Building muscle after 40 might seem daunting, especially if you’ve heard myths like, “It’s too late,” or “Lifting weights will make you bulky.” The reality? It’s never too late to build strength, feel confident, and improve your overall health. If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, your body is still capable of amazing transformations—if you know how to work with it, not against it.
In this post, we’ll uncover the truth about building muscle after 40, debunk common myths, and give you actionable tips to get started.
Why Building Muscle After 40 Matters
As we age, our bodies naturally lose muscle mass—a process called sarcopenia. Starting in our 30s, we lose about 3-5% of our muscle mass every decade, which accelerates after 50. This muscle loss isn’t just about aesthetics; it impacts your:
Metabolism: Less muscle means fewer calories burned at rest, making weight gain more likely.
Strength and Mobility: Loss of muscle can lead to weakness, poor posture, and reduced quality of life.
Bone Health: Resistance training strengthens bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis.
Building muscle helps counteract these effects, keeping your metabolism active, your body strong, and your energy levels high.
Debunking the Myths About Muscle Building After 40
Myth #1: It’s Too Late to Start
Many women believe that after 40, their bodies are “too old” to build muscle. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Research shows that women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond can not only maintain but also increase muscle mass with the right approach.
Strength training isn’t reserved for the young—it’s one of the best things you can do for your body at any age.
Myth #2: Lifting Weights Will Make You Bulky
The fear of becoming “bulky” keeps many women away from weightlifting. The reality? Women don’t have the testosterone levels required to build muscle the way men do. What weightlifting actually does is help you develop lean muscle, which gives you a toned, sculpted appearance.
Instead of making you bulky, lifting weights can help you look leaner by reducing body fat and improving muscle definition.
Myth #3: Cardio Is Better for Fat Loss
Cardio has its benefits, but when it comes to fat loss and body composition, strength training is the game-changer. While cardio burns calories during the workout, strength training builds muscle, which increases your calorie burn 24/7—even while you sleep.
For optimal results, combine strength training with moderate cardio and prioritize recovery to support muscle growth.
Why It’s Harder to Build Muscle After 40 (But Not Impossible)
While it’s absolutely possible to build muscle after 40, there are some challenges to be aware of:
Hormonal Changes: As estrogen levels decline, your body may recover more slowly and store fat more readily, especially around the midsection.
Slower Recovery: Aging muscles take longer to repair after workouts, making recovery strategies essential.
Lifestyle Factors: Busy schedules, stress, and lack of sleep can all interfere with muscle growth.
But don’t let these challenges discourage you! With the right strategies, you can work around them and still see incredible results.
How to Build Muscle After 40: Actionable Tips
1. Prioritize Protein
Protein is the building block of muscle. Aim for 1g of protein per pound of body weight daily. Include lean meats, eggs, fish, dairy, or plant-based options like tofu and legumes in your meals.
2. Lift Heavy (for You)
Forget the 3-pound dumbbells. To build muscle, you need to challenge your body. Start with weights that feel heavy but manageable and focus on progressive overload—gradually increasing weight or intensity over time.
3. Don’t Skip Recovery
Recovery is where the magic happens. Prioritize sleep, stay hydrated, and include rest days in your workout routine. Active recovery, like yoga or walking, can also help.
4. Be Consistent
Building muscle doesn’t happen overnight. Aim for 2-3 strength training sessions per week, focusing on compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and presses that work multiple muscle groups.
5. Address Hormonal Changes
Work with your body by managing stress and optimizing your nutrition. Techniques like mindfulness, stress management, and focusing on nutrient-dense meals can support hormonal balance and muscle growth.
The Long-Term Benefits of Muscle Building After 40
Building muscle doesn’t just improve how you look—it transforms how you feel. Benefits include:
A stronger metabolism, making fat loss easier.
Increased energy and stamina for daily life.
Reduced risk of injury, osteoporosis, and chronic diseases like diabetes.
A sense of confidence and empowerment that comes with feeling strong.
Ready to Start Your Strength Journey?
