I Lost 70 lbs in 9 Months: 12 Foods for Weight Loss (Women Over 40)

I lost 70 pounds in 9 months by focusing on a specific combination of foods that I ate on repeat during my weight loss journey. I lost so much fat around my midsection that I ended up having a tummy tuck to remove loose skin because that loose skin was starting to impact my workouts. I went on to lose an additional 16 pounds, so in all I lost approximately 90 pounds on this weight loss journey. The reason why my eating style worked for weight loss is because I focused on a protein target of about 140 grams a day, and one of the most efficient ways that I found to supplement my protein intake was with protein shakes. Now I like to drink a protein shake first thing in the morning, especially if I'm lifting weights because I don't like to lift weights in a fasted state. So I'll take a Premier Protein Shake, which has about 30 grams of protein in it, and I will add to it a scoop of Isopure Unflavored Whey Protein Powder, which has about 25 grams in it. So between the 30 grams in the protein shake and the 25 grams in the protein powder, I'm getting about 55 grams of protein first thing in the morning. I'm already hitting one third of my protein target for the day. Protein is so important on a fat loss journey because it is the macro that preserves your muscle while you're in a calorie deficit. If you start to lose muscle on a weight loss journey, then you're going to slow down your metabolism, which is counterintuitive to your goal. Now I found my protein target by using the TDEE calculator, and then I plugged those goals into MyFitnessPal, and I just started tracking what I ate. Now if protein shakes aren't your thing, try cottage cheese or canned tuna or sardines. They work in the exact same way, and they're high protein, no carbs, and no cooking required. Now another go-to protein on my weight loss journey were eggs. They're a staple because they're high in protein, they're low in carbs, they're about six to seven grams of protein each, and I was eating two a day. So eating two a day, that's 12 grams of protein before I put anything else on my plate. And yes, I did eat the yolk because the yolk contains healthy fat. So that combination of protein plus the healthy fat is what keeps you full. Now I mostly ate hard-boiled eggs because they're just simply easy to prepare. You batch a few on Sunday, and you can eat off them all day long. I also ate my eggs as part of vegetable scrambles as well as omelets. Then there was a point in time when I was getting tired of hard-boiled eggs, and I decided to drink my eggs raw. And let me tell you, don't try this at home. It was an epic fail. There is a technique to drinking raw eggs, one of which being swallow the yolk whole. But again, I do not encourage you to try this at home. And if eggs aren't your thing, try tofu scrambles or turkey sausage patties as great alternatives. Now one of my favorite mid-morning snacks is Greek yogurt because it is also high in protein, and I know that that snack is going to continue to keep me full throughout the course of the day. One cup of Greek yogurt is 15 to 20 grams of protein, and it always felt like a treat. It always felt like I was eating something decadent like ice cream. Now I like flavored yogurt. I don't really like the plain yogurt, but you have to be really careful about what brand of flavored Greek yogurt you're eating because some of those brands add 25 to 30 grams of sugar to their flavored yogurt. So if you're not eating plain Greek yogurt, you're going to eat a flavored Greek yogurt. Just be sure you're reading the labels and it doesn't have a lot of added sugar that go along with that flavor. And now the probiotics in Greek yogurt actually promote gut health, which has a direct correlation to your metabolism, which means if your goal is fat loss, this is going to help speed up that process. If you want an alternative to Greek yogurt, then try low-fat cottage cheese. It works the same way. It has the same protein range as well as versatility. One of the ways that I boosted the flavor of my Greek yogurt was by adding blueberries. Now blueberries are not only high in fiber, but they also hit that sweet tooth craving without sending my blood sugar through the roof. Some alternatives to blueberries are raspberries and blackberries, which are also high in fiber and they have a low sugar content, so you can swap them out for blueberries at any time. But blueberries are high in antioxidants, which help us fight inflammation. And chronic inflammation is one of the main reasons why women over 40 have such a difficult time losing fat, especially that belly fat that hangs out around our midsection. So all in all, blueberries are low in sugar, they're high in fiber, they're anti-inflammatory, and they are great for your digestive system. Now healthy fats slow digestion, and this is great when you're on a fat loss journey because it helps to keep you fuller longer. One of the ways that I got in healthy fats on my weight loss journey was peanut butter. Now I will readily admit there are plenty of great alternatives to peanut butter, including almond butter, natural peanut butter, but I went with the good old off-the-shelf peter pan because that was what was good to me. Now I can eat peanut butter by myself, but I mostly used it as a spread on fruit or other foods. One of the things that you really have to be careful about with peanut