Are you aware that after the age of 35, the approach to womens health must evolve to truly embrace vitality and strength? In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I delve into the transformative landscape of health and fitness specifically tailored for women over 35. Gone are the days when weight loss and endless cardio were the primary focus; it’s time to shift the spotlight to strength training, muscle maintenance, and nutrition for optimal metabolic health.
Are you aware that after the age of 35, the approach to womens health must evolve to truly embrace vitality and strength? In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I delve into the transformative landscape of health and fitness specifically tailored for women over 35. Gone are the days when weight loss and endless cardio were the primary focus; it’s time to shift the spotlight to strength training, muscle maintenance, and nutrition for optimal metabolic health.
I firmly believe that body composition is the key to understanding womens health, and I make a compelling case for why muscle mass should be considered a critical health metric. “It’s not just about losing weight; it’s about building a strong foundation for your body,” I emphasize. This episode is packed with actionable insights on how to improve your body composition by prioritizing lean muscle for women, rather than merely focusing on the scale.
We’ll also tackle common misconceptions surrounding cardio and nutrition, advocating for a balanced macronutrient approach that fuels your energy levels and supports your long-term wellness. Whether you’re navigating menopause, dealing with PCOS, or simply looking for effective workout tips, I share my extensive experience in the fitness industry to guide you.
From toning workouts to clean eating tips, my aim is to empower you with the knowledge to enhance your healthspan—not just your lifespan. I encourage all midlife women to embrace these principles, as they are crucial for not only maintaining physical health but also nurturing your mental health and overall well-being.
Join me in this episode as we explore how to eat for muscle, the importance of protein for women, and how to incorporate wellness into your daily routine. Let’s redefine womens health together and inspire each other to prioritize strength, vitality, and a balanced approach to nutrition. Are you ready to take the next step in your health journey? Tune in now!
If you're interested in womens health, this is the podcast for you.
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Speaker #0 What if the fitness advice you've been following for years is already outdated? Because the conversation is shifting in the world of women's health. For decades, you were told the path to health was simple. Eat less, do more cardio, and lose weight. But researchers, doctors, and coaches are finally recognizing something important. That approach doesn't work the same way for women, especially after 35. Instead, the conversation is moving towards something very different. Muscle, body composition, and macros for metabolic health. And something called healthspan, not just lifespan. So today, I want to walk you through the top you fitness and nutrition topics for women's health in 2026, and why these conversations are changing everything about how we think about health and longevity. So keep listening. Hello, and thank you for being here. If you are new, welcome. I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women mostly over 40 to improve your body composition so that you are at least 70% lean mass. so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in the game of life and out of the rocking chair. The biggest shift in women's health right now is moving away from weight loss and cardio-focused fitness and towards strength training, lean muscle, eating for metabolic health, and prioritizing your health span over your lifespan or longevity. So today I'm talking about the top topics that I'm seeing in the fitness and nutrition industry that are also backed by science. If you're struggling with things like, I feel like I'm doing everything right, but my body isn't changing, or my workouts used to work, but now they don't, or maybe I feel tired all the time and my body just feels softer and weaker, then I will tell you, you are absolutely not alone. I promise. Because these are the most common things I hear from women in my community and the women that come to me for coaching. And these are the very things that used to keep me up at night in my quest for answers. Or maybe you're not overtly struggling with something in particular and you just want to be proactive in your efforts to support your health. Because we all know that women's health is a moving target every year. So it's important to stay up to date on the things that matter when it comes to your habits. So in this episode, you'll learn why muscle is becoming one of the most important health metrics for women, why the conversation is shifting from weight loss to body composition, and how a broader balanced macronutrient approach to nutrition is so much better for your metabolism than the current protein preoccupation. I believe something very different than what we were all taught for decades. I believe your goal should not be weight loss. Your top goal should be building and maintaining muscle mass because muscle influences nearly every system in your body, if not every system. It supports metabolism. We know this. It protects your bones. It improves your strength, your mobility. and and your independence. Do you know how good