If I Was Over 50, 30 LBS Overweight This is Exactly What I Would Do To Burn Belly Fat

[00:02] that I get from my community is how do I lose belly fat in midlife? >> [music] >> It is is definitely a battle that many of us experience. So, and put in the comments if if you're one of them. We

[00:16] are a safe community [music] here, and I'm always here to teach you how to fall understand your body, and how to make great decisions that are right for you create [music] a a beautiful community. So, we hear you. We've all been there. I

[00:32] don't know a midlife woman that hasn't been there. So, here are three simple tools that I want to give you for burning this belly fat. And before I do that, I just want to share some of the amazing testimonials we've been having.

[00:47] on YouTube, but also in our Reset Academy, because I think you you know, I sit here and give you information, and I think it's really important that you learn how to apply the information. And we can we can learn

[01:01] hearing other people's stories. So, sit with me here for a moment. Um so, uh one of our this is a testimonial from one of our Reset Academy members um who lost 30 lb. Um and her name is Christine, and she's living proof that

[01:17] this life lifestyle works. So, she gained a lot of weight around menopause. How how many of us did that happen? And nothing seemed to help her um until she just started to start combining, and this is really important.

[01:31] This is really important. I cuz I know I get this question all the time. She get this question all the time. She started to combine fasting with foods in a way that supported her hormones. So, she learned

[01:45] I'm just sharing knowledge. You decide you know, if it fits for you. But she learned that she could balance her hormones by learning how to fast, and hormones by learning how to fast, and how to eat for her hormones. And once

[01:59] she figured it out and had a formula, her results were amazing and I want to just read a quote from her and then I'm going to go into three easy ways for you. She said that Fast Like a Girl helped her get past the huge menopause

[02:13] hurdle and lose 30 pounds, the last 30 pounds. And it has added years to life as well as improved my quality of life. Her functional health results say that she's 16.8 years younger than her actual age. And I thought I'd share in case

[02:29] anyone needs a little inspiration. Um and if I This is what Christine said, "If I can overcome my sugar addiction, so can you." So, thank you Christine for your testimonial. We'll put her pre- and post pictures up. Now, let's help you.

[02:44] Three ways that you can burn this belly fat. First, intermittent fasting. Okay. I am not joking. I have watched more people lose weight with intermittent

[02:56] people lose weight with intermittent fasting. And I have seen more posts and podcast interviews of people saying intermittent fasting doesn't help women lose weight. I am If you If you put a gun to my head and ask me this question,

[03:09] I would say it is one of the best tools for losing weight. So, don't be don't be uh shy away from intermittent fasting just because there's a lot of clickbait out there trying to distract you from this powerful tool for midlife belly

[03:26] fat. So, here's what you need to know about daily intermittent fasting. So, menopause disrupts your metabolism. And as we lose estrogen,

[03:38] we start to get more blood sugar swings, more food cravings, the energy becomes unstable, and we this metabolic flexibility that I talked about in and the metabolic switch I talked about in Fast Like a Girl, it becomes rusty.

[03:54] And so, what you can start by doing is skipping one meal. Now, this could be breakfast, this could be dinner, but you want to leave at be dinner, but you want to leave at least 12 to 15 hours is what the science

[04:09] least 12 to 15 hours is what the science says without food. And now, some of you are going to want to eat breakfast, so maybe you stop eating at 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening, so that you your 12 hours starts earlier. Some of you don't like

[04:25] eating breakfast and you're going to make that window, that fasting window, go from like 7:00 at night until, you know, the next morning, 8:00 or 9:00 the next morning. So, you choose which meal you're skipping, either breakfast or

[04:41] lunch. I'm sorry, breakfast or dinner. Okay, if you're doing a 24-hour fast, you could even do lunch to lunch. So, if you're listening to other health influencers are saying, "Don't skip

[04:56] breakfast." and you find breakfast really helpful, then don't skip breakfast, skip dinner. So, really it'd be almost better to skip dinner. Okay, so what does this look like? Um let's say you don't eat your first

[05:10] meal till 12:00. Um if you want to go, you know, 14 to 16 hours without eat you know, 14 to 16 hours without eat eating, um then you would go you'd start open your eating window at 12:00 and you might eat um from, you know, on

[05:26] and you might eat um from, you know, on and off from 12:00 to 7:00 at night. That's a 7-hour eating window. And now, that is leaving about 17 hours of fasting. So, you could even do you could even do maybe you your first meal is at