butter though, it is calorie dense, which means the calories start to add up fast with the peanut butter. So I always measure out my peanut butter, one to two tablespoons of peanut butter is all that I will have, and I will make that last throughout the day. So if I'm eating peanut butter as a spread with a mid-morning snack, then I'm probably also saving about half of that to use it as a spread with my afternoon snack as well. And if you have a nut allergy, then sunflower seed butter is also a great alternative to peanut butter or almond butter. Now one of the foods that I would spread my peanut butter on and eat it as a snack are rice cakes. And I love rice cakes because they are a healthier alternative to things like chips and crackers. It gives me that same crunch, but at a fraction of the calories. And I also am not getting all of the other processed ingredients that you would get in some of those other snack type foods. And paired with peanut butter, rice cakes are a complete snack. I'm getting the complex carb from the rice cake, I'm getting the protein from the peanut butter, and that combination is what is going to keep me full and help me to get through the mid-morning and the mid-afternoon munchies. Now one of the foods that was a foundation of most of my lunches and dinners was chicken. Now chicken is just one of those foods that is high in protein, no carbs, and is so lean that you can get your fill of it without filling yourself full of unhealthy calories. Turkey breast is basically identical and it does the same thing. So you can swap them out in your meal preps. But one of the great things about having lean chicken or lean turkey breast as a foundation of two meals a day is that protein has a thermogenic effect, which means your body expends more energy to burn off protein than it does carbs or fat. So just by filling yourself with lean protein, not only are you helping to keep the cravings at bay because you're keeping yourself fuller longer, but you're also burning more calories just digesting the food, which is what you want when you're on a fat loss journey. Now I like chicken and turkey breast, but you can basically substitute this out for any lean protein. Shrimp is another great choice, as well as salmon. It keeps well so you can meal prep it on a Sunday and eat off of it all week. It's also pretty easy to find if you go into places like Sam's Club or your grocery store, and to be honest, that is one of the best hacks that I've discovered on my weight loss journey. But six ounces of lean protein like chicken or turkey breast will get you in the neighborhood of about 35 to 45 grams of protein at a time, and that is significant when you're trying to hit a protein target like 140 grams every day. Another great alternative is lean ground beef. As long as it's lean, it's a little bit higher in fat, but it's still a great alternative as a strong protein source. Now one of my most favorite complex carbs are sweet potatoes, because one, they're sweet, and two, because they're high in fiber, which means it's going to slow down the rate at which that sugar hits my bloodstream, so there aren't going to be any blood sugar spikes or major crashes afterwards. Now I know a lot of people look at sweet potatoes and they look at the carb counts on sweet potatoes and they say, well that's too many carbs, I'm trying to do a low-carb diet. But what I will tell you is that when you work out as much as I do, I run three to four times a week, I strength train four to five times a week, you cannot cut out your complex carbs. You have to have good, healthy complex carbs just to fuel those workouts. I have in the past tried to do a low-carb diet and work out to the extent that I'm working out now, and oh my gosh, I just didn't have the energy to power through the workouts. So I always encourage people, no, do not cut out the complex carbs, that is what actually fuels you and it helps to get you through those workouts that you're doing. Now I do try to eat my complex carbs earlier in the day, so I'm typically having that sweet potato at lunch. Another alternative that I'll use to sweet potatoes is oatmeal, I'll eat that in the morning as a complex carb to help fuel my workouts and to help give me energy for my activities of the day. But sweet potatoes absolutely became one of my go-to foods on my weight loss journey. Now one of the best food discoveries on my weight loss journey was avocados. I would in the past have not ever tried an avocado simply because of the way that they look. But I was following a meal plan that called for avocados and so I was like, okay, I guess I'm going to try an avocado. And oh my gosh, I fell in love with avocados on my weight loss journey and I eat them on a regular basis. Not only are they a great healthy fat, but they're also high in fiber as well. So I'll take an avocado and I'll slice up a fourth of it. I will sprinkle it with a little sea salt and I will have that with an egg omelet for breakfast in the morning. Or I will take a quarter or a half of an avocado and chunk it up and I will put it on a sweet potato and drizzle a little olive oil on it with some sea salt and I could literally eat that as my lunchtime meal. Now you can get your healthy fats from a handful of walnuts or a drizzle of olive oil, but either way, no matter what source you use for your healthy fat, you have to have it as part of your diet. It promotes hormone health and as