it feels when you don't need someone else to help you with heavy luggage or moving boxes? Muscle helps you stay active and vibrant as you age. It just makes your life better. In other words, muscle helps you improve your health and happiness span. the number of years that you actually feel strong and capable and energized and excited for life. In case you're new around here, I'd like to share just a bit about my experience as a woman's health strength and nutrition expert for the past 30 years. I started as a personal trainer as just a wee little baby in New York City training a number of very, very famous celebrities and have been impractical. coaching women day in and day out for my entire career. I'm the author of two books, Lift to Get Lean, a Women's Health Magazine-branded book, and Muscle and Bone, which is coming out next year. I have a degree in exercise physiology and nutrition from Penn State. Over the years, my celebrity clients have included Howard Stern, Adrienne Grenier, Natasha Richardson, Karlie Kloss, Kelly Kline, Billy Crystal, and even a presidential candidate. I've worked with professional athletes from the NBA, NHL, and NFL. And I've trained alongside of their physical therapists. And the point of this story is this. I know what it takes to transform your body and your health. And nothing is more important than women's health and fitness. As you can imagine, when you've been in practice for as long as I have, you start to see the forest for the trees really clearly. You learn to see patterns and motives and And gimmicks and bad advice, science-backed principles that work, and the ones that are built upon a marketing initiative designed just to get your money. And through the years, I have been possessed with finding the protocols that work, that matter, and the ones that make improving your fitness and nutrition as simple and easy as possible. I see the needle movers and how to influence them. And this episode reveals what I see as the top, most important fitness and nutrition topics that you really should be focused on in 2026. My hope is that you hear my suggestions and put them into practice so that you can become your own coach. Because once you get the principles down, it's actually pretty simple to improve your body composition so that you can thrive tomorrow, and for all the years ahead. One of the biggest shifts that's happening right now is the move from weight loss to body composition. You have been subconsciously and overtly influenced to believe that weight loss makes you healthier, sexier, and improves your self-worth. That you somehow better because you are slim and skinny and look hot in a bikini. And that is a bunch of BS. It's really disturbing to see this movement towards skinny again, I personally think, because of the influence of the weight loss injectables. And I'm not here to criticize that at all, but there is this subtle movement and subtle messaging that life is wonderful when you lose weight and you're skinny. Every day I coach women and I see their body composition reports. I get to see what's happening underneath their pant size. I get to see what's happening under their slender thighs. I get to see their progress photos. And it is very common to see women who look incredible on the outside, but have a terrible muscle to fat ratio. About half of my clients that come to me are at their goal weight, but they feel soft and, to use their words, they feel fat. Their doctor didn't tell them that they need to lose weight, but their lean mass is below 70%, putting them in the category where they are at a greater risk of all-cause mortality. I also see women who come to me because they have lost 20 to 30 pounds on the scale, only to find out that when they did that, they also lost muscle. And therefore, their body composition didn't improve at all. And as much as I hate to say it, sometimes their body composition actually got worse. They simply became a smaller version of their same self. And according to the science, they aren't actually better or healthier. I have had clients who come to me after working with doctors, dietitians, and functional medicine practitioners who put them on very low-carbohydrate diets in order to help them lose weight, address their PCOS or hormone issues, insulin sensitivity issues, fibroids, autoimmune problems, and high A1c, only to find out that after months and months of low-carb eating, And working with these protocols, if you will, their labs didn't improve. These problems didn't get better. So what did I do? I flipped the script. I approach it very differently, and this may not be popular, but I increased their carbohydrates to at least 40% of their daily calories, and boom, months later, all of their lab markers improved, and they dropped body fat while also increasing their muscle. Now the quality of nutrition matters. It's not just about eating more carbohydrates, it's doing it the right way and doing it from the right sources. More on that in a moment. The conversation is shifting from weight loss to body composition because your scale cannot tell you how much muscle you have, how much body fat you have, or how metabolically healthy you are. Two women can weigh the same exact amount, but have completely different levels. of health depending on their muscle mass. To illustrate, my very best friend in the world, Jill, who is also on my team, if you know her, we are a great example. We are the same height and we are built very similarly. We've known each other for 15 years and there were times when we were the same exact weight on the scale, yet