great for women over 40 because it increases cortisol and disrupts female hormone balance. So if we're doing long, slow stuff or moderate intensity Zone 2 stuff, that's not really going to create the kind of stress that we need to invoke change.
Then there's the high-intensity exercise, like circuit training and spinning classes, which are often promoted for weight loss and for building strength. You've got things like F45, SoulCycle, Orange Theory, and CrossFit. Most of the people these classes are aimed at are women, but these are the types of exercise that are most detrimental to women over 40.
I can't believe this information is only coming out now because this style of exercise makes us get really sweaty and out of breath. It makes us feel like we're working hard and that it's doing us some good, but unfortunately, it's not putting the right kind of stimulus on the body to get the results needed to be healthy. We end up in this kind of weird middle ground that feels like we're doing something because our heart rate is high and we're dripping with sweat, but we're neither improving our muscle mass, nor are we improving our muscle strength, nor are we improving our cardiovascular health or VO2 max.
It's the wrong kind of stimulus to get the results we want or need. Instead, it just does all the things we've already mentioned: creates unnecessary stress, increases cortisol, disrupts female hormones, burns muscle, and increases fat storage and the risk of injury. It's basically doing the opposite of what it says it will do. I did this style of training for years, and now I refer to it as frantic exercise because it just looks frantic with no clear strategy for results.
Now I can see why, over the years, my body slowly gained fat and lost muscle, and I became skinny fat. So if it's not recommended to do this chronic cardio or frantic exercise, then what kind of cardio should we do instead? Sims recommends true high-intensity intervals: short bursts of all-out maximum effort for between 30 seconds and 4 minutes, trying to get our heart rate above 80%, and then having plenty of rest in between—30 seconds all out, followed by two or three minutes of recovery.
I'm not looking at Tabata, where you're 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off, because that's not the intensity we want. We want you to go all out and recover well enough to be able to go all out again. You're not leaving anything in the tank. My personal favorite is 30 seconds of maximum effort on the exercise bike or an Airdyne bike with 90 seconds of rest in between. If you're a runner, run 400 meters as fast as you can, then rest for the same amount of time it took you to run the 400 meters. Three to five sets of this is enough to get results, and do it one to three times a week on a separate day from weight training.
The key with this is to work hard during the intervals and make sure you're fully recovered in between so you can give your next set just as much energy. These are tough, but the good thing is they don't take a lot of time. A warm-up, the intervals, and a cool-down, and you could be in and out of the gym within 20 minutes. But unlike these frantic classes, which burn precious muscle, true high-intensity intervals preserve muscle because it's short, powerful bursts of exercise while improving cardiovascular health and VO2 max.
Sims explains a number of other reasons why true high-intensity intervals are good for women, especially women over 40. It's got something to do with the anti-inflammatory response in the mitochondria, which then improves body composition. Because of lactate production, it's good for the brain and helps with cognitive decline. But those parts of the podcast got a little complicated for me, but I was completely sold on the true high-intensity intervals.
I'm covering a lot of information in this video, and there's a lot to remember, so I've written all of the tips and all of the information I talk about on this sheet. I've made it in bullet points so it's easy to read, and I've written all the most important stuff in red. You can download this via the link in the description, so it's easy to refer back to and make sure you're getting all this stuff right.
An important thing to say: just because it's recommended to stop doing the chronic cardio and the frantic classes, it doesn't mean not doing things like long hikes and bike rides. Do that kind of stuff for enjoyment and for the mental health benefits, rather than doing them as exercise and a way to lose weight and fat, obsessing over the calorie count and the heart rate zones.
For optimal health and well-being for women, we've got our weight training and our true high-intensity intervals. But what about food and meal times? Intermittent fasting is a big trend right now, and there's this idea that goes around that doing fasted exercise burns more fat. I did intermittent fasting for seven years because I'd read books and listened to podcasts explaining the health benefits of it. I also exercised without food. Thankfully, I stopped intermittent fasting two years ago. I made a video about my reasons why, which I'll link up here and also in the description.
Sims explains that generally, men can do intermittent fasting and exercise with no food and get good results. They become leaner and stronger; they don't tend to lose muscle mass, and it doesn't have a negative effect on their health. But for women, doing intermittent fasting and exercising with no food can cause us to gain weight, lose muscle, and it is detrimental to our health. This is because women have more functions in the body that rely on food, things like the reproductive system and hormones.