women over 40, that is so very important. And especially if we're trying to lose fat. And as an aside, avocados are high in potassium, they're high in magnesium, and they support muscle function as well as reduce bloating. Now one of my go-to sources for green vegetables is green beans. They are high in fiber, they are low in carbs, and you can fill up half your plate full of green beans and barely get 50 calories. And zucchini does the same thing. You can saute it, you can roast it, and you can have a great low-calorie base to any meal. Now we talked about fiber slowing down digestion, which is what you want so that those cravings don't creep up between meals. Broccoli, asparagus, they all do the same thing. And I like to saute my vegetables, sometimes I'll roast them in the oven, I'll sprinkle them with salt and pepper and a little garlic powder and a little onion powder. And most importantly, these foods are cheap, they're easy to prepare, and they go with practically any meal. Now one of the foods that I ate practically every day, and sometimes twice a day, were Granny Smith apples. And I specifically ate Granny Smith apples because they were high in fiber, but they were also lower in sugar content than some of the other sweeter apples. Pears are a great alternative to Granny Smith apples, but I would take my Granny Smith apples, I would slice them up, and I would eat them with my peanut butter. I would dip them in my peanut butter, and I would have that as a mid-morning snack or a mid-afternoon snack. But I absolutely loved them because they were a little tart, they were a little sweet, they went well with the peanut butter, and I got that crunch in that I needed to feel like it was a filling snack. And on my weight loss journey, I actually figured out the trick to preparing my Granny Smith apples in advance so that they didn't immediately brown on me, and that was to put them in a cup of water with two teaspoons of lemon juice and let them soak for about five minutes. Now I would do this in the morning before I left for work, and then I would pack them in my meal prep, and by the time I was ready to eat them mid-morning, mid-afternoon, there was not a brown spot in sight. This trick actually worked. But absolutely, Granny Smith apples were a staple in my weight loss journey. Once a day, sometimes twice a day, I just loved them that much, and I always keep them on hand. Another staple in my diet that's actually gaining some real traction these days on social media are chia seeds. They're high in fiber. They're high in protein. I mean, one ounce of chia seeds has about 10 grams of fiber. That's a pretty big deal considering one ounce of chia seeds you can barely see at the bottom of your bowl. Now I like to take chia seeds, and I would make chia bowls with them, pair them with almond milk, or I would mix them with my Greek yogurt. And the thing about chia seeds is that they expand up to 10 times their size when they are wet. So you put them in some sort of liquid, they absorb the liquid, and they physically expand. So when you digest them, this is now taking up space in your digestive system. This is taking up space in your stomach so that you're feeling full and you're less likely to overindulge. You're less likely to have cravings where you want to eat something because you're physically full from these chia seeds. Now they don't have any flavor. They don't have any texture. Now you can basically eat chia seeds with anything. I put them in my protein shake, my overnight oats. You can put them in your Greek yogurt, psyllium husk, as well as ground flaxseed are other great alternatives to chia seeds because they give you that same amount of fiber that helps with digestion. But I love, love, love making chia bowls where you take chia bowls and you add almond milk to them. You let it sit overnight and then you add a few unsweetened cherries to it. It is one of the best breakfasts that I've had on my weight loss journey. Now I did create a checklist of all of these foods. So if you don't have pen and paper but you want the list, check out the link in the video description and grab that free download. So just remember, if you really want to burn fat and to recomposition your body, your focus has to be on nutrition. It's the most important part of the equation. You need lean protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, lots of fiber, and minimal sugar. And when in doubt, reach for the foods that are mostly unprocessed over those foods that are overly processed or cooked in a lots of cream and sauces or chemically altered oil. And a good way to start your fat loss journey with a focus on nutrition is by going to the TDEE calculator and getting your macronutrient targets. And then taking those targets, plug them into a food tracker like MyFitnessPal or Luzid. And then start tracking your food against those targets every day with a focus on hitting your protein target and staying within range of the other macronutrient target. And don't forget, if you want a copy of the food list that I talked about in this video, click on the link in my video description and download that. If this video has been helpful to you, take a moment and give it a thumbs up. And if you haven't joined the Get Fit community yet, what are you waiting on? Take a moment and hit the subscribe button. I would love to have you here as part of our community. Take care and I'll see you in the next video.