I had more muscle and she had more fat. We both looked perfectly healthy. But were we? When you focus on building lean muscle, instead of losing weight, everything changes. This is because lean muscle is metabolically active and, therefore, it improves your metabolism, whereas dieting doesn't. It supports healthy body fat levels, whereas dieting doesn't. And it improves long-term health and health span. And when you lose weight, the opposites happen most of the time. Your metabolism lowers to maintain a now smaller frame. So you now have to eat less in order to keep that weight loss. You generally lose muscle along with the body fat when you lose weight. And therefore, you're not guaranteed an improvement in body fat percentage. So most of the research now is saying, When a person sort of blindly loses weight, you could be exercising, by the way, but when you lose weight, the weight comes from a mix of fat and muscle. And that percentage can really shift depending on how you lose weight. What's really scary is if you really just lose weight at all costs, as much as 60% of that weight that you lose could come from muscle, which means you're only losing 40% of that weight. from body fat. We want to flip that. And even better, when you do it right, all of the weight that you lose can come from body fat because you can simultaneously burn muscle in the same cycle. Also, when you just lose weight, your bone density tends to decline because bones need mechanical stress in order to stay strong. When you weigh less and have less muscle, Your bones lose the stimulus that they need. Think of it this way. If you were 50 pounds heavier for whatever reason, that is more mechanical stress. That is, let's say, 200 pounds of mechanical stress on your bones. And if you were to lose 50 pounds, now that's only 150 pounds of mechanical stress on your bones. So there really is a direct correlation when you weigh less. There's a tendency for bone density, strength, and mass to decline as well. This is one reason why women who have a smaller frame, either genetically or they have been underweight or at their body weight most of their life, tend to have more issues with osteopenia and osteoporosis. And women who have been overweight or heavier or have more muscle the majority of their life tend to have stronger and denser bones. And get this. Provided that your body fat percentage falls into a reasonable category, the rest of your life will be better the hardier you are. More muscle, more power, more energy, and more resilience. There is a very real argument for being heavier if you want to live a vibrant life. Now don't forget, I did say, provided your body fat percentage you falls into a reasonable category, but this is an argument for being 28% body fat instead of 18% body fat, because 28% body fat is still very healthy. The more muscle you have, the better your life will be. There isn't an expert out there who would not agree with this. And this is exactly why I've established that your first goal is to become at least 70% lean mass. Write that down or make a mental note of it. When you get a body composition screening, your report is going to glaringly tell you your percentage of body fat. Your lean mass is the rest of you. So you want to take 100% minus whatever percent body fat you are, and that is your lean mass. It's your bone, it's your muscle, it's everything else other than body fat. And when you do that, when you become at least 70% lean mass, according to a body composition screening, your muscle to fat ratio moves into a category where your risk of dementia you heart disease, stroke, and diabetes all decline. Now, my preference is that every woman everywhere then progresses on to be somewhere between 70% lean mass and about 75% lean mass, because that's where you are truly fit, feel strong, and get all of the benefits of being fit. It's where most women look their best and feel even better. It's what most women are striving for when they say they want to lose weight, but it also ensures all the other benefits. Let me give you a personal example from my own life. In my 20s and 30s, all I wanted was to be skinny. Skinny, skinny, skinny, as skinny as possible. This was after the 90s when thin was in. So I would decrease my calories and increase my cardio. It was a never-ending cycle. I was eating generally between 1,200 and 1,400 calories, and I landed around about 118 pounds most of the time on a five foot six inch frame. And during that time, during all those years, about 20 years, yeah, just about 20 years, my thyroid tanked. I was always freezing, even though I lived in Los Angeles. My fingernails were so brittle that they would splinter in the middle of the night from the friction of my sheets. That was a flag right there. That's when I was like, something is up. My hair was thin and I would get recurring bald patches. I had to rely on caffeine all day long because I was so tired and couldn't get through the day. And I couldn't get my heart rate up during cardio because my system was so downregulated. Now. On the flip side, in comparison to the last 10 years, oh, by the way, that is after the age of about 44, 45, because I'm 54 now. So after the age of 45, I eat at least 2000 calories each day. If I'm wanting to get a hair leaner, my maintenance is like 24, 2500 calories a day. My body fat is higher. But I now weigh 135 pounds, give or take, because I don't weigh myself except when I go to my doctor's office. So I honestly have no idea where I am. Probably 135 pounds. And my nails are so strong now that I have to file them every