The Ultimate Morning Routine for Fat Loss over 40

Hello Beautiful,

We are going to dive into a morning Fat Loss routine for women over 40 that actually works, and it’s super simple.

Before I was a Female Health Coach, I can’t tell you how hectic my mornings used to be. These are the things I used to do and feel on repeat, 

• Hitting snooze
• Low energy
• Checking social media and emails as soon as I opened my eyes
• Needing caffeine before facing the world
• Feeling rushed, frustrated, and exhausted all the time

Can you relate to any of these?

I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and let me tell you, not only was I massively neglecting my emotional, physical, and spiritual health, but I was neglecting my family, too, because I had zero energy or patience to be fully present with them.

I was stuck in the most unhealthy morning routine. Mornings were hectic and stressful, and that is just the way it was for a long time.

This kind of morning spilled out into the rest of my day. Stressed, frustrated, and emotional.

I would be chasing sugar cravings all day long, feeling fatigued, disconnected, and tired, and then needing caffeine and sugar by day to get through, and wine by night to “de-stress” and sleep.   

I finally got to a point where I just couldn’t take it anymore and knew there had to be another way. 

What is a morning routine for fat loss?

The things we put in our bodies first thing in the morning REALLY matter. The decisions we make in the morning have an impact on the entire day and determine whether we:

-Store body fat or burn it

-Have energy crashes or feel energised

-Have cravings or feel balanced

Most Important In The Morning:

1. Hydration
2. Blood sugar balance
3. Stress hormones
4. Movement (it’s not the gym 😉

1. Hydration

Before you panic, no, I’m not going to break your heart by saying you can’t have coffee, but what I am saying is that you must have the hydration FIRST. 

One of the biggest things the body is looking for in the morning is hydration. 

Throughout the night, while we are sleeping, the body is going through so many detoxification processes. 

While we sleep, cellular turnover, liver, kidney, lungs, etc., they are all going through a detox process.

So when we wake up first thing, we need proper hydration in order to flush toxins and replenish electrolytes. 

Dehydration is a stressor for the body.

When the body is in a stressed state, metabolism slows down = fat accumulation.

Dehydration is also a great way to increase your appetite! 

Dehydration = an increase in the hunger hormone Ghrelin. AKA ravenous!

Dehydration & Increased Appetite – Why does this happen?

A In our hunter-gatherer days, a lot of our water used to come from the food we ate.

Now, when our bodies require water, our body often sends the signal of hunger, in the hopes you’ll eat food with high water content. 

If you think about the typical British/American breakfast: toast, cereal, coffee, pastries….dehydration, dehydration, dehydration, and zero nourishment.

These typical breakfast foods are also THE QUICKEST way to gain body fat, too because they aggravate blood sugar so much. A bit more on that in a sec.

How To Hydrate Properly 

Within 10 minutes of waking up…

• 700ml filtered water (I have this filter on my countertop, shown in pic below)
• Squeeze of ½ lemon juice (detoxifying)
• Pinch of Baja Gold salt or Himalayan pink salt (essential electrolytes & minerals)

This is the most wonderful quenching drink your beautiful body will thank you for. It will help keep cravings at bay, properly hydrate you, assist with cognitive function, and aid in detoxification. 

If you do love a cup of coffee, just make sure it’s clean. 

Over 85% of the world’s coffee is considered “commercial grade coffee”, grown for mass production, sprayed with pesticides, and stored in a way that encourages mould growth.  Drinking this cocktail of chemicals like Mould, Mycotoxins and Pesticides is so harmful to our delicate hormones, not to mention the jitters and trouble sleeping.

I’ve tried and tested so many organic, clean coffee brands, and my favourite bar far is Balance Coffee.

I love their ethos, transparency, and the couple behind the brand are such genuine,  wonderful people (no affiliate, just sharing the love).

2. Blood Sugar Balance

As I mentioned above, what we eat as part of our regular morning routine is crucial.

A typical breakfast of cereal, toast, juice, or flavored coffee is largely made up of refined carbohydrates and sugar. 

