Why Muscle Loss Sabotages Weight Loss & Fat Loss for Women Over 50 [Ep 55]

Host Lisa DuPree answers a listener question: “Does losing muscle mass make you weigh more?” and unpacks the deeper truth about body composition, metabolism, and the term “skinny fat.”  She explores why muscle is your midlife metabolic engine and why weight alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

Sharing science-backed insights, Lisa explains the role of sarcopenia, and reflects on her personal journey training for a physique competition at 59. This episode is a call to action for women over 50 to rethink fitness, prioritize strength training, and embrace a confident, energized life. 

Plus: Winners of the 3-year anniversary giveaway, including a free coaching session, a personalized fitness plan, and a favorite motivational book are announced!

Ready to get started - Check out the Jumpstart Coaching resources: 

Apply for a free strategy session

Jumpstart Program Mini-Course helps you create a health and fitness plan that fits your lifestyle. Over five days, you’ll receive actionable tips to improve your nutrition, exercise, and recovery - all tailored to the unique needs of women over 50.

Jumpstart Checklist - Download the free checklist and jumpstart your journey to a fitter, stronger, more confident and happier you.

Key Moments

[01:00] Listener Question: Does Losing Muscle Make You Weigh More?
The short answer is no—but the truth is more complex and more important.
[02:00] Muscle = Metabolic Power
Lisa explains how muscle supports your metabolism even at rest and how its loss leads to fat gain and slowed energy burn.
[03:00] Sarcopenia Explained: Age-Related Muscle Decline
A deeper dive into why women start losing muscle in their 30s and 40s
[04:30] A Real-Life Example: Muscle Loss Impact on Metabolism
Lisa breaks down calorie burn and muscle loss math using an example.
[05:30] What is “Skinny Fat”?
A compassionate discussion of what many women feel—normal scale numbers but low energy, soft body composition, and frustration.
[07:00] Why the Scale Isn’t the Whole Story
You can weigh the same and look/feel very different based on muscle mass.
[08:00] Strength Training is Your Midlife Secret Weapon
Lisa explains why cardio alone won’t cut it—and why strength training is the key to lasting fat loss, body change, and health.
[09:30] Lisa’s Current Body Recomposition Experience with the Scale
First-hand insight into how her body has changed despite scale fluctuations.
[11:00] If You’re Feeling Stuck—You’re Not Alone
How her Jumpstart Coaching Program helps women over 50 finally feel strong and

Thanks for listening!

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Jumpstart Checklist - Download the checklist and jumpstart your journey to a fitter, stronger, more confident and happier you. Get it here!

Midlife Mojo Jumpstart mini-course to create a health and fitness plan that fits your lifestyle. Over five days, you’ll receive actionable tips to improve your nutrition, exercise, and recovery—all tailored to the unique needs of midlife.

To help you set positive, motivating goals you are excited about, get this free Goal Setting for Success Worksheet.

Transcript

Lisa DuPree: Hello. Hello. I'm so glad you're tuning in today. This is a special episode 'cause I've got some giveaway winners to announce. I'll do that a little later on in the episode, and that is part of our podcast three year anniversary celebration. So hang tight for that. And whether you've been with me from the beginning or you're brand new here.

Thank you for showing up and being part of this amazing community. But first I really wanna dig into a great listener question that I received recently, and that question is, does losing muscle mass make you way more? And I love this one because it opens up a conversation that goes way beyond the scale, way beyond the number on the scale.

And it's something that is so very relevant for women, especially in midlife. So we're gonna break it down, explore some things that are really going on with weight, metabolism, muscle, and also touch on this phenomenon known as skinny fat. [00:01:00] And also give you just a little bit of an update on my fit model competition prep journey, and how it ties into everything we're talking about today.

 Does losing muscle actually make you way more? And the answer is not directly. But here's what does happen and how it's important. Muscle is your body's metabolic engine. So the more you have, the more fuel. You burn. So the, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Even if you're doing nothing, [00:02:00] just lounging around.

