Beyond The Scale Real Health Wins After 40

Is skinny always healthy after menopause? Stop relying on the scale as your only health indicator and learn why being fit matters more than thin.

Many people equate being thin with being healthy, but this is a dangerous misconception. This episode breaks down the reality of body composition versus weight, specifically addressing why being slightly heavier but physically active often leads to better health outcomes than being thin and unfit. It is essential to look beyond the number on the scale to understand what your body actually needs to thrive.

If you have ever felt discouraged by your weight despite maintaining a consistent fitness routine, this perspective is for you. We discuss why health indicators like strength and cardiovascular endurance provide a much clearer picture of your wellness than your weight alone. By shifting your focus away from the scale and toward functional movement, you can build a more sustainable and honest approach to your fitness journey.

Cardiorespiratory fitness, body mass index and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39537313/

Dr Orlena´s Menopause Thrive Community: https://www.skool.com/dr-orlena-menopause-thrive/about

7 Day Free Trial of Dr Orlena´s Menopause Thrive Community. Get the support you need to make healthy living easy and fun: https://www.skool.com/dr-orlena-menopause-thrive/about

Transcript

 What if skinny isn't the goal? What if I told you that being skinny doesn't necessarily mean that you're healthy, and that being slightly heavier but fit could actually be better for your health than being thin and unfit? For years, we've been taught how to use the number on the scale as this ultimate health scorecard.

If the number goes down, hooray, we're winning. If it goes up we're failing. But especially after 40, that number tells you far less than you might think. For example, it doesn't tell you how much muscle you have. It doesn't tell you how fit your heart and lungs are. It doesn't tell you what your blood pressure or blood sugar looks like.

It doesn't tell you how well you're sleeping, how much energy you have, or how strong and capable you are. And there's some really interesting research looking at weight and fitness together that makes this even more important. So today, we're going to talk about what actually matters when it comes to your health [00:01:00] after 40 because I don't want you spending the next 20 or 30 years of your life simply trying to become smaller.

I want you to become stronger, fitter, healthier, and more vibrant. And if losing some excess body fat is part of that journey, fantastic, but I want you to look at the whole picture So let's start with that scale. For many people, the morning starts the same way. You step onto that cold, unfeeling square of glass, hold your breath, and wait for the verdict.

And that one number can determine your mood for the rest of the day. You feel like you're good if the number went down, and bad if it went up. And more than that, I actually see people connecting their self-worth to it. "I have failed," or, "I have succeeded." But the scale has absolutely no idea what's actually happening [00:02:00] inside your body.

Let's say you're strength training, you're eating well, you've got enough protein, you're exercising consistently, and after a few weeks, you step on the scale and nothing. Maybe that number has even gone up, and you think, "This isn't working." But meanwhile, you've lost some body fat, you've gained some muscles, your clothes might be fitting better, you're stronger, you're more energetic, you carry the shopping more easily, you're sleeping better, and your body has changed in ways that the scale simply cannot see.

That is body composition. And I have a story to tell you about this. One of my clients, she initially did super well. She was super happy that she was losing fat. She could see that her body was... Her clothes were fitting better, and her fat she could see coming down, the weight was coming down. And then she had an injury, and she couldn't exercise, and that weight stalled, it plateaued, and she got despondent and thought, [00:03:00] "None of it works.

It's not... There's no point in doing any of this if that scale isn't coming down." Now, at that point, she went to her doctor, and the doctor was a private doctor and did loads and loads of tests. And those tests came back, and the doctor said to her, "I can tell that you are really looking after yourself.

You've been eating well. All of your markers are really good." Now, without that blood test, she wouldn't have known that. She would be busy thinking, "Oh, none of this is working." That's what I like to call non-scale victories. It's not about the scale. There's so much more going on that you can't see. And this is one of the reasons that the number on the scale can be such a poor measure of progress And then, of course, there are all the things that make your weight fluctuate that have, which have done, which have nothing to do with whether you have been good.

For example, hydration, salt, food in your digestive system. If you haven't done a poop that day, that is [00:04:00] weight that you are carrying. Sleep, stress, and for women in perimenopause and menopause, hormonal changes can add another layer of complexity. So you can do everything right and see the scales move in the wrong direction.

And if you've been taught that the scale is your report card, then that is incredibly frustrating, and you might think your healthy habits aren't working. You might give up, and that the scale can actually get in the way and... Sorry, that is where the scale can actually get in the way of becoming healthier because the real goal after 40 isn't simply to be smaller.

It's to be stronger, more capable, more energetic, and healthier for the long term. Now, if you are listening to this and thinking, "Yes, this is exactly the way I want to approach my health," now I have something really exciting for you. I have literally just opened my new school community for women over 40 who want to create healthy habits that actually stick.

It is a place where we can move away [00:05:00] from dieting and constantly starting over and listening to all this noise on the internet and focus on building the habits that help you become healthy, strong, and confident for the long term, and if that includes weight loss, then absolutely, I'm happy to support you doing that.

So if you would like some support putting this into practice, this is somewhere between the free support I give people, which is basically do it yourself, and my group coaching. This is another way for me to be able to get to know you and support you better, and right now there are some small programs inside there, but I'm gonna build the community on what people want.