These foods digest very quickly and enter the bloodstream as glucose. 

Because they lack protein, fiber, and healthy fats, they cause blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. In response, the body releases a large amount of insulin to bring blood sugar back down. 

Insulin’s job is to shuttle glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells—but when there is more glucose than the body needs for immediate energy, insulin directs the excess to be stored as fat.

This sharp rise and fall in blood sugar creates a metabolic roller coaster that sets the tone for the rest of the day. 

After the initial spike, blood sugar often drops too low, leaving you feeling tired, irritable, shaky, or hungry just a couple of hours after eating. 

This crash signals the brain to seek quick energy, which increases cravings for sugar and refined carbs. If you find yourself thinking about a cheeky biscuit or energy bar at 10/11 am, this is the reason why! 

Over time, repeatedly starting the day this way can make it harder for the body to burn fat efficiently and easier to stay stuck in a cycle of cravings, overeating, and energy crashes. 

It’s exhausting I know, I used to feel this almost daily and found it so challenging to shift body fat.

What To Eat Instead

What works better is a breakfast that stabilizes blood sugar instead of spiking it. 

Meals built around protein, healthy fats, and fibre digest more slowly and lead to a steadier release of glucose into the bloodstream. 

This means less insulin, fewer cravings, and more consistent energy. Who doesn’t want consistent energy and fewer visits from the sugar monster?!

Halle-bloody-lujah!

My favorite breakfasts include:

• Eggs with vegetables and avocado

• Coconut yogurt with nuts and berries

• Protein smoothie with fiber-rich ingredients

or 

• Sometimes I’ll have last night’s leftovers like salmon and veggies. 

These types of nourishing breakfasts support satiety, help regulate appetite throughout the day, and create a metabolic environment that favours fat burning rather than fat storage. 

Another huge plus of eating this way is the quality fat content. As women, we can’t make sex hormones without healthy fats. 

-Estrogens

-Progesterone

-Testosterone

Over the years, I’ve met so many women who’ve done low-fat diets, and they became a train wreck. Low libido, dry skin, dry vagina, dry hair & nails, and the most insane amounts of brain fog. 

I did a low-fat diet once as an experiment, and I became a dried-up husk with a ferocious mood, constant irritability, and emotional. It wasn’t fun! Oh, and to add insult to injury, I lost 0 body fat.

3. Why Stress Hormones Wreck Fat-Loss Efforts

For women over 40, hormonal changes make the body more sensitive to stress—especially in the morning. 

Cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, naturally rises after waking to help you feel alert. But during perimenopause and menopause, this cortisol surge can become exaggerated or prolonged, particularly when mornings start with rushing, multitasking, or immediate mental stress. 

When cortisol remains elevated, it signals the body to protect energy reserves, slow metabolic rate (bad news), and store fat (terrible news), most often around the abdomen. (It never goes to the boobs, does it!)

As estrogen and progesterone fluctuate and gradually decline, cortisol has a stronger impact on blood sugar regulation and fat storage. 

High morning stress hormones can worsen insulin resistance, making it harder for the body to efficiently use glucose for energy. (holding on to fat stores)

This not only promotes fat storage but also leads to mid-morning crashes, low energy, and increased cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates. 

For many women over 40, this creates the frustrating experience of “doing everything right” while still struggling with stubborn weight gain.

How Morning Meditation Can Help Fat-Loss

You don’t have to wear a kaftan or burn incense, nor do you have to sit cross-legged on top of a mountain in India to reap the benefits. 

A simple five-minute meditation in the morning can help interrupt this stress response before it takes hold. 

All you need is 3-5 minutes in a quiet space.

Taking a few minutes to slow the breath, calm the nervous system, and ground the mind signals safety to the body. 

This activates the parasympathetic nervous system—the “rest and digest” state—which helps bring cortisol back into balance. (hello calmer you)

A simple five-minute morning meditation can be a powerful tool for restoring hormonal balance during this stage of life. Taking just a few minutes to slow your breathing and calm the nervous system signals safety to the body and helps shift it out of fight-or-flight mode. 