Lisa DuPree: And when you lose muscle, it makes your metabolism slow down. Your body composition begins to change, and your ratio of fat mass to lean mass shifts in a way that makes gaining fat even easier because your resting metabolic rate has decreased. What's more is that there is a natural age related phenomenon called sarcopenia.

And that's where , skeletal muscle mass and strength both decline with age. It's a progressive decrease in muscle tissue, and that impacts mobility, strength, overall quality of life. So this muscle loss typically begins in your thirties and forties, and it happens at a rate of somewhere between three to 8% of muscle loss per decade with an even more rapid decline.

 After age 60. [00:03:00] So to kinda really like make this come to life, I want to use an example. So let's assume that there's 150 pound woman. And about 30% of her overall body weight is muscle.

And so that is like a typical estimate for women, about 30%, although it can vary widely, but we're gonna go with 30% for now. 30% of 150 pounds is 45 pounds of muscle. So thinking about if she loses three to 8% of her muscle mass, then that is equivalent to about 1.3 to 3.6 pounds of muscle. So if you think about muscle burning, roughly six calories per pound per day at rest.

Then you can figure out how many calories per day the decrease in her me resting metabolic rate from that muscle loss. So say this 100 fou [00:04:00] 150 pound woman, um, is losing three to 8% of her muscle mass.

 So that's a decrease in her resting metabolic rate of about eight to 22 calories per day, 

it's not really massive at first glance, but because we know it's cumulative, it adds up over time, even small. Drops in your resting metabolic rate like this really add up, and especially when they're paired with other changes like getting less exercise or just having a more sedentary lifestyle, and then hormonal shifts come into play as well.

So this is the main reason why maintaining muscle mass is so key for women over 40 and 50 because it compounds each decade and it even ramps up with more muscle loss if there is nothing done to counteract that over 60. And it's also where the concept of being skinny fat comes into play. Now, [00:05:00] I don't really love that term because.

You know, you are absolutely not defined by your body and your body size. It does, however, describe something that a lot of women feel, but can't quite name. Say you are working out, you might even be eating less than ever, and your weight on the scale kind of looks normal or is close to that normal range, but your body just feels soft, your energy's low, your clothes don't fit right.

Um, they feel tight and just weird places, and you don't really feel strong and confident in your body. Even though you are trying and doing like all the right things, so that's the skinny fat experience of low muscle mass and higher percentage body fat. Even if the number on the scale doesn't look alarming, or even if it's like within that recommended weight range, for many women, especially in perimenopause and post [00:06:00] menopause, it's a signal that there's something else going on.

So muscle is that metabolic engine. It burns more cal calories at rest. It helps regulate blood sugar and it supports hormone health. And when you lose it, your body just becomes less efficient and your overall percentage of body fat tends to creep up even if you're eating the same and exercising the same as you always did.

Also, muscle is dense. If you think about it, muscle being more dense than fat, it's gonna take up less space than the same amount of fat. So this is why two women who are you know, the same height and actually have the same weight on the scale, can look completely different depending on how much lean muscle they have.

And this is really why I talk about this with my clients. It's because scale is not the full story. It [00:07:00] is not the, the best outcome or the best indicator of longevity and health 

 If you are losing fat and maintain or gaining muscle, which is what we want, your weight may not change that much. Right, but your health, your strength your body shape and possibly your longevity is going to change for the better. And that's what we want . We want to make sure that we are, losing that fat that we don't want, that's not helping us in gaining or at least maintaining our muscle.

So how do, how do we work with this? And the answer is not more cardio, and it's definitely not eating less, the answer is in that overall muscle strength training is gonna be your midlife secret weapon. It is how you protect your metabolism.

It's how you reshape your body. [00:08:00] It's how you live longer. Better. And how you really can feel like yourself again. So having that strength, keeping that muscle mass up, doing the strength training, it gives you a stronger, faster metabolism. It gives you that lean shape and definition instead of that soft feeling.

