Best Weight Loss Exercise for Women (Over 35)

What’s the best weight loss exercise for women? Do I need to exercise for weight loss? These are common questions I receive from women over 35 trying to lose weight.

Today I’m going to give you the truth behind exercise and fat loss because let’s face it, the scale may be going down, but you might be losing muscle, not fat.

If you’ve been searching for the best exercise for weight loss for women, this guide breaks down exactly what works (and what doesn’t) after 35.

Do you need to exercise to lose weight?

The short answer is no. I explain more about the why exercise isn’t great for weight loss in my free weight loss class including what science really says and the studies. But in short, exercise is only 5% of total daily energy expenditure and does not contribute much to weight loss.

That’s not to say that exercise isn’t great for mental health, cardiovascular health and overall health. You should definitely be exercising! That said, the true dial mover for fat loss is not exercise. It’s your nutrition and movement outside of exercise.

If you’re going to focus your time and energy on one thing, you will get the best results focusing on your nutrition (eat what you want, add what you need!) and your movement outside of exercise. Both these concepts are covered in my free weight loss class for women.

I used to be 215 pounds myself and my weight loss journey began with daily walking. My walking habit helped me feel better about myself, better mentally and physically and inspired me to begin adjusting my nutrition and tracking my calories. Those two simple things alone led to me losing 80 pounds.

In fact, for the majority of my one-on-one weight loss clients who are starting their weight loss journeys are focusing on simply increasing movement and their nutrition. The research shows consistently this is your biggest bang for you buck!

Importance of cortisol for fat loss

Contrary to popular belief steady state cardio, high intensity training, Orange Theory, running etc. is not great for female fat loss because it puts the body under too much stress, and the female body is highly sensitive to stress.

When you’re trying to lose weight, you have to give your body the right signals. Doing these type of workouts too often without proper recovery is signaling stress to the body and some individuals will overeat food due to lack of recovery and too many high intensity workouts.

That is not to say you should never do high intensity workouts or Orange Theory. Instead, the right balance for you is key. Every individual is different. Some will do just fine with four or more high intensity workouts each week and be able to control their hunger. Others will get overly hungry from this much intensity cardio.

The key is discovering the right balance for you. Ultimately, if you cannot control your hunger and recovery properly with your high intensity cardio workouts, then you likely need to back off some of them. Remember, it’s not an all or nothing! It’s finding the right balance so that you’re not overdoing it with cardio and inadvertently increasing your hunger. Thereby, making it more difficult to control your appetite and calorie intake.

Women’s hormones for fat loss

After 35 women’s hormones begin to decline and as they decline, muscle mass is lost which means you are not burning as many calories at rest as you used to. Over one or two decades this creates a scenario where women begin to slowly gain fat.

Muscle mass is what keeps your metabolic rate higher. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn at rest.

This is why some women begin gaining weight after 35 even if they’ve been working out and eating a healthy, balanced diet. The things that worked before 35 don’t work after 35 due to declining muscle mass.

Additionally, the symptoms of perimenopause can make some women feel more tired, moody, stressed and sleep deprived. Those symptoms cause some women to eat more food thereby, gaining weight over time.

What’s the best weight loss exercise for women?

The best type of exercise for female fat loss after age 35 is strength training and cardio. Strength training will counteract declining hormones and muscle loss during midlife and that preservation of muscle mass with prevent metabolic rate from declining.

Additionally, strength training keeps bones strong and prevents osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Cardio is healthy and should be included along with strength training. They both compliment one another!

How do I exercise for my thyroid?

I commonly receive this question about exercising for hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s disease. With these conditions or other medical conditions, the formula is the same. Prioritize strength training with some cardio.

Autoimmune diseases can be sensitive to stress. This is called allostatic load. It’s important to work on stress management, recovery, and fueling your body appropriately with an autoimmune disease. You may need to reduce cardio training if you have an autoimmune disease. The goal should always be to have some consistent cardio in your exercise routine, not to eliminate it entirely.

Often we blame the thyroid for inability to lose weight, but it’s not your thyroid that’s causing you to be overweight. It’s the lifestyle, workout routine and nutrition. The thyroid is simply responding to the environment we provide it with.

In fact, many of my nutrition clients thyroid conditions improve once they begin to recover better, manage stress, fuel their body properly and more consistently. There is much more in your control than you realize despite any health condition you may have!