167 | Crunches Won't Cut It: The Real Truth About Midlife Belly Fat

Reaching the milestone of 50 brings remarkable changes to our bodies that many of us aren't prepared for. That stubborn midsection weight that appeared seemingly overnight? It's not your imagination, and you're not alone in this frustrating experience.

The truth about midlife belly fat lies in understanding three critical shifts happening in your body right now. First, declining estrogen dramatically changes where your body stores fat, redirecting it from hips and thighs to your abdomen. Surprisingly, this isn't a flaw but your body's intelligent attempt to protect you by storing estrogen (which is held in fat cells) when ovarian production decreases. Second, accelerated muscle loss in midlife naturally slows your metabolism, making fat storage easier and fat loss harder. Third, insulin resistance becomes more common, contributing to that apple-shaped profile many women develop.

What makes this journey particularly challenging is how our stress response systems get caught in chronic fight-or-flight mode. Those heart palpitations, brain fog, and energy crashes aren't random symptoms – they're signs your nervous system needs attention. The conventional wisdom of "work harder, do more crunches" not only fails to address these changes but can actually worsen them by triggering more stress responses in an already overwhelmed system.

The path forward requires a complete shift in approach: strengthening deep core muscles rather than superficial abs, regulating your nervous system instead of pushing through exhaustion, and building functional strength that supports your changing hormonal landscape. When your body feels safe, it can finally release its death grip on fat storage and begin prioritizing repair and recovery.

Ready to transform your relationship with your midlife body? Join me in the Midlife Core Reset program or connect through our supportive community at movingthroughmidlife.com, where we're walking this path together. Let's embrace this transition with wisdom, compassion, and strategies that actually work for our 50+ bodies.

Chapters

• 0:00 Turning 50 and Midlife Body Changes
• 3:00 Why Hormones Cause Midsection Weight Gain
• 6:10 Muscle Loss and Blood Sugar Effects
• 9:30 Why Crunches Aren't the Answer
• 12:55 Fighting the Chronic Fight-or-Flight Response
• 17:50 Nervous System Approach to Midlife Health
• 21:30 Community Support and Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Welcome back to Moving Through Midlife. Today I wanted to share with you because I can't remember if I mentioned it in my last podcast episode, but this year, this past month, I turned 50. And with 50 comes a lot of changes and for many of you, you have been on this rollercoaster ride with me to kind of hear some of the things that I'm dealing with me, to kind of hear some of the things that I'm dealing with, and you may be dealing with them as well. So I wanted to talk today about this midsection weight gain that we are dealing with in this phase of life and honestly so, if we think about perimenopause, I would say that my late 30s, early 40s, were all about the hormonal roller coaster of periods like chaos with my periods. Then once I hit about 46, then once I hit about 46, that started to change and then that's when I started to deal with more of the things you think about as you start to move towards menopause, which were like the hot flashes that honestly, was the biggest thing, and then missing periods. So that's kind of where that era came through. I also did notice and you may be noticing this as well I didn't change anything with the way I ate. I didn't change anything with the way I was exercising, yet I kept noticing my midsection just kind of expanding. I had to work harder. Actually, the harder I worked I felt like the less I noticed and just things weren't working the way they always had for me, and this is something I also hear a lot for other women in this phase and now that I'm moving into 50, I'm noticing even a different fifth as well. So I wanted to kind of talk to you about this and how common it is and not really a reason to it doesn't mean we have to dig deeper and fight harder. We just have to change our approach a little bit.

Speaker 1: 2:49

During this perimenopausal phase we are starting to change in three areas. Actually there's probably more, but I'm going to focus on these three. So the first one is the hormonal changes. You are starting to have estrogen declining and that affects how fat is stored in the body. So normally many of us will have more weight in our hips and our thighs, but as you start to lose estrogen, it kind of stores that fat in the midsection around the abdominal area rather than the hips and the thighs. I want to make sure that you understand that this is okay because as estrogen declines, your body is basically trying to hold on to the estrogen however it can, and estrogen is held in fat, so it is like kind of protecting you for what's to come in the way of the loss of estrogen. Now we don't look at it that way, but it is a protective, survival type thing with your body. So it's okay that you don't have that well-defined abs in your late 40s, early 50s, because just think of it as your body's trying to keep you safe and make sure that you have enough estrogen to continue, because estrogen is huge for our health and it's trying to store it however it can.

