What About Flipping 60 or 70? | Answering a Listener Q

02/02/21 • 18 min

The Flipping 50 Show

What about flipping 60? That’s such a frequently asked question.

The question comes up so often that I’m dedicating this short podcast to answer.

And it begs two responses.

First your body, specifically your muscle and your bone.

Second, your mindset.

I’ve worked with many women over 37 years. Privately, in group situations, on campuses, and in private gyms, as well as in their homes, my home, and across the globe from SKYPE calls to Okinawa, Trinidad, Italy, Canada, and Australia to name a few. They’ve been realtors, lawyers, physicians, accountants, faculty, business owners,

Here’s what I’ve found.

What About Flipping 60 Physically?

Physically, the biggest change you will make in your life occurs at about age 50. That’s a rough estimate because the average age of menopause is 51.3. However, some women reach it in their 40s, others not until their late 50s. The hormonal change you make causes a ripple effect in muscle, bone, body composition, metabolism, and heart health risk.

Women in the late stage of perimenopause and early post menopause are at accelerated risk of losing muscle and bone because of the dramatic change in estrogen levels, namely though other hormones are influencing factors too. By the time you’re in your 60’s, your body has adapted to lower estrogen levels (or you may be on hormone replacement) and your losses are slowed.

And Just What About Flipping 60?

So, while the question, what about flipping 60? Often comes from women thinking that maybe this information isn’t appropriate for me because I’m older and need a gentler program, the opposite is true. You are more hardy and sturdy, unless you have a history of sedentary lifestyle and habits that contribute to muscle and bone losses. You actually stand to make more gains and improvements than a woman might just beginning in her early 50s because you are not in that period of accelerated loss.

The biggest obstacle you face, may not be your physical ability, but the mindset around your aging. Thus, flipping 50. It is the flipping of the expectations, the actions, and the outcomes of women who are in the second half of your life.

Flipping 50, 60, and 70 Mindset

Women often but not always accept and settle for aging based on the conditioning and influence they’ve had on their mindset about aging.

No two 60-somethings are alike. No two 70-somethings. I knew a young-at-heart woman friend of my mother’s back in the 70s and early 80s who was a perfect example of proactive aging long before her time. She was using supplements, exercising, and living thoughtfully.

Yet, many women in the 70’s and 80s did not approach their aging proactively. She stood out because she was an anomaly. I remember her distinctly.

We Do Have More Science Than Ever Before

So, of course we can now access so much more information about the reality of what is possible as we age. Examples include Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones research, and organizations like Growing Bolder, International Council on Active Aging, and a growing number of studies showing us the effects of our epigenetics – our lifestyle – on our life and more importantly, “healthspan.” But it’s first and foremost attitude and expectations that change the way you age.

The women who expect to gain weight, who have been conditioned to serve others, and put themselves last, who don’t put exercise or eating – or researching the eating they’re doing – at a high priority gain the most weight. They have the most hot flashes. They are surrounded by people who tell them they look good “for their age” or compared to most women their age they’re doing great. And so they accept it, or at the least it makes it harder to change the way you think about yourself and the way others think about you.

Acceptance is Okay

And by the way, if that is where you are, and what you want, is to be the weight you are and to accept and find peace with it rather than changing it and your health and health risk, I think it’s important that you know, it is your decision.

In fact, I think ideal health is both. Do everything you can based not on your old beliefs and old science but on current science, and an openness to new strategies. Then also accept that there may be a boundary that you are unwilling to cross. If you won’t follow through with some changes and though you want the change, won’t do the daily and weekly changes to get there, there is either a gap between you understanding the science of how that will help, or there is just a “no...

What about flipping 60? That’s such a frequently asked question.

The question comes up so often that I’m dedicating this short podcast to answer.

And it begs two responses.

First your body, specifically your muscle and your bone.

Second, your mindset.

Here’s what I’ve found.

What About Flipping 60 Physically?

And Just What About Flipping 60?

Flipping 50, 60, and 70 Mindset

Women often but not always accept and settle for aging based on the conditioning and influence they’ve had on their mindset about aging.

Yet, many women in the 70’s and 80s did not approach their aging proactively. She stood out because she was an anomaly. I remember her distinctly.

We Do Have More Science Than Ever Before

Acceptance is Okay

Previous Episode

10 Fitness Lessons from 2020 | Menopause & Exercise

Tucked into all the life lessons of 2020, the fitness lessons from 2020 were pretty clear.

Exercise done right boosts immunity. The first of fitness lessons from 2020 was the fact that it is moderate amounts of high and low intensity exercise, not moderate exercise that benefits your immune system most.
Exercise supports depression, anxiety, and mood.
Strength training to muscular fatigue prevents the muscle losses associated with aging.
Strength training with heavy weight prevents bone losses associated with aging.
Strength training (more than any form of cardio) improves longevity and the life in your years.
It is not the strength training activity, it is the result of proper strength training that increases lean muscle, decreases fat, and therefore improves body composition.

A question from Cary in our community, “If strength training does more to improve fat loss shouldn’t we do that more often?” That is such a logical thoughtful question. So, it’s important you realize it is not the 10, 20, or 40 minutes you spend strength training per session that improves fat loss, lean muscle loss prevention, and therefor body composition.