single week. Otherwise, they grow way too long. I have hair regrowth patches sprouting out. And my hair is the longest. and healthiest that it's been in my entire life. Now, I have to admit and be honest, I do still abuse caffeine, but it's more because I just, I love the buzz of caffeine and it makes my brain on fire so I can write better, I can write faster, I think better, but I don't use it because I'm so tired and I need to get through the day. My heart rate feels free and unrestricted. during cardio workouts. And for the first time in my entire life, I can actually get into my heart rate range without having to adjust my targets or take 30 minutes to get into zone. These are very noteworthy differences. And oh, by the way, I'm the oldest I have ever been, but I'm heartier. I'm happier because I eat carbs and I'm healthier without a doubt, according to all of my lab work. And I weigh 15 pounds more than I used to. A lot of that is muscle, but without a doubt, some of that is body fat. This is the power of building muscle. improving your body composition, and abandoning weight loss as a concept. Up next, I'll reveal why muscle is becoming one of the most important health metrics for women and how a broader, balanced, macronutrient approach to nutrition is better for your metabolism than the current protein preoccupation. But first, I hope you'll let me tell you about a product that my husband and I are obsessed with. It's a fact. Sleep changes as you get older, and generally not for the better, right? In your early 20s, you could stay up late, get four or five hours of sleep, and somehow still function the next day. I remember I could power through. I would grab a coffee and some sugar and I would be fine. But that doesn't really work anymore, does it? Somewhere in our 30s or 40s, Sleep stops being optimal. You feel when it's off. The brain fog comes in. The shorter patience. The sluggish workouts. The sense that you're just not fully on. When I was looking for something to help me sleep better, I did not want to be knocked out. I didn't want that like drugged, groggy feeling in the next morning because it's already hard enough to get out of bed. I just wanted that like deep, awesome. real sleep, the kind that actually feels restorative. And that is why I started using Beam's Dream Powder. Dream is made with a powerful blend of all natural ingredients, reishi, magnesium, L-theanine, apigenin, and melatonin. And it tastes so amazing. I have been drinking the chocolate peanut butter flavor that they sent me, and it is so delicious. It's like the perfect hot cocoa before bed and sometimes I'll add a scoop of chocolate protein powder to it on the days when I know I'm coming up short on protein. Beam has already improved over 28 million nights of sleep, helping people across the country wake up and feel their best. Go to shopbeam.com forward slash hollypea and use the code hollypea. And take advantage of my exclusive offer for up to 40% off Beam's Dream Powder. This is the best discount that Beam gives out. So make sure that you tell your friends too, even if they don't listen to my show. If they want to fix their sleep, they've got to try Beam. So remember, go to shopbeam.com forward slash hollyp, use hollyp. And with my code, you will be able to grab Dream for up to 40% off today. The second topic that must be discussed is the massive misunderstanding of cardio for fat and calorie burning. The shortest story is that cardio is incredibly important for your health, your cardiovascular fitness, and for making a metabolic shift away from utilizing carbs as your primary fuel source and towards fatty acid utilization. Listen, cardio is great for heart health, but cardio does not. build muscle. In fact, the cardiovascular system is completely different from your muscular system. They are two totally different systems, and each needs specific programming in order to move the needle in your health. The first thing to understand is that when we assess someone's fitness level, there are actually five components to your fitness. Number one, muscular strength. Number two, muscular endurance. It's very different. Number three, cardiovascular fitness. Number four, flexibility. And number five, body composition. A truly fit, well-rounded person must meet certain criteria on all of those components. So for example, you might be great at pickleball. You might even be a champion. But that alone does not mean that you're a well-rounded athlete because if you're not training your muscular strength component, it could be lacking. And I see this all the time in runners. Some of them are super great runners with good body composition and high muscular endurance because technically running is a muscular endurance sport alongside of a cardiovascular sport. But when we look at their flexibility or their strength, They're often lacking. And this is one reason why cardio needs to be addressed because muscle is becoming the most important health metric for women and the wrong cardio can destroy valuable muscle. Muscle is the tissue that influences your metabolism, blood sugar regulation, bone density, as I've already said, your strength and your mobility and flexibility. I often say that building muscle is like the ultimate way to feed two birds with one scone, because when you strength train right, you improve muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, and body composition. So just by focusing on building muscle and getting stronger, you're able to improve all five of those components of fitness. And the only way to build muscle is through