Health

Stay fit in your 40s and beyond with these smart workout tips

Published

10 months ago

March 13, 2025

Stay fit in your 40s and beyond with these smart workout tips

Exercise is essential for overall health — but as we age, our usual fitness routine might not be as effective.

For people over 40, the body goes through hormonal and physical shifts that can impact how it reacts to certain workouts.

Melissa Neill, CEO of Body by Bikini, specializes in helping women over 40 lose weight. She noted in an interview with Fox News Digital that this becomes “much harder” after this age.

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“There’s a lot of things going on with your body,” said the U.K.-based fitness expert. “And one of the big things is you’re losing muscle mass.”

Women lose muscle mass at a rate of 1% per year, which Neill described as “massive.”

Hormonal changes associated with aging can impact how people put on and lose weight. (iStock)

This loss isn’t as extensive for men, but it can still have a major impact on metabolism.

“In other words, your body is not going to burn fat as effectively as it did when you were younger,” she said.

Neill also mentioned a depletion in hormones, namely testosterone, which is a hormone that supports muscle.

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For aging women, as estrogen declines, the body will work to produce more of the hormone, which can lead to fat gain during menopause.

“It produces fat as it’s producing the estrogen,” she said. “And it typically sits around your midsection, which is really annoying.”

Fitness fixes

Women at this age typically gain about 20 pounds, Neill said, although it could be more.

“I work with women who have gained 40 pounds and they’ve done nothing different,” she said. “All they’re doing is the exact same [workouts] they did in their younger days. And, of course, it’s just not working anymore.”

“If you can incorporate strength training as the main source of your workout, you’re going to see much better results overall in your everyday life.”

To counteract these changes, Neill suggested that women “throw out” the fitness rulebook they followed in their 20s and 30s.

For people in their 40s, the focus should be more on strength training and less on cardio, according to the expert.

For people in their 40s, the focus should be more on strength training and less on cardio, experts advise. (iStock)

“You want to focus on building muscle, because muscle is going to improve your metabolic health,” she said. “Your body’s going to get better at burning calories even when you’re just sitting around doing nothing.”

“Even when you’re sleeping, when you’re watching TV — if you’ve been lifting weights — your body is going to get much better at burning fat.”

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By building more muscle through strength training instead of doing cardio like running on the treadmill, the body will not only become more effective at burning fat, but will also have improved longevity.

“People with muscle on them … They’re going to be stronger,” Neill said. “They’re going to have more mobility [and] better agility.”

Eating a high-protein diet can also help build muscle, Neill added.

For menopausal women, proper diet and nutrition will help to provide enough energy throughout the day.

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“You want a protocol that works with your body, so that’s eating healthy, whole foods, cutting out the processed foods and cutting out refined sugar,” Neill said.

The expert also cautioned against intensely working out too often, recommending two to three days of active rest with gentle movement, such as a walk or light yoga.

‘Consistency is key’

Alissa Mosca, regional operations manager for Planet Fitness in New York, said that starting a new fitness routine is the most difficult part, and staying consistent will make all the difference.

“Consistency is key, no matter what it is — but it’s your kind of consistency,” she said. “My consistency may be five days a week, but somebody else’s consistency may be three days a week for half an hour.”

“Cardio is great to just work on your overall heart rate, but it shouldn’t be the focus,” one expert said. (iStock)

“It’s taking those small, incremental steps to either kickstart a journey or run full force into it.”

Strength training can include any equipment involving weight, like free weights, machines, dumbbells, cable towers and other ways to “engage those muscles working through a full range of motion,” the trainer said.

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These exercises can help make everyday tasks easier, from getting in and out of the car to lifting children.

“If you can incorporate strength training as the main source of your workout, you’re going to see much better results in your everyday life,” Mosca said.

A good workout doesn’t require long, intense hours at the gym, experts agree. (iStock)

“You’re making [the body] react to things that you have to do outside the gym, which is super beneficial,” she went on. “It will help your muscles from stiffening [and] stop those aches and pains. You’ll start to find that getting out of bed is a lot easier.”

Mosca recommended switching between working out different parts of the body throughout the week, and choosing some days to do a full-body circuit.

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“Every muscle group, especially the major muscle groups, adds functionality to every other movement,” she said. “So, your core is always included when you do squats [and] deadlifts.”

“When you start working on different parts of the body, you’re still incorporating those areas, but you’re making it a better, [more] well-rounded workout.”

Mosca recommended switching between working out different parts of the body throughout the week, and choosing some days to do a full-body circuit. (iStock)

For more toned results, Mosca recommended doing higher reps with lower weights. To boost strength, she said to try lower reps and heavier weight.

“You want to focus on building muscle, because muscle is going to improve your metabolic health.”

For people over 40 on a fitness journey, the trainer shared some key advice: “Don’t go off of the scale. Don’t go off of the mirror.”

“It’s mental, it’s physical, it’s emotional,” she said. “It’s how you feel every day. It’s how you wake up. It’s the quality of sleep. It’s your appetite.”

“If you see improvements in all of these things, and you find yourself craving fruit over sweet treats, if you find yourself wanting to move more and get 10,000 steps in a day, as opposed to sitting on the couch and watching a show, those are the improvements that you’re working toward, and that speaks so much stronger than weight loss does.”

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

Health

Health experts react as Andrew Huberman backs Trump admin’s new food pyramid

Published

8 minutes ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Health experts react as Andrew Huberman backs Trump admin’s new food pyramid

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The Trump administration has taken a new approach to the food pyramid.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidelines on Wednesday with an updated, inverted pyramid. The top of the pyramid, which is now the wider part of the structure, is built on meat, fats, fruits and vegetables, while whole grains are at the narrow bottom.

