Over 30 fat loss checklist

thisfitmum
Nov 9
2 min read

If you’ve hit your 30s and feel like your body has changed overnight, slower progress, stubborn fat, more stress, and less energy... you’re not imagining it.

Hormonal shifts, reduced muscle mass, and higher stress loads can all make fat loss feel harder. But the good news? You can absolutely rebuild your metabolism with the right habits, no extremes or quick fixes needed.

Because your metabolism isn’t broken, it just needs the right support.

Woman lifting dumbbells in a gym, representing female strength and resistance training for fat loss after 30.

Why Fat Loss After 30 Feels Harder and How to Fix It

After 30, hormones, stress, and lifestyle all start to play a much bigger role in fat loss and body composition. You don’t just need to “eat less and move more”, you need to eat smarter, train with purpose, and support your body, not fight it.

We are not little men. Until the 1990s, women were rarely included in exercise and nutrition studies. Most of what we were taught about training, fat loss, and metabolism was based on male physiology and it simply doesn’t translate the same way.

Colourful bowl of nutritious food symbolising balanced eating for metabolism and hormone health.

Women age differently, store and use fat differently, and respond to stress and exercise differently, especially after 30, when hormone shifts, thyroid changes, and life demands all start to interact.

Recent studies show women in their 30s and 40s experience a gradual decline in resting metabolic rate and muscle mass if they don’t strength train regularly (Nature, 2023).

Did you know?

Only around 34% of exercise science study participants are women and many studies don’t account for the menstrual cycle at all. (Source: Cowley et al., Frontiers in Sports & Active Living, 2021)
Research has historically used young, healthy men aged 18–35 as the “default” sample, meaning most training and nutrition advice was built on male physiology.
Women experience monthly hormonal shifts that affect metabolism, strength, recovery, and hunger, yet fewer than 10% of sports-science papers explore these differences. (Source: Sims & Heather, 2023 review on sex differences in exercise science.

There’s still a huge gender gap in research, but that’s finally changing! New studies are emerging every year on women’s metabolism, menstrual cycle, and training performance and I’m committed to staying up to date with the latest evidence so I can support women with science, not guesswork.