Proper strength training is this formula:

Adequate stimulus during the strength training session + adequate recovery after a session = Positive anabolic muscle response

What is adequate stimulus during the strength training session?

Overload to a point of temporary muscular fatigue - Done with a heavy weight and

lower rep range or lighter weight and lower rep range

Includes as many major muscle groups as possible – a full body routine, not a body part (or split routine) is best for women in midlife
Includes compound exercises

What is adequate recovery following a strength training session?

The purpose of all of the following is to improve anabolism, that is repair and rebuilding of the muscle following the act of breakdown during the workout. During exercise of any kind the muscles experience stress and microtears. When the body recovers it doesn’t just repair to original state, it overcompensates to be prepared for the next stress (workout).

If you’ve ever trained for a 5k you’ve experienced this. When you start, you’re not able to complete more than a mile. Then over time you can gradually do more and more, until you’re able to do the entire 3.1 miles. Or you’ve started a weightlifting routine and you’re using a 5 lb weight, and a few weeks later you realize you’re never tired at the end of a set and you need a heavier weight.

Adequate calories

A caloric deficit may be created because of activity, because of reduced calories and activity, or reduced calories – however during times of stress – from menopause, loss of sleep, stressful life situations, careful adherence to abundant micronutrient dense foods over strict calorie deficit is the better goal

Adequate protein – especially in the presence of lower calories

Protein needs increase with age due to muscle protein synthesis decline. On a per meal basis, 30-40 grams of high-quality protein at breakfast and again at dinner (or slightly higher at dinner) along with a modest protein midday meal support muscle protein synthesis.

The 24 hours following strength training muscle protein synthesis is boosted, making it a prime time to increase protein intake slightly over other days of the week. In fact cycling protein intake over the weeks of the month if you’re still experiencing a cycle or you’re in menopause can improve your body composition significantly. The type of training you do and the protein you consume both together have dramatically improved results for many women, even in their 60s.

Adequate rest between muscle re-stimulus

Without adequate rest anabolism will not be allowed to happen. Without enough time between coming back to the muscles again with a hard workout the repair can’t happen.

Imagine having the flu. You’re a busy person and when you start feeling better you get back into your regular routine to find yourself having to sit down after you take a shower and get ready, or maybe you make it until noon on your first day back and realize you’ve overdone it and wind up back in bed again. Your muscle, without the full recovery will experience more muscle wasting than repair and you may be losing muscle even while you’re exercising regularly.

To sum it up, recovery included not only the time between sessions, but the time between sets of exercise in a workout, and requires con...

Next Episode

Menopause Belly Fat Weight Gain | Reader Q and A Why? And What to Do

Dealing with menopause belly fat weight gain? So is one reader who asked for a refresher on this very commonly visited question at Flipping50. And here’s what you can do about it.

I am wondering if you have any insights into why postmenopausal women gain weight in the stomach or lower stomach. I understand cortisol plays a big role. -Dixie

In addition to refreshing your memory on the why here on possibly the most common question here at Flipping50, I’ll share the resources I’ve shared the past 7 years. I’ll give you a short list of items in the show notes here to use as a check list. And share resources if those aren’t coming easy to you.

Questions I answer:

What hormone shifts influence menopause belly fat weight gain?
What does estrogen have to do with it?
How does cortisol, as well as insulin come into it?
Exercise that is most effective
Is it fat, bloat, or constipation? Be sure you know.

Checklist of Support

Adaptagens - maca – see macapause below, rodiola, ashwaganda
Decrease stress exposure/Enhance your selfcare
Change the way you exercise – first reduce fatigue (see 5 Day Flip)
Reduce dietary-induced stressors (alcohol, processed foods, and those foods not agreeing with you!)
Sleep (see Sleep Yourself Skinny)
Optimize your carbohydrate cycling for cortisol and sleep
Make sure you have adequate protein content daily at each meal
Learn the cycle of carbs, protein, and fat (the After 50 Fitness Formula™)

Belly fat weight gain is not an absolute. Yes, many women do experience it. Treat it as a sign you’re not adjusting your lifestyle habits to meet your needs now, not as a permanent sentence.

Signs of menopause are just whispers that you need to make changes in your lifestyle medicine. You can change, if you change.

Resources:

Macapause

Natural Menopause Solutions You'll Love

Flipping 50 Insiders

Lab testing Cortisol - 4 sample saliva test

About Flipping 50

Flipping 50 hosts the First and Only Exclusively dedicated Fitness Membership for Women in Menopause. It's based on research featuring women in menopause. You're not a mice, a man, or a young woman. And you don't just have hormones to work with, you have joints, ligaments, a history, and more conditions to juggle along with hormonal changes.

That doesn't make it harder or impossible. It does mean whether you're getting started, restarted, or you're an athlete, you need intelligent exercise made for you.

You'll find not only the exercise, but the reason why you're exercising in the way you are and what it's doing for and to you. Try a small piece of the exercise here. It's 5 days of short videos, planned, not random, and for you not for "anyone."