[05:42] noon, and maybe you stop eating at 8:00 or 9:00 at o'clock at night you're a night eater. So, you get to make this choice. But, when you go somewhere around 14 to 16, I give you 12 even because some of you rock 12, but really

[05:59] what the science says is that for at 14 to 16 hours without food, your metabolism shifts into fat-burning mode. You come on over here into fat-burning You come on over here into fat-burning mode, and it starts to burn fat. So, if

[06:11] you're wanting more belly weight uh off, please do a little longer, closer to 16. And there was a 23 review in nutrients that found that intermittent fasting

[06:24] reduced appetite, it stabilized blood sugar, it helped you control sugar cravings, and it decreased body fat, but specifically a visceral body fat, which is belly fat. So, it's daily. I will put the link to

[06:38] it. Okay, number two. So, you're going to intermittent fast daily. The second thing you're going to do is embrace what thing you're going to do is embrace what I call the ketobiotic diet. So, for

[06:50] years when I was studying the keto diet, I just felt like the carb count was way too low. So, I came up with my version called ketobiotic. I wrote about it in both of these books. And um really what the ketobiotic is is I gave you a carb

[07:05] count of about 50 g of net carbs. what a net carb is, it's the total carb amount minus the fiber. And if you

[07:17] notice the biotic part sounds like a probiotic, it's because in the ketobiotic diet, I really want you to get your carbs from fruits and vegetables and sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. This This isn't carbs

[07:30] you're restricting, just you know, restricting bread. I actually want you to change the way you're bringing your carb source in. It's really, really important for um for weight loss, especially around the

[07:44] mid belly. So, here are the four rules of the Keto Biotic Diet. If you don't have the book, let's simplify it. You're going to eat under 50 g of carbs a day. Um you're going to have healthy fat and protein with every meal.

[07:59] You're going to The third one is you're going to have two servings of high fiber veggies with every meal. And the fourth one is at least one serving of fermented food with every meal.

[08:12] Easy? I mean literally this is the key. This is the key to the belly fat. It's not complicated. Don't let anybody sell sell you some snake oil that says, "Oh, take this and your belly fat will go away." It is four consistent food

[08:28] habits. I will repeat them again really quickly. Under 50 g net carbs, uh healthy fats and protein with every meal, two servings of high fiber vegetables with every meal, and at least one serving of fermented food every day,

[08:44] but I'd prefer it with every meal. So, what this might look like a very classic dinner in my household often is grass-fed steak. I'm getting the omega-3s from there. Um I will do a sweet potato. Now I'm

[08:59] getting the all the benefits. Magnesium is a high benefit, helps with hormones. So, I do the mag- the sweet potato. I'll put grass-fed butter on it. Um and then I'll take microgreens because microgreens have more nutrients in it.

[09:13] Um I'll drizzle, so I get my fat, a drizzle olive oil over the top of it. And then I'll take a little bit of sauerkraut on the side. That's what those four rules look like. If you don't do meat, I I often do sprouted garbanzo

[09:29] beans, sprouted lentils. Um they are high in protein. So, sometimes I'll just add that to that meal and skip the meat. It's that simple. Let me know if you want more meal ideas, I can bring that to you as well.

[09:42] So, a 2025 study in uh BMC Women's Health found that there was a strong link between carb quality, quality, quality, and

[09:54] This is really important because the keto-biotic diet is powerful for menopausal women, yet much of the messaging out there that you all are getting is menopausal women need to eat carbs, but nobody's saying quality

[10:09] If you go off and you just start eating a lot of uh breads and pastas and cakes going to go through the roof. But, if you really curate your carbs, you follow

[10:21] this keto-biotic diet, you really will see a change in those symptoms. And a quick note that the that the authors of this study said was that postmenopausal women um were really the women in their 40s

[10:36] um were really the women in their 40s and 50s, it was more important in those decades quality carbs than any other time. Um and the authors even found that when women ate higher quality carbs, they had fewer hot flashes,

[10:51] uh night sweats, memory issues, mood swings than other menopausal symptoms. And because this these four steps are so high in fiber, it's also great for losing belly fat. If I want to lose

[11:06] belly fat, think about fiber. It's really Add in fiber. Like, I realize I feel like I should be the poster child that walks around. You want to lose belly fat? Add in fiber. Okay.