It helps support mental clarity and hormone health supports joint stability, bone health, it gives you better balance and it really is a clear, empowering path that's about getting strong, not just about getting smaller or weighing less I'm not against cardio. Cardio absolutely is important and it has its place.

It's great for heart health, it's great for mental wellness, but when it comes to fat loss and body recomposition and long-term confidence and autonomy, building muscle and strength is the number one go-to strategy. Hands [00:09:00] down. It's become a hill I'm gonna die on. 

Lisa DuPree: I'm really embracing this and living this in midlife and I'm helping my clients do this as well. 'cause it's just so important. You know, you've probably heard me mention that I'm currently training for a physique competition at 59. And let me tell you, this has been a humbling, empowering and eye-opening experience.

But the biggest lesson here for me, there's so many lessons, but I think the, the lesson that most relevant here is that the scale, the scale she lies. Seriously. Over the past couple of months since I've been really focused, really training, I have seen the number on the scale go up, go down, like sideways, doing all kinds of crazy things. 

 It varies so much. But here's the thing that I've also experienced, is my body is getting stronger. I [00:10:00] am getting much leaner, and I am actually more capable every single week in my workouts. My body fat has decreased significantly, and I've not only maintained muscle, I've actually added and built muscle.

So it is absolutely within the realm of possibility for every woman to succeed at body recomposition after menopause. You know, there is a lot of power in making lifestyle tweaks that prioritize muscle over the number on the scale. And, and that's really the learning that I wanted to share with you today.

'cause it's not about being skinny or being at a certain weight or like a certain size pants. Like it's all good to have those kind of goals to kind of get you started. But you gotta go a little bit deeper and really look at body composition. And it's about being strong, it's about being energized, and it's about being proud of what your body can do and confident in, [00:11:00] in what your body can do, no matter your age or hormone status.

So if you've been feeling stuck, like not being able to lose fat or kind of stuck at a certain spot, or you're in that skinny fat loop, feeling like you're doing everything right, but just still not getting results, it's really time to do something differently, and that's what I help women do. Inside my Jumpstart Coaching program, we focus on building strength safely and effectively.

We focus on eating to fuel your body and your metabolism. We focus on things that are gonna support recovery that are important for women, specifically in our age group, and also managing stress while developing the mindset that keeps you going and keeps you consistent. It is not a trendy diet. It is not a quick fix.

However, it is a strategy with. Proven processes that work, [00:12:00] especially for women over 50. So if you're tired of spinning your wheels and ready to feel confident and strong, you know, I'd love to help you get started. There's links in the show notes for a free download that you can check out, or you can go ahead and schedule a time to chat with me about your current situation in your goals and kinda see how we might work together going forward.

All right, so now it's time to celebrate a little as part of our three year anniversary giveaway. I've got a few lucky winners to receive a a thank you gifts from me, from Midlife Mojo. So first up, we have the winner of the free one-on-one coaching session, and that is Karen from Phoenix.

I have a winner of the personalized fitness plan, and that is Denise from Raleigh, and then the winner of the favorite book of mine, um, Marisol from San Diego. And that book is The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal. It's a really great [00:13:00] blend of science and heart, and it's really perfect for women who are rediscovering fitness and midlife 

congratulations, ladies, thank you so much for everyone who entered. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you. So to wrap up, losing muscle won't make you way more right away, but it can absolutely change your body in ways that don't feel really great and that can be detrimental to your health and longevity.

And you can reverse that age related muscle loss, you can rebuild muscle, boost your metabolism, and get back to feeling strong, confident, and in control at any age. So if this resonated with you, take a look at the Jumpstart Coaching Program. The links are in the show notes. And if you love the episode, take a second to share it with a friend who needs this info too.

Until next time. Keep showing up for yourself and keep your mojo rising. See you next [00:14:00] week.