While it’s tempting to blame your metabolism for midlife weight gain, there’s much more to the story. Reduced physical activity, increased sedentary time, and changes in eating habits are the real issues at hand. To help you get into top shape after 40, we learned five essential daily movement habits that keep you leaner than people half your age.
“The more you move throughout the day, the more you increase what we call non-exercise activity thermogenesis,” says Rick Richey, NASM master instructor. “That simply means the calories you metabolize throughout the day that aren’t planned exercise. The good news is that people can burn a lot more calories with simple small movements throughout the day than one bout of exercise.”
5 Daily Movement Habits That Keep You Leaner Than People Half Your Age
Plan Your Movement
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If you wait until you feel motivated, chances are, your workout session may never happen. It’s all too easy to prioritize work, relaxation, and play, but moving your body should never be placed on the back burner.
“If motivation drops, just decrease the intensity or amount of time for planned movement—but don’t blow it off,” Richey says. “Most people have an all-or-nothing view of exercise. They think if they cannot get the minimum recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week then they might as well do zero minutes. But this is a very important reminder that a little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing.”
Choose Active Hobbies You Love
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Real talk: Moving your body can be fun. Richey recommends doing what you genuinely enjoy, whether that be playing pickleball, basketball, walking, dancing, kayaking, etc.
Weave Movement Breaks Into Your Day
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It’s all too easy to sit at your desk every workday without taking breaks. But Richey recommends standing up and walking for just 60 seconds for every 30 minutes.
Do Something Active the Second You Think of It
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If you think of jogging to your car in the parking lot, go for it!
“If you think it’ll be fun to sit on that swing and get a few big swings in—do it! If you think it’s time to stand up—do it! We talk ourselves out of activities too often. It’s time to give your active mind a ‘yes day,’” Richey encourages.
Lift Weights
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As you age, you naturally lose lean muscle—anywhere from 3% to 8% every decade after 30. Whether training with dumbbells or wearing a weighted vest while walking, lifting weights is crucial for building and maintaining muscle mass.
Looking for easy ways to lose fat? Here’s How Long Your Walking Workout Should Be To Shrink Belly Fat.
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is a content strategist, editor, and writer based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has 11+ years of experience creating content for travel, lifestyle, fitness, wellness, F&B, home, and celeb news publications. Read more about Alexa