So I will be, over the next few weeks, adding more and more into that community, and there will be live Q&As, either me talking or chatting. Th- We'll have a combination of both of those, and that's really where the support happens, when I get to know people, and people can ask questions. So right now there is, number one, a seven-day free trial, so you have [00:06:00] absolutely nothing to lose.

Come and try it, and if you don't like it, then you haven't spent any money at all. And number two, for the first 30 people who stay in the program, it's a monthly recurring fee, and it will be $39 instead of $49, and that will last for as long as you stay in that community. So I will put the link into the show notes, and come and try it on.

Okay, back to fit beats skinny. There's something else that I want you to understand about the scale being an imperfect tool. And that's what we're actually measuring. So we've been taught to think that thin equals healthy and overweight equals unhealthy, but it's more complicated than that because you can be thin and unfit, you can have very little muscle, you can be sedentary, you can have poor cardiovascular fitness, and you can have slightly higher body [00:07:00] weight whilst being active, strong, and physically fit.

And that is a better place to be. When researchers looked at weight and fitness together, something really interesting emerges. So a meta-analysis looked at almost 400,000 people examining both body weight and cardiorespiratory fitness, the striking finding was that people who were overweight but fit had essentially the same risk of dying from any cause as people who were normal weight and fit. But the people who were unfit had substantially higher risk, even when they were normal weight. Now, I want to be clear here, I'm not saying that being overweight is healthier than being a healthy weight.

Ideally, you want to be a healthy weight and fit. And if you have excess body fat you want to lose, that's a perfectly reasonable goal. But what I'm saying is that weight is only one piece of the health matt- the... What I'm saying is that weight is only one piece of the health puzzle. [00:08:00] Fitness matters, muscle matters, cardiovascular health matters more than p- most people realize, and your metabolic health matters.

And as we move through our 40s, 50s, and beyond, these things become incredibly important. So instead of asking, "How little can I weigh?" I would like you to start thinking about, "How can I be healthy, strong, and fit?" And make that your goal. Because that's a very different goal, and actually, it's a much more exciting one.

So let's talk about the first health win I want you to focus on, and that is muscle. If there is one thing I want women over 40 to understand, it's that muscle matters a lot. As we get older, we become naturally more prone to losing muscle mass. This actually starts at around the age of 30. Isn't that incredible?

And this isn't just about how your body looks in a pair of jeans. Muscle helps you maintain strength. It supports your joints. It helps [00:09:00] you stay independent. It supports your bones. And having more muscle and strength gives you a greater physical reserve as you get older. It is the difference between being independent later in life and being looked after.

So think about these two goals. I want to weigh five kilograms less, versus I want to be strong enough to carry all my shopping bags in one go. I want to be able to get up off the floor easily. I want to be able to lift my suitcase into the overhead locker. I want to be able to hike when I'm 70. I want to be strong enough to play with my grandchildren.

These are all very different goals, and I think the second set of goals is much more motivating, so strength training becomes really important. And you don't need to be a bodybuilder. We're not gonna turn out like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You don't need to spend hours and hours in the gym. You can use weights, you can use resistance bands, machines, or you can use your own body [00:10:00] weight.

Ideally, you want to be getting to what we call progressive overload, so getting stronger and stronger. But for the first six to 12 months, that's not where we're looking at. We're looking at starting, making- lifting weights part of your life. And the important thing is that you're consistently challenging your muscles.

Now, the next thing to think about is fuel. If you want to build and preserve muscles, you need to give your body the building blocks that it needs. Now, protein is particularly important, and it's one of the reasons why I talk so much about getting enough protein at meals, particularly plant proteins. We don't...

If we're gonna get lots of protein, then we don't want to be getting it all from animals because that is a lot of meat. And, apart from plant proteins being good for our health because they're wrapped up in fiber, which we'll talk about in a minute, it's also better for the environment and obviously better for the animal.

So making protein and plant protein a priority [00:11:00] can be a really useful shift. So the health win isn't necessarily seeing a smaller number on the scale. It's noticing that you're stronger, you're lifting heavier, you're moving more easily, your body feels more capable. That is a real win. Now, number two is your cardiometabolic health.

And these numbers we need to pay attention, really more than our weight. Things, thinking like blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, and where importa- where appropriate other health markers that your doctor recommends. Because after menopause, we become more resistant to insulin, which means we're more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

And you don't necessarily feel that when it's happening. Like some things you can feel perfectly well when your blood pressure is creeping up. You can feel perfectly normal when your blood sugar [00:12:00] is creeping up and becoming less helpful. So being able to see some of these things is useful, and that is something that you can discuss with your doctor.

Now, another thing to pay attention to is your waist circumference because where you store fat matters. Fat around your abdomen, particularly that visceral fat around those intorn- internal organs, is associated with metabolic health risks. So we're moving away from how much do I weigh and towards what is actually happening with my health.

So regular aerobic activity is good for your cardiovascular system. Walking, cycling, swimming, running, dancing, whatever you enjoy. And I think people need to have a combination of what I call exercise that lights you up, that you really enjoy doing, that you think, "I want this in my week. I enjoy doing that."