This follows HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), aimed at addressing chronic disease, childhood illnesses and ultraprocessed foods.

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“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” Kennedy said during a press briefing in Washington, D.C.

“Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats.”

The Trump administration announces the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, putting “real food” back at the center of health. (realfood.gov)

The HHS secretary rallied against refined carbohydrates, food additives and added sugar, highlighting the health risks associated with sugar-sweetened beverages.

Kennedy’s main message to Americans was to “eat real food.”

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The announcement triggered reactions from top health and wellness voices, including Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, host of the “Huberman Lab” podcast.

In a post on X, Huberman shared the White House’s graphic of the new pyramid, praising the decisions that were made.

“Oatmeal (and I think that’s rice and sourdough) made the cut!” he commented. “In all seriousness, assuming overall calories are kept in check and people exercise & get sun(day)light, this looks spot on.”

He added, “Maybe up the veggies a bit, add low-sugar fermented foods like sauerkraut & this is great.”

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Huberman said in a thread on the same post that Americans “don’t have to eat all the foods” shown in the diagram.

“You won’t see me drinking milk or eating shrimp,” he said. “Nothing against shrimp, I just don’t like the taste. Aversion to crustaceans.”

“Maybe up the veggies a bit, add low-sugar fermented foods like sauerkraut & this is great,” Huberman commented on X. (Chance Yeh/Getty Images for HubSpot; iStock)

The new guidelines received praise from other major health figures, including former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler.

“There should be broad agreement that eating more whole foods and reducing highly processed carbohydrates is a major advance in how we approach diet and health,” Kessler told The Associated Press.

“Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines.”

Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, shared in a statement that these guidelines “affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health.”

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“The American Medical Association applauds the Administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other chronic illnesses,” Mukkamala wrote.

The American Medical Association applauded the HHS for its updated nutrition guidelines. (iStock)

But not all feedback was positive.

Some people expressed concern about prioritizing red meat and dairy, while calling for the limitation of saturated fat.

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Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, shared in a reaction to STAT that while the guidelines “do have one or two good points, emphasizing fruits and vegetables and limiting alcohol,” the guidelines are “for the most part a strong reflection of industry influence.”

Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University, also spoke out against the new guidelines, as reported by NPR.

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“I’m very disappointed in the new pyramid that features red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top, as if that’s something to prioritize. It does go against decades and decades of evidence and research,” said Gardner, who was a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf, as well as Alexandria Hoff of Fox News, contributed reporting.

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

Health

Matt Damon’s Gluten-Free Diet Helped Him Lose 18 Pounds

Published

11 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Matt Damon’s Gluten-Free Diet Helped Him Lose 18 Pounds

Matt Damon’s Weight Loss: Actor Drops 18 Lbs with This Diet | Woman’s World

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Health

Deadly cancer risk could drop with single 10-minute workout, study suggests

Published

12 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Deadly cancer risk could drop with single 10-minute workout, study suggests

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A single 10-minute workout may trigger blood changes that help fight colon cancer.

That’s according to new research from scientists at Newcastle University, who found that exercise quickly changes the blood in ways that affect colon cancer cells in the lab.

In the study, the U.K. researchers exposed colon cancer cells to human blood serum collected immediately after exercise, finding that the cells repaired DNA damage faster and showed gene activity patterns linked to slower growth.

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The blood samples came from 30 adults who had just completed a short, high-intensity cycling workout that lasted about 10 to 12 minutes, according to a press release.

Even a 10-minute burst of intense exercise may send protective signals through the blood that affect colon cancer cells, researchers say. (iStock)

Samuel T. Orange, an associate professor at Newcastle University and one of the study’s authors, spoke with Fox News Digital about the findings.

“Our findings show that exercise rapidly triggers molecular changes in the bloodstream that can act directly on colon cancer cells, reshaping gene activity and supporting DNA damage repair,” he said.

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The results suggest that even brief activity can make a difference. “Every movement matters. Exercise doesn’t need to last hours or happen in a gym,” Orange added.

The research suggests that exercise quickly triggers changes in the blood that affect colon cancer cells and helps support DNA repair. (iStock)

One of the most surprising findings, according to the researcher, was how strong the biological response was after even a single workout.

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“Exercise altered the activity of more than 1,000 genes in colon cancer cells,” he shared.

Even brief bouts of activity can make a difference, the researcher said. (iStock)

The study findings suggest that the effect is driven by exercise-triggered molecules released into the bloodstream, sometimes referred to as “exerkines,” which act like chemical messengers and send signals throughout the body.

“Each time you exercise, you trigger biological signals that support health and resilience to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease,” Orange said.

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The researchers cautioned that the study was conducted using cancer cells grown in the laboratory, not in patients.

The findings are based on experiments using colon cancer cells grown in the lab, not studies conducted in people, the researchers noted. (iStock)

The study involved 30 healthy male and female volunteers between the ages of 50 and 78. Their blood samples were used to carry exercise-triggered signals to cancer cells grown in the lab.

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“These findings now need to be replicated in people with cancer,” Orange said. “We also need to better understand the longer-term effects of repeated exercise signals over time.”

Despite the limitations, the researcher said the findings strengthen the case for exercise as an important part of colon cancer prevention.

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“Each time you move your body and get a little breathless, you’re contributing to better health and may help influence biological processes linked to bowel cancer,” he added.

Kelly McGreal is a production assistant with the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.