For many women over 40, hours of punishing workouts, endless cardio sessions, and strict calorie cuts often lead to little or no progress on the scale. In fact, this approach can leave the body more stressed, drained, and resistant to fat loss.
Putting yourself through intense workout sessions and severe calories cuts might prove to be ineffective for women over 40.(Unsplash)
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Sustainable fat loss expert Isaiah Fergusson has revealed the fitness industry’s best kept secret to burning fat for women in this age group – walking. In an Instagram video posted on August 27, the weight loss coach explains that pushing the body with high-intensity training, endless cardio, and severe calorie cuts can actually backfire after 40, as the body begins to play by different rules. Instead, he highlights walking as a powerful yet underrated tool for fat loss – one that burns more calories than most people realise, while supporting the body without exhausting it.
Walking for weight loss
According to Isaiah, walking is the most overlooked fat loss method in women over 40. For years, the fitness industry has promoted intense cardio, boot camps, and HIIT sessions as the ultimate fat loss solution. But for women over 40, these workouts may actually backfire – raising stress hormones, spiking blood sugar, and making weight loss harder.
Walking is simple, free and sustainable, hence it is overlooked by the fitness industry and considered not hard enough. “For decades, you’ve probably been told that the answer to getting results is to sweat harder, push more, train more, work out more, burn more calories. But after 40, you have to play by a different set of rules,” says Isaiah, and continues, “There’s more stress, more cortisol, more blood sugar swings, and all of this grinding it out and trying to white knuckle your weight through training sessions – it only makes things worse.”
Benefits of walking
According to the fitness coach, walking lowers stress and cortisol levels as well as blood sugar levels, while also improving mental health, and he also adds that walking burns more calories than you realise, without taking a toll on your body. He explains, “Walking is considered non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which accounts for at least 30% of the calories that we burn on a daily basis.”
Isaiah points out that the key to sustainable fat loss after 40 is to stop working against your body. Instead of punishing workouts and strict calorie cuts, adopting daily walking can create long-term results without exhausting your system.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. It is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.