There was something to do with oxidative fibers, glycogen stores, and our metabolic rate, and the number of kisspeptin areas in the brain. Therefore, it's important we eat in the morning and before exercise so our body has the fuel it needs for its complex functions and so it doesn't break down precious muscle. Sims also explains that when women do intermittent fasting or exercise with no food, it does all the things that chronic cardio does: it puts unnecessary stress on the body, increases cortisol, disrupts the hormones, the body will burn muscle, and it can also lead to thyroid issues, which then has a negative effect on body composition.
We have more chance of gaining weight. Not eating before exercise also means women won't have the fuel to hit a high enough intensity, so we won't create a big enough stimulus. Therefore, the body won't adapt, and we won't get the results we want from exercise. It's like taking one step forward by doing the exercise and then taking one step back by not eating before it; it kind of cancels each other out.
Men do really well on things like fasted training. We see men do really well on calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, and fasted exercise. These are perfect examples of how certain things can be ideal for men but not good for women. This next tip has been an absolute game-changer for me. The key bit of advice for women is to eat breakfast, even if it's just a small one, 30 minutes after waking up and 30 to 60 minutes before exercise.
Doing this stops the body from being in a catabolic state and breaking down muscle. It reduces cortisol, signals to the brain that it has what it needs to protect our hormones, and allows the body to get on with the day without being in a state of stress. I didn't eat breakfast for almost eight years because of intermittent fasting, so it was a bit weird having breakfast again, but I soon got used to it. I've been having breakfast for the last two years now, and I feel so much better for it.
When it comes to exercise, having this small meal or snack beforehand ensures that our body doesn't break down muscle during the exercise while providing our body with enough fuel so we can push hard and create the right stimulus in order to get results. Sims recommends women eat 15 grams of protein 30 to 60 minutes before weight training and 30 grams of carbohydrates 30 to 60 minutes before a cardio session.
Since learning this, for the last five months, I've put this advice into practice. Even though I'd stopped intermittent fasting two years ago, I was still exercising with no food because I get up at 5:00 a.m. and exercise at 6:00 a.m., and it was just all too much to do too early on. But since learning all this stuff, I actually now have the 15 grams of protein and the 30 grams of carbohydrates before all my exercise sessions.
It allows me to push hard, which has then allowed me to lift more weight, do more reps, and do maximum effort with the intervals. I've got better results; I've gotten stronger, fitter, gained more muscle, and just overall, I feel better—all from having this small snack before exercise. So that's what to eat in the morning and before exercise, but what about after exercise?
Men and women are different when it comes to refueling after exercise. Men's metabolisms return to normal within about three hours, so they can get away with waiting longer to eat after exercise. Women's metabolisms return to normal within 60 minutes, so that makes it more important to eat soon after. This signals to the body to go into repair and rebuild mode rather than be in breakdown mode and lose muscle.
Ideally, women should eat a protein-rich meal within 45 minutes of exercise. The longer a woman goes without food, the greater the likelihood of staying in a catabolic state, which means they're losing muscle. This is especially important for women over 40 because muscle and strength are already decreasing due to a decrease in hormones.
Sims recommends that after exercise, women aged 20 to 40 eat 35 grams of high-quality leucine-rich protein, and women over 40 eat 40 to 60 grams of high-quality leucine-rich protein after exercise. The reason she recommends more protein for those over 40 is that the body becomes more resistant to building muscle as we get older, as well as becoming less efficient at metabolizing protein. So we need to eat more to get the same results.
Sims also stresses that carbohydrates are really important for women and recommends eating them after exercise to replenish glycogen stores, which allows us to recover faster. This means we can then exercise again in a day or so with plenty of energy to create more stimulus and get results. Without the right fuel, the body won't have what it needs to do its job properly.
The recommendation for the amount of carbohydrates to eat after exercise is 0.3 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight within two hours. That doesn't work out to a lot at all. As an example, I'm 64 kg, so I should eat 19 grams of carbohydrates within two hours of exercise. Nineteen grams is a third of a packet of rice or one very small potato, so I just have that with my protein.
