Struggling to lose weight after the age of 40

Struggling to lose weight after the age of 40 can sometimes be a challenge for women.

What is it about this time in a woman’s life that makes weight loss difficult? Is it perimenopause, or in some some cases early menopause? Could it be we become more comfortable with our self-image, so that we no longer strive to maintain our ideal weight? Or is it that we can’t be bothered to exercise as much as we did when we were younger? Perhaps we have certain aches and pains that prevent us from doing the type of exercise we used to.

Or could it be some deep seated belief in ourselves that prevents us from eating healthy food like we know we should, or exercising regularly?

What are these beliefs and where do they come from?

According to Marisa Peer, founder of the RTT Method, there are six types of overeaters. In working with clients, I have come across a few of these types and their self-sabotaging behaviours that prevent them from losing the weight they desire to lose.

People who struggle to lose weight will generally fall into one or more of the categories below:

1. Addictive Eater

If you find you are always craving sweet, sugary foods and drinks, junk foods packed with preservatives and refined carbohydrates you are most likely an addictive eater.

You may have grown up with a very controlling parent who strictly denied you food like sweets, cakes and other treats.

2. Emotional Eater

Emotional eaters will eat out of loneliness, boredom, sadness and will find comfort in certain foods. Usually sweet, sugary foods and also caffeine and alcohol.

For some emotional eaters, you may have had apparent who used food to demonstrate their love for you, by buying you ice creams, chocolates, fish and chips.

3. Habitual Eater

If you are a habitual eater, you will tend to eat whether you’re hungry or not. Maybe you’ve been made to eat everything on your plate as a child and this has become a habit carried through your life.

See leaving food as empowering and know that when you don’t need food it is wasted wherever it goes.
― Marisa Peer

4. Ignorant Eater

Ignorant eaters are not so common today, as there is so much information on healthy foods. However, if you feel you don’t really know what’s good or bad for you, then maybe you fall into this category.

If you believe that eating diet foods, drinks and convenience foods are good for you, then it’s worth considering that perhaps you’ve been brainwashed into these unhealthy beliefs.

5. Destructive Eater

In Marisa Peer’s wonderful book ‘You Can Be Thin‘, she talks about a client who she regressed to a scene when she was 2 years old. She witnessed her father hitting her mother and when she tried to step in and help her mother, her father threw her aside like a rag doll.

Because she felt so small and vulnerable, her young mind had her believe that she needed to be large to protect herself and her mother and be safe and secure. Therefore, she subconsciously packed on the weight and struggled for many years to ever keep it off. That was until she had a session with Marisa.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclaimer here.

6. Angry Eater

An angry eater will often prefer eating crunchy, tough foods such as potato chips, apples and crusty white bread. This helps when you’re feeling stressed or tense.

You may often eat after a fight or disagreement, when you want to push feelings down.

Interestly, over 70% of overeaters are addictive or emotional, while 20% are habitual and ignorant eaters, leaving only 10% being destructive and angry eaters. In all of these cases, an RTT session can find the reasons behind your over-eating by targeting your subconscious mind.

RTT can help change your mindset towards food and exercise. It will help you to leave childhood eating in your past and ensure your weight loss will be sustainable into the future.