[11:18] Now, a 2020 study, this one's really interesting, gave 140 healthy adults 15 g of fiber dissolved in water um for 12 weeks. So, it's like a psyllium husk in water. And what they

[11:31] found is the the fiber group, and they compare it to a fiber-free group, a placebo group, and the fiber group saw a a significant decrease in belly fat and waist circumference compared to the group that didn't get 15 g. Um I've also

[11:46] brought you research showing that 25 g can be really helpful. So, this is why the Ketobiotic diet that I outlined in these two books, I still stand by it. I still There's actually nothing This is pretty powerful for an author to say.

[12:01] There's literally nothing I would change in those books. They're working. They're powerful. So, if you need to know more about that, please diet dive >> Okay, third thing that you want to add in. Have you noticed I haven't really

[12:15] taken away much and you're losing belly fat? We can't always go into deprivation as being the solution for losing belly fat. So, the third thing is eat soy

[12:27] every day. Now, soy is really high in fiber. It's low in carbs, so it fits into the Ketobiotic food Ketobiotic food the food plan really well. And what a

[12:40] the food plan really well. And what a journal a 2020 review in the Journal of Nutrition Science and Vitaminology found that phytoestrogen-rich soy speeds up your metabolism and it helps women burn more total fat

[12:55] throughout the day. So, it's like one of these really weird foods that speed your metabolism up. And oh my god, weren't we not told to eat soy years ago? I feel like sometimes the messaging is out there to destroy women.

[13:08] So, we get all messed up in our head, but guess what? Soy's back. The science is saying that women, especially menopausal women, we need to be thinking menopausal women, we need to be thinking about more soy. Um there was also a 21

[13:21] review that that showed that phytoestrogens in soil in soy increased estrogen levels and decreased menopause symptoms. So, it's more than just losing symptoms. So, it's more than just losing weight. Um but it will make you feel so

[13:35] much better. Uh a couple of high phytoestrogen foods for you to know. We phytoestrogen foods for you to know. We talked about soy, raw soybeans, edamame, obviously tofu is a version of soy, soy nuts,

[13:49] soy milk, but make your own. Soy sauce if you if you're not gluten-free. I am gluten-free, so I always ask for tamari sauce, um which is a gluten-free version, um and miso. So, I always get a cup of

[14:03] miso soup if I go to a Japanese restaurant. Um so, these are other ways to get soy in. Easy, right? This is not complicated. Um I really fear that the messaging in the culture has has is made to um scare you.

[14:20] It's made you to put you into fear. It's made to take your power away. And when see that something as simple as a 16-hour fast, um a ketobiotic diet, and

[14:32] really revving up your soy can have a dramatic impact on your belly fat, it's easy. You just need to know what to do. It's not white We're not the the new thing in 2026 is we don't white knuckle

[14:48] weight loss anymore. We become strategic about it. And these recommend. If you are on any of the weight loss drugs, off the weight loss drugs cuz we're seeing that in our community as well.

[15:04] >> Let's just boil this down into the most simple form. What's the best exercise one. And it's not what you think. I'm going And it's not what you think. I'm going to call myself out. I am a child of the

[15:17] '70s and the '80s. And back in the '70s and the '80s, when we wanted to lose weight, we exercise we did as much cardio as we possibly could. We were little cardio bunnies. We were running, we were on step mills, we were on we

[15:32] were doing uh Zumba classes with our leg warmers on. Like we were in a high aerobic state because we thought that is what is going to help us lose weight. Put Put Am I alone? Like put Put it in the comments

[15:46] if you were that person. Well, guess what? The science says that wasn't very good. We were wasting our time and our effort that there is only one exercise you should be doing to lose weight. And I'm going to explain

[16:00] weights. Now, if I was hearing this video back in the 80s, I would be like, "No." Because when I lift weights, I would find that

[16:13] I've got really bulky. And then I put my pants on and my pants felt tight and I pants to feel tight." But we have sort of a new idea around lifting weights because it's actually a

[16:27] metabolic primer. So, it's so much more than just building muscle to look good. It actually makes your whole metabolic system upgrade so that it works faster. Now, I can tell you in my clinic, I used to have women

[16:43] don't know. I feel like my my metabolism's slowed down." How many of you have ever said that? Like I just think our metabolism is slowed down. Well, maybe your metabolism is slowed down because you've lost muscle.

[16:56] age. So, there are three reasons I want you and we'll talk about how much and how many you know, what How do you do this? you. But let's go into these three reasons.