It’s never too late to start building muscle, and the rewards are worth it. Whether you’re brand new to strength training or ready to take your workouts to the next level, I’ve got the resources to help you succeed.
As the weather cools down, many women over 40 notice a familiar pattern—winter weight gain. The colder months bring comfort food cravings, holiday gatherings, and a natural urge to slow down. But what if I told you that winter weight gain doesn’t have to be the enemy? You can actually plan for it, prevent it, or even use it to your advantage. Here’s how to handle winter weight gain so you come out stronger and healthier on the other side.
Why Winter Weight Gain Happens
Before diving into solutions, let’s talk about why winter weight gain is so common. During the winter, many of us are less active, crave richer, heartier foods, and indulge more during the holidays. Combine that with shorter days and colder weather, and it’s easy to see why our bodies tend to hold onto a little extra weight. But this doesn’t have to be a negative thing!
Instead of dreading those extra pounds, you can choose how to approach winter weight gain. You can plan for it, prevent it, or use it to your advantage—especially if you’re focusing on long-term health and fitness.
Option 1: Plan for Winter Weight Gain
If you know winter weight gain is likely, why not plan for it instead of fighting it? Here’s how:
Shift Your Focus to Maintenance
Winter is a great time to switch your focus from fat loss to maintenance. This means eating to fuel your body and working out to stay active, without stressing over the scale. It’s a break from constant dieting that gives your body time to recharge. After all, maintaining your weight through the winter is a win!
Enjoy Seasonal Comfort Foods in Moderation
You don’t have to skip the cozy winter meals, but balance is key. Aim to fill your plate with lean proteins, fiber-rich vegetables, and healthy fats. Foods like soups, stews, and roasted veggies can be comforting and nourishing without overloading on calories.
Give Yourself Grace
Allow yourself to enjoy the season without feeling guilty. The extra warmth your body holds in the colder months is natural and temporary. Remind yourself that weight fluctuates, and that’s okay.
Option 2: Prevent Winter Weight Gain
Not ready to let those extra pounds creep in? Here are some tips to help prevent winter weight gain:
Stay Active Indoors
It’s easy to get stuck on the couch when it’s cold outside. But staying active, even indoors, can help prevent weight gain. Whether it’s a home workout routine, resistance training, or simple movement breaks throughout the day, keep your body moving. Remember, small bursts of activity add up!
Fuel Your Body, Don’t Overload It
Eating more doesn’t have to mean eating poorly. Focus on nutrient-dense foods that fuel your body. Protein, fiber, and healthy fats can help keep you satisfied and curb cravings for less nutritious snacks. Think about adding the good, rather than restricting yourself.
Stay Hydrated
Winter weather can make you feel less thirsty, but staying hydrated is crucial for preventing overeating. Sometimes we confuse thirst for hunger, so keep up with your water intake. Try herbal teas or warm broths to stay cozy and hydrated at the same time.
Option 3: Use Winter Weight Gain to Your Advantage
What if you could turn winter weight gain into a positive? Here’s how you can use this season to build muscle and set yourself up for long-term success:
Embrace Muscle Building
Winter is the perfect time to focus on strength training. If you find yourself craving more calories, put them to good use by fueling muscle growth. Building muscle not only boosts your metabolism but also makes future fat loss easier. Plus, having more muscle helps you look and feel strong!
Focus on Strength-Based Workouts
Shift your workouts from cardio to strength training during the winter months. Building muscle can help offset any potential weight gain, and it’s an excellent way to stay active while indoors. Strength training will also give you a solid foundation for when you’re ready to focus on fat loss again.
Use the Off-Season to Recover
Winter is a great time to prioritize recovery. Focus on getting enough sleep, managing stress, and giving your body the rest it needs. Proper recovery will help you build muscle and prepare for future fat loss phases with a renewed sense of energy and focus.
The Bottom Line: Winter Weight Gain Isn’t the Enemy
Whether you choose to plan for winter weight gain, prevent it, or use it to your advantage, the key is to approach this season with a strategy. Winter doesn’t have to derail your fitness goals. In fact, with the right mindset and plan, you can come out of the colder months feeling stronger, healthier, and ready for what’s next!
