Here’s how to change your nutrition in your 40s
Over the last few weeks, the good old Facebook algorithm has kept showing me the journey of an influencer who has lost a lot of weight.
The comments have ranged from disgusting abuse to, ‘Why are you not just honest, you have taken the jab?’ and, ‘What diet are you following?’
Even in 2026, people still feel it necessary to comment on women’s bodies in all sorts of ways. How she lost weight. What she looks like now. Whether she should have done it. What diet she followed.
Everyone is looking for the answer. The one diet, the one rule, the one explanation that is finally going to work.
But that is exactly what social media is making you do. It gives you a new hook every day, then makes you feel as though you have missed the one thing everybody else knows.
I know this is slightly cliché as I sit here writing a post about nutrition and changing in your 40s. But that is the point. A good hook makes you stop, but it doesn’t always give you the whole answer (or the truth).
I have more energy in my 40s than I did in my 20s and 30s
That did not come from one diet, one supplement, a perfect hormone routine or trying to eat as little as possible.
It took a lot of unlearning.
I had to stop believing that food only counted if it was small, clean or impressive enough to put online. I had to stop thinking a meal out meant I had blown it. And I had to stop looking for the next thing to remove from my diet every time I felt stuck.
What changed was much less exciting than a new rule. I started looking at what my food was actually doing for me on an ordinary day.
Was it giving me enough energy for work, training, life and everything else I wanted to do? Or was I spending my afternoons looking for something sweet, snacks, or anything that would get me through until dinner?
So how do you change your nutrition in your 40s?
Stop looking for the answers on social media.
These are the five things that have made the biggest difference for me and for the women I coach.
Stop restricting to find energy
More energy in your 40s does not come from finding the right plan. It comes from eating enough, consistently.
This is the first thing I fix with every client. We need to build energy before we can expect her to feel strong in training, clear-headed at work, present with her family, or able to make good choices when life gets busy.
I know this may sound like I am teaching you to suck eggs. If fat loss is your goal, you already know you cannot eat more than your body needs forever and expect your body to change. But ‘eat less’ is not a useful plan when it turns into eating the bare minimum, getting to 3pm exhausted, and then feeling like you have no control around food later on.
The question is not, ‘What is the least I can survive on?’ It should be.. ‘How do I eat in a way that gives me enough energy, helps me feel satisfied, and is still something I can do consistently?’
That is where we start.
You don’t need another rule. You need a framework.
This is why I built the Nourished Plate Method.
Protein. Carbs. Colour. Satisfaction.
Not another list of foods you are allowed or not allowed to eat. Not a complicated meal plan you have to memorise. A simple way to look at a meal and ask whether it is going to do enough for you.
Protein might be chicken, mince, eggs, yoghurt, tuna, beans, or whatever you genuinely enjoy. Carbs might be bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, wraps, cereal, or something else familiar. Colour might be fruit, salad, vegetables, soup, or whatever is realistic that day. Fats may be cheese, avocado, nuts, dressing, or oil used in cooking.
Every meal does not need to look perfect. But a simple framework means you do not have to start from scratch every time you ask yourself, ‘What am I meant to eat?’
It gives you something to come back to on a normal Tuesday, a training day, a meal deal lunch, or the night you only have the energy for something quick.
Instead of asking whether lunch looks healthy enough, ask a better question: Will this actually give me enough to get me to dinner?
That is a much more useful place to start.
The scales aren’t the measure. Fat loss is.
Weight and body fat are not the same thing. The number on the scales can move for all sorts of reasons and chasing that number is why so many women give up too soon.
It can be frustrating when you have made changes and the scales do not instantly reflect them. But the answer is not always to panic, cut more food or decide the plan is not working after a few days.
This is why I look at more than one thing with my clients. How does your energy feel? Are you stronger in the gym? Are you more consistent? Are you less likely to spend every evening looking for food? Do your clothes feel different? Are you building habits you can actually live with?
If your only measure is the scales, you miss so much of the progress that makes fat loss sustainable in the first place.
Have something for the busy days
If your nutrition only works on a good week, it is not working for you.
The real test is the day you have meetings, school runs, work, no food in the house, low energy, training later, or simply no desire to cook a beautiful meal from scratch.
That does not mean every busy meal has to look like the ideal plate. It means having a few realistic options you can fall back on.
Maybe that is a meal deal you choose with more thought. Maybe it is a sandwich and soup with something extra. Maybe it is eggs on toast with fruit. Maybe it is a freezer meal with a bag of salad. Maybe it is cereal for dinner, but you add something alongside it so it actually feels like enough.
The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to stop every busy day becoming a day where food falls apart and you feel as though you have failed again.
Consistency beats perfection, always
One meal out changes nothing. One takeaway changes nothing. One day where lunch ends up being whatever you can find changes nothing.
What you do most days is what actually moves the needle. This is the whole basis of how I coach.
I see women get stuck because they have one meal that was not part of the plan and think, “I have blown it now.” Then the rest of the day, weekend, or week gets written off too.
But it was a meal. That is all.
I am not saying “forget it” and eat whatever you want with no thought. That is not helpful either. It is understanding how you can live life and eat well all the time, not just when you are on a diet.
Consistency means coming back to the next meal. It means having a few realistic choices for busy days. It means learning to trust yourself around food rather than waiting for Monday to start again.
It also means you do not need to save another three recipes you will never make in order to feel as though you are trying. You need a few meals and choices that you genuinely enjoy and can repeat.
The thing I want you to take away (no pun intended)
Some days dinner will be a proper meal. Some days it will be cereal, eggs on toast, a sandwich or something you have picked up on the way home. Maybe it is a jacket potato with cheese. Maybe it is leftovers you weren’t excited about but ate anyway Maybe it is cereal, but you add something alongside it so it actually feels like enough.
I have more energy in my 40s because food feels simpler now. It supports my work, training, my life and the things I actually want to do. It is not because I found the one trick that everybody else is missing.
If you are eating well, moving your body, and still wondering why you feel flat, hungry, or like you are always thinking about food, I made a free two-minute check-in to help you spot the everyday pattern that may be getting in your way.
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