This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps regulate cortisol levels and supports more efficient metabolic function. When stress hormones are balanced, the body is more willing to release stored fat rather than hold onto it.

Consistency Is Key

Consistently starting the morning with even a 3-5 minute meditation can have a compounding effect on metabolism and fat loss. 

-Lower stress hormones improve:

-Insulin sensitivity

-Stabilize blood sugar

and reduce stress-driven cravings, all of which support more efficient fat burning. 

Sitting for a few minutes, with yourself, your breath, your heartbeat, is one of the quickest ways to develop a connection with yourself, which is the key to feeling calm and a sense of peace.  

Over time, consistently starting the day with meditation can support a healthier metabolism for us women over 40. 

Do not underestimate the impact and compounding effect of just 5 minutes a day. We all have 5 minutes right?!

Lower cortisol improves insulin sensitivity, stabilizes blood sugar, and reduces stress-driven cravings—all key factors for sustainable fat loss during midlife.

Rather than pushing harder with restrictive dieting or intense exercise, a five-minute meditation works by supporting the hormonal environment the body needs to burn fat, maintain energy, and feel more balanced throughout the day.

How To Meditate

If you’re new to meditation and have no clue where to start, I highly recommend the app ‘Insight Timer’, it’s free, and there are thousands of guided meditations for a beautiful morning practice. 

I talk in more depth about gratitude meditations in this post, if you fancy going deeper.

• Related Reading: How Real Self-Care Beats Bubble Baths: The Self Love Ritual That Actually Works

Here are some of my favourite morning meditations that completely transform your energy. All on the Insight Timer App.

• Stillness Gateway: 10 Minutes Of Calm
• Unite With Your Core Truth
• Morning Ritual Meditation
• Step Into Love
• Miracle Morning Guided Meditation
• Gratitude Meditation

4. Movement

Choose whatever you like that gets your blood circulating and lungs going. It doesn’t have to be long, gruelling sessions in the gym….

It can be:

• Yoga in your living room – My favourite human for this is Travis Eliot, you’ll find hundreds of amazing yoga sessions on his YouTube. Anywhere from 10-30 minutes. 

Here are my fav 3 Travis Elliot Quick Yoga Practices:

I’ve linked the videos for you, just click on the image.

• Body weight workout on YouTube – There are so many to choose from! This is a good one for beginners, easy to follow along.
• Power walk in nature, the park, or a few times around the block (put your fav tunes on or a podcast you love and go).

It can be anything. But the caveat is, YOU MUST ENJOY IT!

Our lives are fleeting, and I genuinely don’t subscribe to doing types of exercise you hate. What’s the point? You only end up quitting anyway; it’s unsustainable, miserable, and you can’t build consistency. Do what you enjoy. 

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this, it’s that fat loss after 40 isn’t about doing more, pushing harder, or being stricter with yourself. 

It’s about working with your body, not against it. 

How you start your morning sets the hormonal and metabolic tone for the entire day. 

Hydrating properly, balancing blood sugar, calming stress hormones, and gently moving your body create an internal environment where fat loss can finally feel possible again—

without exhaustion, deprivation, or constant willpower (which we both know never works anyway).

Your morning routine doesn’t need to be perfect, long, or rigid to be powerful.

Small, intentional shifts—

-Drinking water before coffee

-Choosing a nourishing breakfast

-Sitting in stillness for five minutes

-Moving your body in a way you enjoy—compound over time. 

These simple habits help stabilize energy, reduce cravings, improve mood, and support a metabolism that feels responsive instead of resistant.

If your mornings currently feel rushed, chaotic, or draining, please know this: 

It doesn’t have to stay that way.

I was once exactly where you are. 

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen when you choose to care for yourself first thing in the day. 

Start small. Be consistent. Trust that these gentle, supportive practices are not “doing less”—they’re doing what your body truly needs at this stage of life.

Five minutes here, one better choice there… it all adds up. 

I don’t need to know you personally to know you are worthy, divine, and beautiful. 

You are more than worthy of a morning routine that supports your health, your energy, your soul, and your hormones.

In Love & Health,