Can muscle turn into fat (or vice versa)? Technically…no. But it can sometimes look like it. This illusion is precisely why most women spend less than 5% of their weight loss efforts trying to build muscle, and over 95% (spinning their wheels!) trying to tone it. Today, we’re setting the record straight about why this simply isn’t possible and how having outdated beliefs about muscle and fat being interchangeable ends up causing more problems for 40+ women than it provides solutions… (full video below)
Understanding Body Composition
Before we dive into the myth, let’s take a moment to understand the characteristics of muscle and fat. Muscle tissue is composed of protein filaments and is responsible for movement, strength, and endurance. On the other hand, fat tissue serves as an energy storage depot, storing excess calories in the form of triglycerides.
The Distinct Nature of Each
Each cell is distinct in their composition and function. Muscle cells contract to produce force, allowing movement, while fat cells store energy as triglycerides. These two tissues have different structures, purposes, and metabolic activities, making it impossible for muscle to transform into fat or vice versa.
Weight Loss and Changes in Body Composition
During weight loss, it’s common to experience changes in muscle mass and fat stores. However, it’s crucial to understand that these processes are separate and not interconvertible. A calorie deficit can lead to overall weight loss, but if not managed properly, it can result in loss of muscle and potential gain in bodyfat. Proper nutrition, exercise, and a balanced approach to weight loss are key to preserving lean body mass while reducing fat.
Factors Influencing Muscle Loss and Bodyfat Gain
Several factors can contribute to muscle loss and fat gain. Inadequate protein intake, lack of strength training exercises, and prolonged calorie deficits can lead to muscle breakdown. On the other hand, excess calorie intake, reduced physical activity, and an imbalanced diet can contribute to fat gain. By addressing these factors, we can maintain muscle mass and promote a healthier body composition.
Preserving Muscle and Reducing Bodyfat
To preserve lean body mass and reduce bodyfat effectively, it’s important to adopt specific strategies. Engaging in regular strength training exercises helps to maintain and build muscle mass. Consuming an adequate amount of protein is crucial for muscle growth and repair. It’s also essential to create a moderate calorie deficit that supports fat loss while minimizing muscle loss. Finding a sustainable approach to nutrition and exercise is key to achieving long-term success.
Conclusion: Muscle cannot turn into fat, and fat cannot turn into muscle. They are distinct tissues with different structures and functions. By debunking this myth, we aim to empower individuals to make informed decisions about their fat loss journey. Remember, preserving muscle mass, reducing bodyfat, and achieving a balanced body composition require a combination of proper nutrition, regular exercise, and a sustainable approach.
Are you trying to lose weight but your family and friends resist your weight loss efforts? You’re not alone. In this video, I’ll share three surprising reasons why they may be doing this – and what you can do about it.
3 Surprising Reasons Family And Friends May Resist Your Weight Loss Efforts
The #1 reason that people don’t support you is they don’t believe you. I’ve done a series on our Youtube Channel before where I kind of pinned down my husband and asked him why husbands tend to sabotage their wives. And as I’ve talked to different people in families, especially within the Eat More 2 Weigh Less community, a huge reason why people don’t support you is that you don’t believe them.
Maybe you are that girl that cries wolf, or you’ve experienced that person constantly changing things up. This is their seventy-eighth fad diet, their twelfth time quitting smoking, or they’re starting a new MLM or whatever it is. There’s always this person constantly starting something but never finishing it. And perhaps, that’s been you in the past.
Typically the people closest to you remember all those things. So whenever you start trying to change something, especially if you’re that person, that girl who’s always just been kind of radical and taking everything to the extreme. If that is you, then you can’t really expect people to just jump on board. Even I tend to hold people to that standard. If I know somebody who is always saying that they’re gonna do something, I just wait it out to see if this is really something that’s gonna stick or not. And that could be what somebody’s doing for you. So whether you’re that person that doesn’t believe people or you’re someone that nobody believes, just make sure that you’re committed first before you try to get other people to jump on board.
