8 Crazy Truths About Healthy Weight Loss and Hormones Your healthy weight may not be the number in your head. If you’ve been attached to a number on the scale, been attached to the scale period, you’re potential for self-sabotage is high. This post is all about how the days of “eat less, exercise more” have caught up to you and how your metabolism has suffered. I’ll share the common mistakes, the how to restart your metabolism, with a lifestyle that doesn’t include over exercise or undereating. This episode is brought to you by Flipping 50’s Fit-U, dedicated to women over 50 with 20 or more pounds to lose. Weight loss and particularly, fat loss, after 50 is different. Not impossible, just different. I use only research featuring women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond to create programming. I also employ 30+ years of experience as a coach, personal trainer, who has worked with midlife women to know what works, what questions to answer – before you may know to ask them.  You’ll identify your “stinking thinking” from science that’s decades old  - that’s been replaced – but that’s hard to grasp as an over abundance of information is coming at you today.  The Scale Lies. Checking your weight is not enough. It doesn’t tell you body composition. You can buy one that does. It doesn’t tell you if you’re dehydrated, you’re going to appear fatter since you store water in your muscle.  It doesn’t tell you if you’re retaining water weight since you had potentially higher in sodium or sugary foods you’re not used to. It doesn’t tell you that you have inflammation from any cause – eating foods that aren’t ideal for you, or from too much exercise. It doesn’t tell you that you may be constipated and may just be used to that feeling not even questioning it.  Calories counting is a myth. The truth is you can eat about 300 kcals more a day if you’re consuming quality calories than if they’re poor in nutrient density. The volume of food you can consume can increase, stay the same, or be less depending on the meal. You can choose avocado, salmon, nuts and seeds. You can consume plates of vegetables.  Healthy weight loss doesn’t occur at a controlled speed. You may have noticed! A piece of chocolate cake is not the same as a piece of salmon. They have very different effects on the body. Even though the calories might be the same. One will spike blood sugar, and therefore insulin. Fat storage starts and fat metabolism halts. Game over.  The same will happen if you have fruit on an empty stomach. It may seem more logical that the same is true of wine on empty, which is most often when you drink it. You will tend to - if you love your wine – look for someone who will give you the answer you want about drinking wine. That’s been my experience. If you’re ready to change you will, if you’re not you’ll ignore the steps you can take to improve your chance for fat burning (and for sleep). You don’t exchange a glass of wine for other calories during the day and make it “okay.” This, friends is a myth.  Eating less signals your body to burn less. Dieting is stress. When you are eating too little, your body is stressed. A stressed body holds onto every calorie. It’s a form of self-protection. Meanwhile, in old school thinking you believe you’re being “good.” You’ve learned if you’re hungry and grumpy that’s part of the diet process. Because (totally illogically), you think if you feel like crap you’ll eventually feel great. How wrong is that? Makes no sense when you think about it. Keep doing what never worked – permanently – and in fact do MORE of it and you’ll get better results? No. That’s pretty close to insanity. The more times in your life you’ve fallen for eating less and losing weight from restriction, then gained it back, or gained dozens, or hundreds of pounds, the more damage to your hormones that regulate weight you’ve done. It’s time to reset and restore. Start nurturing instead of starving. We all know a 20-something woman is now or has (ma