Speaker 1: 4:42

The other reason we get that midsection weight gain is cortisol, so that is the stress hormone. We should know that, and it plays a bigger role in fat storage during perimenopause and menopause, just because we're more in that fight or flight all the time, and which is why the exercise program you've always done may not be working anymore, because exercise creates a natural cortisol response in the body and when you are dealing with all these other cortisol responses in the body because of the hormones, it actually identifies exercise as a stress and that is why you might notice, even though you're doing all these workouts and you may notice, even when you do more workouts it gets worse. So that has to do with the cortisol response. The second thing is muscle loss. So as we get older we naturally go through sarcopenia. This is age-related muscle loss. It is natural. That is why we encourage you to pick up weight so you're trying to hold on to that muscle as long as possible.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Muscle helps keep you from being too fragile in your old age. So you want to try to keep the muscle to support the bones as long as possible. But in midlife it starts to accelerate and when we have muscle loss it means we're going to have a slower metabolism, which obviously makes it easier to store fat, so uses glycogen, which is like sugar. So if you aren't and if you have less muscle, that glycogen gets stored as fat. So you end up having to change the way you eat to handle this.

Speaker 1: 6:52

And then the third thing is your insulin and blood sugar. Midlife changes due to these hormonal changes can lead to more insulin resistance, meaning your body stores more fat around the midsection yet again. So all of these things that are happening the declining estrogen, the cortisol increasing, the fact that your muscles are. You're not holding onto the muscle mass like you used to, so you don't have the glycogen being pulled into the muscle. All of these kind of lead into the insulin and blood sugar situations and you may have noticed. I know for myself. I've noticed like some of the early signs that you're dealing with some of this is going to be unable to drink alcohol like you used to. You may notice different effects from sugar. You may notice more of this weird blood sugary type thing. It usually has to do with your blood sugar. Dropping is where you might feel like you're almost drunk, like this brain fog that they talk about, this fogginess. The best way to describe it is you almost feel like you're drunk and that has to do with your blood sugar as well. So all of these changes are now affecting your physiology, which is changing that midsection. So my goal is to help you find some balance in your life so that you're not looking at that in such a terrible way, and hopefully be able to provide you with some ideas of what you can do to help you feel a little bit more comfortable with how your body's changing and support it along this menopausal journey that you may be on.

Speaker 1: 8:49

So the first thing you need to know is crunches aren't the answer. Spot reducing isn't possible. Crunches alone aren't going to burn the belly fat. What you need to work on is learning how to work into your deeper core muscles, so your transverse abdominus muscles. These are usually underactive in midlife and this is going to affect your posture, stability, digestion, pelvic floor health, all of it. So what we've got to work on first, instead of crunches, is learning how to breathe, learning how to sit properly so that our deep core muscles are staying active, and overdoing traditional ab exercises could be making all of this worse if you don't know how to fire on your deep core muscles. Worse if you don't know how to fire on your deep core muscles.

Speaker 1: 9:53

One thing I think is wonderful for women in midlife is the Pilates style exercises. I do want to caveat that, though, with if you aren't learning how to use your deep core before you start these Pilates programs, then that could create a problem, because your pressure within your midsection, if you're pushing out, you're creating diastasis, recti DR or split abs, or could be possibly dealing with pelvic floor dysfunction, or could be possibly dealing with pelvic floor dysfunction. So we want to make sure that one we either learn how to, you know, work on strengthening these deep core muscles or spend time with Pilates instructors, or, you know, in studios where you can work with someone or a personal trainer who's trained in core exercise, who can help you find those muscles. Before you start those programs and I will always encourage people. If you feel like you have a disconnect within your body, feel like you have a disconnect within your body, I would say, take a few sessions with a trainer. A good trainer will try to get you to where you don't continue to need them, month after month after month. They should be providing you with a foundation so that you can then move on to work on your own. And if you're interested and need help, reach out to me. I don't currently offer personal training, but if you were interested, I'm not going to say no. My goal is to help you. So just you would need to email me, courtney, at formfitonlinecom, and let me know you're interested and I'll figure something out for you.

Speaker 1: 11:50

Okay, the other thing is the nervous system connection, and this is something that, for myself, was the hardest thing to get control of. Hence the reason I have kind of shut down my fitness side of the business, because I started realizing my body would not stop the fight or flight. I was constantly in fight or flight and this started happening. I don't know if I have any old, old baby boot camp clients that listen, but there was a time when I was teaching fitness classes and I've probably touched on this a few times throughout here. I started having heart palpitations when I would teach fitness classes and I do think some of it has to do with magnesium, so I did start taking that. But I do think as well I was not nourishing my body properly before I would teach these classes and I think my body was completely and utterly run down from having three kids running around constantly and not supporting my body with nutritious, healthy food. I was definitely more of a eat the sugar and burn it off through fitness, which I do not recommend at all because it will bite you in the butt later.