progressive resistance. strength training. And when you do it right, strength training improves strength, obviously, it protects your metabolism, and it supports long-term health as you age. So the movement that's happening right now is using muscle for fat burning instead of cardio, because muscle is without a doubt one of the most important health metrics for women, especially in midlife and beyond. And it's an incredible fat and calorie burner. When you focus on building muscle through progressive resistance strength training, you enhance your body's natural ability to burn fat. You burn more calories 24-7, even when you're sleeping, and you reduce your markers for nearly every disease and disorder associated with inflammation. The biggest takeaway is this. Get strategic about your cardio sessions. so that you improve your cardiovascular health and fitness, but don't use it for fat burning. Instead, let your muscle change your metabolism and then use nutrition to help you release extra body fat. It's a way more sophisticated but also effective approach to improving both your health and your body composition. The next big topic of 2026 is moving away from this Pro- protein preoccupation that we are under and towards eating in a way that achieves macronutrient balance to support your metabolism. A broader approach to nutrition where you focus on getting balanced macronutrient distribution each day is way better for your metabolism. Instead of going about your day with this just sort of general mantra of get protein, I need more protein, The shift is to looking at all three macronutrients. Yes, get your protein, but also be conscientious of carbs and fat, the other two macronutrients and getting strategic and intentional in how much you eat of each, each day. Here's why. balanced macronutrients. where your carbohydrates are at least 40% of your total daily calories, ensures that you're getting enough carbs for energy sourcing, muscle building, and blood sugar regulation. Did you know that chronic low-carb eating induces physiological insulin resistance? It's basically an adaptive mechanism where your muscle preferentially burns fat, and then it becomes resistant to glucose. uptake. And here's what's crazy. Even if you aren't intentionally eating low carb, if you're not conscientious of your macronutrient balance during the day, most people, when I do an audit, end up eating high fat, then protein, which means by default, they're actually eating low carb. I think this was my problem in my 20s. So I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. and had reactive hypoglycemia. I ate really, really well. I wasn't low carb at all. I thought that I was eating a balanced diet. But when I look back on it, I know without a doubt my carbs weren't high enough. So therefore, you're in the category of low carb, even if it's not intentional. And here's a mic drop moment. I believe this is why so many women are insulin resistant today, because you're not. eating enough carbs. Your body needs healthy, good carbohydrates. And if you don't get enough in each day, your brain will create biological processes where it creates the glucose that it must have. And this is not a good thing.So what does your doctor do when your A1c is high or you're diagnosed as pre-diabetic? What do they then tell you to do? Eat fewer carbs. When in truth, your body is out of balance because in proportion to protein and fats, you're actually not getting enough carbohydrates. When you choose your foods and serving sizes each day, So that you achieve the right amount of protein, fats, and carbs, your metabolism shifts in a very big way because you have all of the resources that you need for all of your body processes. This approach also ensures that number one, you get sufficient protein per kilogram of body weight per day. And number two, you get sufficient healthy fats, which most people would say is around 50 grams a day. So it's sort of a blanket catch-all to make sure that you're getting all your macronutrients right. And it's not just protein, protein, protein, carbs are bad. And this is not to say that protein isn't important. It's very important. But it's about the importance of protein as part of strategic nutrition overall. Protein supports muscle repair, muscle growth, metabolic health, and recovery from workouts. And because muscle is so important, you do need to ensure that your protein intake complements the strength training that you must be doing. So to wrap this up and summarize, the top fitness and nutrition topics for women's health in 2026 are prioritizing muscle for fat burning over cardio, focusing on body composition as your primary metric for health, not body weight, and remembering you that carbs and fat are just as important as protein. If you do nothing else but take action on these three concepts, I guarantee this year you will feel very different, you will look fabulous, and your doctor will give you that stamp of approval because your health is actually better. Do you agree? Share your thoughts and leave me a review wherever you are listening right now. And listen, if you love this topic, I encourage you to listen to my episode on Protein for Women to provide even more clarity here so that you can get the benefits of protein, protein, protein, while also ensuring sufficient carbohydrates and fat. All you got to do is search Protein for Women on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I hope you enjoyed this episode and please stay tuned for another brand new one on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.