Watch the video above for more reasons why family and friends may resist your weight loss efforts
It’s entirely possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. In fact, you may even find that your body composition changes quite a bit in the first few weeks of starting a new workout routine. But is it healthy? And more importantly, is it sustainable? Watch the video below to learn about Body Recomposition and if it’s the right path for you.
Body Recomposition: Can You Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time?
Body recomposition is losing fat and gaining muscle. These two things are the epitome of what you typically try to do when you want to lose weight.
This is not to be confused with Body COMPosition. With Body Composition, if you hire a personal trainer, they take your weight, picture, measurements and have you do something like a DEXA scan, which helps you understand what your body fat and muscle mass are. However, when doing a Body Recomp, you will usually find that the fat percentage went down and the lean body mass percentage went up. What this does is instead of just focusing on weight loss, like stepping on a scale, you are making sure that the weight that you look at changes.
Watch the training above for a more in-depth look into Body Recomposition…
So you’re trying eat better, but the weight isn’t coming off? You’re not alone. Here’s why “healthy eating” alone doesn’t work for weight loss.
The Truth About Healthy Eating
Getting healthy does not guarantee weight loss, and thinking that way may be getting in the way of you reaching your physique goals.
I know that for many ladies – weight loss and the journey to become more “healthy and fit” coincide. And the line is often blurred, with so many “health” foods, gadgets, and supplements being marketed as a magic solution to make you fit, trim and lean. But the thing is, those things are not one in the same. So here’s a few things to consider if you want to be healthy and lose weight.
Weight Loss Basics Still Matter
Most of us have expressed the desire to be more fit and healthy as if they’re the same. We tend to assume that being healthy and losing weight are the same goal and, depending upon the information you consume, that thought is likely being confirmed.
Maybe you’ve experienced going to the doctor and constantly hearing about how you need to lose a little bit more weight to help solve some problems that you have in an area that has nothing to do with weight loss, like a knee issue, back pain, or fertility. We’ve often heard that if we lose weight, it will help. And while losing weight does affect blood markers, that does not mean that getting healthy and losing weight are the same.
Think about it.
There are so many loving, caring moms out there, who only eat organic foods. Some grow their own vegetables, and even grind their own grains, almonds, etc to make bread and other whole grain or gluten-free products. Yet they rarely lose weight, and many are gaining! This may even describe you, a person doing alllll the healthy things, but not seeing the scale move the way you want it to. This is because a healthy diet does not automatically equate to weight loss.
Many ladies assume that as long as they eat clean, healthy, or organic, that calories don’t count. The reality is that you may see beneficial health improvements from an extremely healthy diet, but not see physique changes. This is because gaining or losing of fat and muscle require either a surplus or deficit of calories:
If you are trying to lose weight and are eating an excess of calories, even if those are the most amazing healthy organic calories, they’re still going to cause weight gain. If you are eating maintenance level calories of the most nutritious foods on the planet, you are still eating maintenance level and will stay the way you are. If you’re eating less food, you will probably see the scale go down or some weight shredded off, even if it’s “junk” food.
If you want to be healthy and lose fat, you need to eat healthy at a calorie deficit. If you’re going to gain muscle and be healthy,
you will have to increase those same healthy calories, to put yourself in a caloric surplus. If you’re someone who is on the fence – you want to lose a little bit of fat but eating super healthy foods isn’t all that important to you – good news! you still can lose weight and not be eating 100% healthy, clean and organic.
That’s why it’s essential to know both ends of the spectrum. The reality is, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are if you’re eating too many calories, and it doesn’t matter how unhealthy you are if you’re eating fewer calories. You will probably still lose some weight, whether or not that is a healthy weight that you’re losing.
So if you can find a healthy medium where you’re doing both, that will be the best-case scenario mainly because you are tailoring it to yourself. You can be “kind of” healthy, hitting your macronutrient level by eating a sufficient amount of treats, even if those things are what somebody else might consider junk food.