[17:11] reasons. So, the first reason to start lifting long-term fat loss. And there was a huge 2022 meta-analysis, 2022 meta-analysis in the Journal of Sports Medicine that

[17:26] looked at the data from 58 different studies regarding exercise and weight loss. And what the authors concluded was that lifting weights was highly effective for long-term weight loss and decreasing body fat. And the weight loss

[17:42] was also especially around fresh especially good for reducing visceral fat, which is the most dangerous part of fat. It's belly fat. So, lifting weights fat. It's belly fat. So, lifting weights was highly effective for long-term

[17:56] weight loss. And one of the reasons is because muscle And one of the reasons is because muscle burns a lot more energy at rest. So, let's talk about what your metabolism is.

[18:08] When you like me, let's use me as an example. I'm sitting here right now and my I just ate, so my glucose, my sugar burner metabolism is in full effect. And so, in order to burn the food I just ate, my body is raising its temperature

[18:27] so that it can burn efficiently that fuel source that I just gave it, the glucose. But at rest, in the fasted state, you could also have a higher metabolic rate if you have more muscle. Because muscle

[18:44] requires more energy. And more energy requires that you increase your metabolism. So, in order to to whenever there's more muscle on you, your body, in order to adapt to that muscle, is going to raise

[19:00] its metabolism. Because that muscle needs more energy. Because that muscle needs more energy. Did you catch that? So, at rest, you will have a higher metabolism if you lift weights.

[19:14] Okay. Another interesting study, a 2020 study in the Journal of Sports Science found that only weight training the is the only exercise that increased your metabolic rate, not in aerobic training,

[19:28] metabolic rate, not in aerobic training, not jogging, that it was only weight training that increased your resting metabolic weight. Bottom line, when you lift weights and you build muscle, you burn more fat at rest when you're

[19:42] sitting. So, yes, there's the metabolic expense more muscle and you're sitting, you're going to you're going to have a faster metabolism. Make sense? Okay, second reason women over 40 should

[19:57] be lifting weights is hormonal balance. Now, this one's interesting because Now, this one's interesting because there was a 2002 study that found that weightlifting actually increased estrogen and testosterone in women of

[20:10] Now, this is an interesting conversation podcast, The Resetter podcast, one of the things that we know is um muscle. And so, I brought on a testosterone expert onto my podcast, her

[20:27] name is Dr. Kelly Casperson. And we entered into a really interesting dialogue. She believes that you should take exogenous testosterone so you feel take exogenous testosterone so you feel more motivated to lift weights.

[20:42] I'm a lifestyle expert. I believe we should always use our lifestyle first before a prescription pad. And so, I believe we should lift weights to make more estrogen and more testosterone. So, when you're lifting weights, you're

[20:58] increasing your metabolic state at rest and you're making more of these key hormones that are on a massive decline as you go through menopause. There was a as you go through menopause. There was a 2018 study that had women over 55 do a

[21:13] 12-week weight lifting program. And they found that weight lifting increased estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone, and even follicles follicle-stimulating hormone, which is really important for hair and keeping

[21:27] your skin shiny. We also found an interesting study that showed that lifting weights increases a hormone co- called IGF-1, which helps control your blood sugar and keeps your your metabolism running fast.

[21:43] We also found evidence that weight lifting significantly reduced menopause symptoms. It made estrogen more stable and and had fewer hot flashes and helped with bone density. It helped with better sleep and more energy. Am I convincing

[21:58] And then another study that showed that it has a very it helps with emotional regulation because it has a stabilizing effect on hormones. So, if you're not lifting weights to incre-

[22:13] increase your metabolism, how about you lift weights to get all those benefits of increasing hormones? We're so obsessed right now with putting patches and creams on us, but we can rem- we can make our hormones and and keep them up

[22:28] better bone density. We can have more energy, better sleep, and better moods energy, better sleep, and better moods by lifting weights. Okay. Third reason I in the comments, have I convinced you yet? Just just checking. Third reason is

[22:43] that it helps with aging. And there was a 2008 study that found bone density in women uh declined sharply after menopause. This is a key one for me because I have a mom who is um got osteoporosis and has

[22:58] had two hip fractures. So, I've been watching her very closely to see what can I not repeat that she did. She never lifted weights. I will definitely tell you that. And so, what this study found is that as estrogen goes down, so does

[23:13] bone density goes can go down. But, when we dove into the science on what increases bone density, that's where we found a low muscle mass increases your risk of injury later in life, specifically fractures. And that

[23:29] the best way to increase bone density is by increasing muscle, and the best way to increasing muscle is lifting weights. Are you following me? I have studies on those of you that are my science geeks, I'll put it all in the in the notes, and