There are so many trends out there that promote avoiding or limiting carbohydrates for weight loss. We hear all these things about the keto diet, paleo, and intermittent fasting. If we look closely at that original research, most of it comes from obese, sedentary men who need to lose weight before surgery. This is another example where women's needs are very different from men's needs, and our physiology relies on carbohydrates in order to function properly, whether we're of reproductive age, premenopausal, menopausal, or postmenopausal.
We need the fuel to be strong, mobile, and healthy. I used to think that when I was doing the exercise was when my body was making the adaptations, but I recently learned that it's only after exercise, when the body is resting, that it makes the changes. For that reason, it's important to get enough recovery in between exercise sessions in order for the body to adapt.
That means not necessarily exercising every day. Doing more does not mean getting more results. In fact, in some cases, doing more can often mean getting fewer results due to the increased stress and hormone disruption. In my opinion, it's another reason why these frantic classes can be detrimental; it's a kind of "more is more, never give up, no days off" approach. But the body can't adapt in a constant state of stress. Work hard and recover hard, which leads me nicely to my next tip.
Sims explains the 10-minute rule is good for when we have those days where we're physically or mentally tired or we're just not feeling great about exercise. If after 10 minutes of exercising you can't hit the weights or intensities you usually do, or you feel unusually tired or unmotivated, then change the plan. Either lower the weight, lower the intensity, do some active recovery, or you know what? You could even go home.
I know that is allowed. When the body and mind are feeling like that, it could be a sign that we need more recovery or that there's some stuff going on inside, and pushing through could mean not hitting the right amount of stimulus. Instead, we just add more stress to our already tired body. Ten minutes is usually enough to blow away any cobwebs, and more times than not, exercise will make us feel better.
But on the days where our body says no, the computer says no. The 10-minute rule gives us permission to change or skip the session. This is especially relevant to women because of changes in hormones throughout the month. This doesn't happen to me a lot, but the other morning, I was so up for my exercise session. I had deadlifts on my program, and I'd been making good progress with them, so I was looking forward to seeing what I could do that day.
I set up for the deadlifts and started moving my way up to the working weight, but something felt off, and I couldn't quite work out what it was. I carried on thinking it was just my body taking some time to wake up, so I gave it another go. Still not at my working weight, but my body literally said no. So I packed up and came home, skipping the rest of the workout.
In the past, I would have felt bad about doing that, like I was letting myself down, making excuses, or not working hard enough. But the 10-minute rule has made me realize the complexities of the female body and that some days there's a lot going on in here, and that I need to respect that and just let it happen.
I don't suppose it comes as a surprise to hear that our menstrual cycle can affect our motivation, strength, appetite, mood, and many other things. Certain phases affect cortisol levels, core body temperature, resting heart rate, insulin sensitivity, sleep, recovery, and those things can have a positive or negative effect on exercise and performance.
Although there tends to be a general pattern when it comes to women and the menstrual cycle, each woman will experience different things on different days. Therefore, it's a good idea to track your own cycle to find patterns. I only started tracking my cycle two years ago. I don't know why I didn't do it before; perhaps I thought it would be more complicated than it was.
I don't get obsessed and write every detail every day; just if something feels vastly different from most other days, I make a note of it. It's interesting seeing some common patterns. The day I implemented the 10-minute rule and came home was three days before my period, which, when I looked back, I tend to feel like that on that day of my cycle. So at least I know now for the future.
In the podcast, Sims talks about the benefits of jump training and the difference between many men and women when it comes to SA therapy and cold exposure. I was going to include them in this video, but it all gets a bit too much information, so I have included that information in the downloadable sheet.
All these tips are an example of why we, as women, shouldn't always copy our male friends, our male training partners, or the men we see in the media. I mean, I did it; I did it for years. I copied them. I did the intermittent fasting, exercised with no food, did lots of Zone 2 cardio, and that frantic HIIT-style training. I saw my male friends do this stuff, and they got lean and strong while I was over here slowly gaining fat, losing muscle, and becoming skinny fat.
As Dr. Stacy Sims says, "Women are not small men," and what works for them doesn't mean it's going to work for us. You train hard, you eat well, and the body will respond with good results and good health. You think you're going to like this video next, so maybe give that a watch.