As long as you’re hitting the amount of protein and fiber your body needs and hitting the calorie level for your specific goal, then you can still see progress. This should give you both hope and a reality check!
Getting “Fit” vs Getting Lean
The second thing that I would say to consider when we’re thinking about being healthy is that being fit is not the same as being leaner or thinner. As I said in the first point, someone can be unhealthy and underweight. So assuming that because someone is skinnier than you means they are healthy is just not the case.
If you are taking excellent care of your health and body, working out consistently, eating healthy foods like whole grains, vegetables, and high protein, you are a healthy person even if your weight does not reflect that. On the contrary, some people are not exercising, not eating the healthy foods, getting insufficient protein, and not correctly fueling their body; even if they are underweight, that does not mean that they’re healthy. Knowing this allows us to have the freedom on our journey to do what it is that we set out to do.
How does this relate to your goals?
Well, if fat loss is your goal, understand that exercises that are “heart-healthy,” high endurance, or make you feel good may not actually be related to your goal of a physique change.
Your endurance may improve, but endurance and fat loss are not the same. Having a “healthy” heart does not automatically equal a smaller body size. So if you’re attempting to lose some fat, you may need to adapt the style of exercising accordingly. This means specifically executing fat loss behaviors, such as hitting a certain amount of protein, eating a certain amount of calories, doing some strength training workouts (your best friend when you’re trying to lose fat because it helps you hold on to muscle mass and keep your metabolism nice and high), and sometimes – limiting cardio for periods of time.
Sure…If you’re only looking to be healthy, then that means you can do whatever exercise makes you feel good. Get your heart pumping and get those endorphins…
Just remember, endorphins don’t cause weight loss.
So..what do you really want?
When you start to see fit/lean and healthy/weight loss as separate entities, you can begin creating the goals that you want, knowing what to expect from the actions that you’re taking. If you’re looking to lean out, then it’s about understanding what the basics of fat loss entail and making sure that those are incorporated, regardless of your health goals.
You can have a health goal, and you can have a fat loss goal. Just make sure that the actions and expectations align. That means you should not be upset when you eat healthily, exercise a lot, and see physique changes. Don’t say, “I just want to be healthy again,” when you mean “I just want to be the size that I was.”
Remember that your journey has different seasons, and each phase brings something new.
When you are in a muscle-building phase, you are looking to build muscle. You’re not necessarily looking for fat loss.
When you’re in a fat loss phase, you’re not looking to build muscle. You’re looking to lose fat and hopefully hold on to some of the muscles that you had.
There’s also the Chill phase when you’re not looking for anything. You’re not paying attention to what you eat. It’s a time to relax, be more intuitive, and have some mental freedom from tracking food all.the.time. BUT…that means you’re not expecting fat loss. You’re not expecting muscle gain. You’re not expecting anything. You’re just taking life as it comes because your focus is on mental clarity, relaxation, and not having to log everything.
It may seem nitpick-y to spell the differences of these phases out, but when you’re working your butt off to get results, it helps to make sure that you are getting the terminology right to express what you are looking for.
The terminology you uses indicates where your mindset is, and can be a huge indicator of why you’re not seeing the progress you want. So don’t be afraid to sit with the question “what do I REALLY want” and answer it unapologetically – even if it’s “unpopular.” I get it, we live in a society right now where either side of the fence can be looked at as horrible. One community is shouting, “Love yourself the way that you are, don’t ever try and change anything.” But then another community is telling you to change everything about yourself because “You suck, you’re fat. You don’t belong in this society.” The person who wants to enjoy life and not be concerned over their weight is shamed for being “unhealthy”, while someone else who wants change how they look is made to feel bad about it.
I see so many ladies don’t want to admit their actual goals, for fear of being excommunicated from the self-love community, or health-shamed.
Find your happy medium! What are your standards of beauty? Own it, even if it’s unpopular with another crowd. You’re going to be 100% unhappy if you’re in one camp shouting “Rah, rah!” when what you REALLY want is the results of another camp.
If you want to lose fat, there is no shame in that. If you are pleased where you are and want to be healthy, there is no shame in that.
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