Speaker 1: 13:22

So I was in this chronic state of fight or flight and I realized that I needed to change it. You may notice this for yourself. If you're dealing with heart palpitations, if you're just constantly feeling off, something's not right in your body. Obviously go see a doctor. You know, don't rely on this information, but what I have found for myself was I was in that constant state. I was eating a lot of sugar, I was working out to the extreme in the sense of, you know, that was my job, and then I wasn't supporting my body nutritiously, so I wasn't giving it the nutrients it needed for all of that movement throughout the day. So I got stuck in this fight or flight pattern. And, add to that, my breathing wasn't proper, because when you teach fitness, you tend to hold your breath to get the information out quickly to people. And you know I had some really bad breathing habits as well.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Now, the reason I'm telling you all of this is because I feel like many of you may not realize some of the things, these patterns you've gotten stuck in, that are also creating this chronic stress. And you may hear me mention some of these things and realize oh, you know what, maybe you're a teacher and you're talking a lot throughout the day. Your breathing pattern may be off because of that the day. Your breathing pattern may be off because of that. If you're at a desk job and you are sitting at a computer for hours a day, your posture may be creating a fight or flight response in the body. All of these things are deeply connected and my goal is to help you really understand that.

Speaker 1: 15:32

We cannot segment things out and say this is a problem within itself. Insulin and blood sugar is a problem within itself. Or you know, my midsection weight is a problem within itself. There are so many moving parts and we need to look at the whole body and approach it from a whole body aspect and a whole health aspect to get things working properly I guess, properly. I hate to say words like that because we're all different, so it's not just one way to move and fix problems.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Okay, so back on topic. If your nervous system is dysregulated, it's harder for your body to prioritize fat loss, repair and recovery. So we've got to get that nervous system on board. We got to get it calmed down and let it know it's safe before it's going to ever let go of the fat loss, which is why so many times, fat loss programs don't work. Weight loss programs don't work because our body is stuck in that fight or flight state and we have to work on that as well. So what we're going to do is you need to look at the whole body. You need to do a nervous system informed approach.

Speaker 1: 16:57

All of this is going to help you lose that midsection weight and just feel stronger and better in your body. So you want to build functional strength. This is going to boost metabolism and help regulate blood sugar. So getting the strengthening. You all have heard it numerous times you need to lift some weights. The other thing is what I will always recommend is train your posture, your mobility, so that you are feeling good as well and living longer, right? So looking at that longevity, getting the mobility in as well, and then also working on the breathing for your core so that you're working those deep core muscles to help with pelvic floor health. These practices the breathing, the mobility, the mindful movement lowers cortisol and improves fat loss potential.

Speaker 1: 17:59

All of these things I'm excited to let you know because I have been dealing with this. I have been testing things. I have noticed my motivation is not where it used to be, and through this came basically what I have always taught, with a slight difference, and it's the nervous system. I have added within my eight-week midlife core reset program. You're getting your core strengthening, you're getting the posture and mobility work, you're getting the pelvic floor support, but then we're taking it one step further and we're working on the nervous system as well, through blood sugar balance and just some tips and tricks that I've learned over the years to help me work on calming the nervous system. Thank you, thank you. So if you are struggling and you feel like you're dealing with a stubborn belly, you're feeling weaker overall, or you just want to feel connected to your body again, the midlife core reset is going to give you the tools to move, breathe and live in a way that supports your midlife body. If you're not interested in the program, that is okay.

Speaker 1: 21:13

I would love for you to join me in my Facebook community or over in my email so that you can work with me in some way. I provide I'm trying to provide a lot of free information for you. I'm hoping to level it up over the next few months to provide you more information. I also have a calendar. If you listened to my last podcast, I spoke about how I'm struggling to get a workout in every day. So I've just been doing two exercises they do rotate through upper body, lower body, core and then I created a calendar to kind of follow along. If you want to do it as well. That way maybe we can hold each other accountable in that community and then you know I'm always here to answer questions. If you have any, feel free to reach out.

Speaker 1: 22:10

I would love for it to be more of a. I feel like right now it's me talking at you and I'd really love to have a little bit more back and forth conversations, just because I think we all can benefit from that. And I'm you know, yes, I have expertise, but I am a midlife woman as well who's living it and testing theories and trying to figure it out for myself as well. I don't have all the answers and I know that I can learn from many of you as well, so feel free to join me in the community. If you go to my website, you can actually get there from movingthroughmidlifecom. If you can't remember my business name, just go to movingthroughmidlifecom and you'll see where there's links for getting into the community. There's links for the program. Check it out, reach out to me. I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful day and remember to keep moving.