For me, this is obviously swimming. And we also want to get some sprint interval training, which is pushing your heart rate up, making yourself feel out of breath. Now, it doesn't have to be for a long [00:13:00] period of time. We're talking 30 seconds, repeat it. So 30 seconds, rest for a bit, 30 seconds. What does this look like?

It might look like if you're jogging, sprinting, or just for 30 seconds, or if you're cycling, pushing yourself up a hill, but it is getting your heart rate up higher. Now, you don't have to choose between weights and cardio. You want to do both, and you might have a focus on one or the other. For me, my focus is on swimming.

Swimming is what I absolutely love. That is my priority, but I still go to the gym twice a week because I don't want to lose my muscle mass. I want to be healthy later on in life. It's gonna help me swim better as well. You might be somebody who thinks, "Actually, I want weights to be my focus." Then you can go more than twice a week if that's what you really enjoy

another thing that gets totally derailed in midlife is sleep. And I know for many women that sleep is not as simple as just [00:14:00] go to bed earlier. There are hormonal changes, stress, children, work, caring responsibilities. Sometimes your brain wakes you up at 3:00 and decides that it's the perfect time to think about everything that's ever gone wrong in your life and everything that you need to do.

But sleep matters, and it's really important for our long-term health. We can avoid lots of nasty illnesses for it. It's how your body recovers. It's important for mood and energy, appetite regulation, immune function, insulin levels. One bad night of sleep, our insulin level goes up. Insulin helps us put on abdominal fat So we want all of these things.

, Instead of asking, "Did I lose we- weight this week?" You can start asking, "Did I sleep? How long have I rested for? How much energy do I have? Am I recovering well?" And lastly, the last of my menopause thrive code pillars, so we've basically covered them here. We haven't entirely covered them, but we've [00:15:00] touched on them.

Nutrition, exercise that lights you up, sleep, and number five, mental and emotional wellness. And I think this is really one of the most important health wins of all. How do you actually feel? Do you feel happy and content or stressed and frustrated? Because you can have a healthy diet and exercise routine and still feel miserable.

That's not great. And I know there's lots going on in midlife, children, aging parents, relationships, financial pressures, hormonal changes. The mental load is real. So when we include emotional wellness as part of health, what does that look like? It means managing your stress. You never get to exclude stress entirely, but bringing it down.

So for example, when my middle son was really unwell a few years ago, it was one of the most stressful years of my life. I never got to the stage where I wasn't worried about it, but I [00:16:00] had the capacity to be able to take every single day, one day at a time, managing that, as opposed to spiraling down this negative plug hole, which would have been so easy, and all the negative consequences that come with that.

So managing your stress, it means speaking to yourself more kindly, getting outside, spending time with friends, doing things that you enjoy, making time for yourself without feeling guilty, and definitely includes exercise. Are you looking after yourself? Are you exercising yourself? And moving away from this idea that exercise is punishment for eating something you shouldn't have eaten.

So instead, exercise is a celebration of what your body can do. You don't exercise because you hate your body. You exercise because you enjoy it and you want to take care of it. You want to be strong, you want energy, you want to feel capable. So this is... When we put this all together, this is your [00:17:00] new health score.

It isn't what is the weight on the scale? You can start asking your things like, "Am I getting stronger? Am I getting fitter? Is my body composition changing? Are my health markers changing? Am I sleeping well? Am I building a body that will serve me for the next 30 or 40 years?" Because that is the real goal And you don't have to choose between weight loss and health.

When you focus on health, mostly weight loss is a happy side effect. Now, there are times when you have to do things slightly differently, but I would say focus on health and wellness, strength and fitness for the first six months. And then you might think, "Okay, I'm feeling great. I'm doing amazing. I'm doing all of these things, and yet my weight isn't shifting.

What are some of the things that I can do?" And it may be that you, there are things that you need to do, and it may be that there aren't. It depends on [00:18:00] everybody's individual situation. So to conclude, get rid of the old school car, which basically says it's all about the weight on the scale, and look at all the other things.

This is about health and wellness and how you feel. And a last reminder that if you are ready to stop starting over and actually build those habits into your everyday life, I would love to join-- you to join me inside my New School community. It's not about another diet. It's not about perfection. It's about creating a system that works for your body and building habits that is just you becoming strong and healthy and energetic.

And I was talking to one of my clients who started just a couple of weeks ago. She started with group coaching, not in this new community, but I'm teaching you the same things. And she said to me, "Wow, I can't believe how much more energy I have, how it feels easy. [00:19:00] My three PM cravings have disappeared because I am nourishing myself through the day.

I am focusing on health and wellness and learning when it's appropriate to look at the scale and when it's not, but not allowing that scale to dictate, yes, this is a successful day or it isn't." So I will leave the link to that community in the show notes. Come and join us. Remember, there's a seven-day free trial, so come and try it, and if you don't like it, you can leave.

But I hope that you think, "Yes, this is the missing piece of the puzzle. This community is really gonna help me in the long term and support me creating my system, my healthy, amazing life."