[23:46] you can you can dive into to the research that we found. But, lifting weights is not only going to improve your bone density as you age, but it also makes your joints stronger, and it makes you

[24:00] more flexible, which is really important because you don't want to slip and fall as you age, and and and pull a muscle or break a hip. My mom slipped and fall fell at 86 and broke a shoulder. So, balance and flexibility is really

[24:15] important. And, you know, the last one I will tell you on this is that this a meta-analysis, a 2019 meta-analysis found that weight lifting increases the quality of life in older adults. People felt physically People over 50 that were

[24:31] dedicated to weight lifting felt physically healthier, had less pain, better muscle and joint function, and better mental health. So, you lose weight, you balance hormones, and you slow down aging. So,

[24:45] how do you do this? Well, I think I think the way, you know, a little behind the scenes, my undergraduate work was in exercise physiology and nutrition. And the way I was taught was that you

[24:58] always lifting weights is better than a weight machine. And the reason that we would said this back in the '90s was because when I go to lift weights, let's say it's a bicep curl,

[25:11] there's an eccentric contraction and a concentric contraction. And both are concentric contraction. And both are necessary for building muscle. So, if I lift I do a bicep curl and then I let gravity just drop those weights, that's

[25:27] not great because I'm not using both sets like bicep, tricep. You want to use both sets of muscles. So, you use the bicep to make the curl and then if you bicep to make the curl and then if you gently start to let it go down slowly,

[25:42] now you're using the tricep and you're working more muscle as opposed to just lifting it up and then dropping it down. So, the first thing I want to encourage So, the first thing I want to encourage you to do is to try free weights, um

[25:55] which are weights not attached to a machine. Now, the evidence on weights attached to a machine is interesting and I did find a study that says that both free weights are and

[26:08] machines are equally effective at muscle strength um and bone density. And this was based off of researchers following a group of people for an a during for eight weeks. Now, my guess is if you're doing free

[26:24] you're doing a machine, you need to do the same thing where you push the machine, let's say it's a bench press, and then make sure when it comes back, you don't just let it slam back. You want a complete range of motion of

[26:38] tension. It's so easy to be like, "Oh, I'm going to push this really hard and at me." So, we need to have this repetitive we need to make sure we're going through a full range of motion.

[26:52] Um now, I will tell you that I've done some podcast interviews with lots of different fitness trainers. I've done many videos here on exercise. And right now, for menopausal women, what they're saying is you want to be lifting the max

[27:07] amount that you can lift in three sets of eight reps. So, you Let's say I'm doing a bicep curl. I want to be able to lift, you curl. I want to be able to lift, you know, like by the seventh or eighth um

[27:20] rep, I should be like, "Oh, I can barely do this anymore." If I go It's not like 1 2 3. You want to be like really trying to lift the weight by the by the seventh and eighth rep. And do that three times. I did a really cool masterclass on

[27:36] creatine that will really help with muscle strength as as well. So, make sure you listen. That's on my podcast. I also hear it on my channel. Cuz you can use creatine to help give you a little more muscle power and enjoy that

[27:49] experience. But, I think the the the weightlifting topic has really trended recently. And I think we've lost sight of why we would lift weights. This is not just about looking good. Um, this is about weight

[28:04] loss. Um, this is about slowing aging down. And this is about hormone production. And this is why I love lifting weights for us all. Now, for me, I don't love lifting weights in a gym. So, I'm going to do a rucking vest

[28:19] sometimes. Um, I'm going to do I love a TRX, the little straps that come down. I'm going to do that in my backyard. Um, I'm going to do push-ups. That's a form of weightlifting. Um, because you're using your body weight. So, that just

[28:33] means you would push up and then you would go down slowly. These are the kind of things we do in my Saturday morning workouts that I lead in my Reset there. If you need more information, I did a

[28:46] whole chapter in Age Like a Girl called Exercise the Menopause Way. Um change, your fasting style should change. Um the pace of your life changes

[28:58] and your exercise should change as you go through this menopausal experience. you're seeing all the benefits, please put it in the comments so we can all learn from it. Um but most importantly, I don't want you to sit there and

[29:11] yourself. I want you to understand how powerful your lifestyle is and weight lifting is showing some really good evidence for us aging um that it can really make a dramatic difference. So,

[29:24] as always, I hope that helps. If this helped, don't stop here. Click on the next video and let's see what you find there.