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Summary
On episode 269 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Shawna Kaminski, a fitness industry veteran of more than 30 years and author of the book Lose Your Menopause Belly.
Shawna argues that the belly fat many women blame purely on menopause is actually tied to a broader hormonal shift called somatopause, the decline of human growth hormone that happens to men and women alike as they age.
The conversation covers the right kind of exercise to fight that decline, a simple check-in for mindful eating, and why Shawna coaches her clients to focus on process goals instead of the scale.
Links
- https://loseyourmenopausebelly.com
- https://shawnakworkouts.com
- https://www.facebook.com/shawnakworkouts
- https://www.instagram.com/shawnakaminski
Key Takeaways
- Belly fat after 40 is not just a female menopause issue. Shawna coined the term somatopause around the decline of human growth hormone, which happens in both men and women as they age, so many of the same strategies that help women apply to men dealing with their own version, sometimes called andropause.
- Long, slow cardio will not fix the hormone decline. Shawna says the default move for women over 40 is low intensity cardio, and while it beats doing nothing, it does not do much to raise HGH levels the way the right kind of training does.
- High intensity interval training triggers EPOC, or afterburn. A short, hard workout like a four minute Tabata keeps burning calories for hours after you stop, so you get more benefit from four minutes of real intensity than from a long plodding session on a machine.
- Intensity is relative to the person, not a fixed standard. A beginner and a seasoned exerciser can both hit an intensity that triggers EPOC in the same four minutes, so this approach is not reserved for elite athletes.
- Use the HALT check before you eat. Ask yourself if you are truly Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired (Shawna adds Stressed, making it HALTS) before reaching for food, since the only real reason to eat is hunger and most of the rest is emotional eating in disguise.
- The 10 minute rule gets you off the couch. Tell yourself you only have to work out for 10 minutes. Most of the time you will keep going once you get moving, and if you stop at 10 minutes, that is still meaningful exercise.
- Small, doable changes compound over time. Shawna’s client Diane lost over 50 pounds by starting with one change, cutting cream and sugar from her coffee, then slowly adjusting her nutrition and training consistently rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.
- The scale is not the whole story. Shawna pushes clients to neutralize the scale and look at a broader set of health markers instead, since body composition, energy, and how your clothes fit tell you more than one number ever will.
- Set process goals instead of outcome goals. Committing to actions you control, like exercising three to four times a week or cooking your own meals, is more sustainable than chasing a specific number on the scale, and the outcome tends to follow the consistent process.
“Everyone is so fixated on the number. And so really what we have to do is neutralize the scale. It’s not our best friend when it’s a good number and it’s not the devil incarnate when it’s a bad number.”
Shawna Kaminski