Eating healthy after 40 should be simplified. If you know these three key variables, you’ll be able to eat well without ever having to count a calorie again.

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There’s this liberating feeling you unlock somewhere in your 40s.

You’ve finally stepped into real adulthood. You understand your own true self and realize what it is that you like, and what you dislike.

You no longer give a flying fuck about what others think anymore. You are unapologetically … you.

For me that was age 44. A little more than a year ago (as of writing this newsletter).

It took massive burnout and almost blew everything up (including my business) to be able to reach a moment of clarity.

But, I’m so glad that I did.

During that phase, I wrote in very big, bold, all caps letters in my journal: “NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU.”

It was a blunt truth that if I wanted to make a change to my health, my relationships, my business, it was up to me to do the hard work. To stop caring about outside influences. No more waiting for the perfect moment to do the thing or to delay gratification until I finally made it.

I had to do the work myself.

This moment shifted everything for me. Including how I approached my nutrition and my overall health.

I immediately started developing a plan. A plan for how to overhaul everything. But, I knew that I wanted to start with my health.

Of course, I’d been coaching fitness and nutrition for years by this point. It wasn’t like I was completely out of shape. But, I knew I wanted to do better. I knew that I could do better.

I finally reached that level of belief in myself to give no more fucks.

I said, fuck calorie counting, I’m going to do this my own way.

Today, we’re going to talk about my relationship with food and eating, and the three major levers that I started mastering so I could remove calorie counting and develop a plan to healthy eating after 40 and beyond.

Let’s get into it.

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My own relationship with food sucked for a long time

If you are currently counting calories, I always like to ask the question: What’s your end goal here?

Do you plan to track calories forever?

Will you be 76 years old, on the couch at your daughter in law’s house, watching your grandkids play on the floor, worried about the carb count in that plate of holiday lasagna you’re about to eat?

That sounds so damn restrictive.

Okay, so that’s probably not your plan and tracking your food is not something you’d like to do forever. Cool.

Since that’s the case, when will you decide that enough is enough and you’re tired of calorie counting? And then even more importantly, what will be your plan to stop tracking?

I think a lot of people mess up that final question. They have no plan for eating healthy long term.

In the short term, counting calories taught you how to be really efficient … at counting calories.

But it has not taught you how to eat like a human.

When you remove the guardrails of measuring cups, food scales and tracking apps, you are left to your own devices. And oftentimes, that leads to overeating, excessive weight gain, shaming yourself for messing up and then going right back to what you know.

I know this. Because I was there.

For years, I counted calories to the letter.

Food scale and all.

It was miserable. But I assumed it was a necessary evil in order to look the part of a professional fitness and nutrition coach and to be shredded, lean and jacked. Tracking my macros appeared to be the only way to get there.

Only I couldn’t be consistent with counting.

It was like my mind was always finding a way to fight back against the process.

Just like you, I’d lax on the weekends. Or at late nights. I’d get overwhelmed by certain meals or restaurant meals so I’d skip tracking for that one night. Since I wasn’t tracking, it was finally a reprieve from the restriction and I’d usually overdo it at the restaurant.

Or sometimes, I’d skip out on the meal or the social event because I was so anxious about messing everything up, so I’d just avoid it altogether.

It was a classic (but often misunderstood and overlooked) pattern of disordered eating.

On many occasions, I’d save calories during the day to have more room for processed junk at night.

(Didn’t matter as long as it fit my macros, right? Technically, yes. But, it’s a really shitty way to go about it)

And then … I hit that “all out of effs to give” point at 44 years old. That point where I said enough is enough. I was tired of the bovine excrement.

The problem with calorie counting

Calorie counting is hard to do effectively. Especially in your 40s.

Because in order to accurately count calories, you must do a few really annoying things.

For every single bite of food that you consume throughout the day, you must:

• Use a measuring cup
• OR weigh it on a food scale
• Log that bite of food in your calorie counting app
• Then you must do the math to make sure that at the end of the day, your calories add up (without going over) the randomized calorie target you have set for yourself.

Keep in mind that your calorie target is just a best educated guess.

Now, counting calories is a skill that can help.

It’s still effective (which is why I still have guides to learning how to do it on my site).

But as you get older, you have so many responsibilities now that make eating healthy in your 40s more difficult. You have way more external things pulling way hard on your schedule now:

Kids are demanding things.

Work is kicking your ass.

You’re just overloaded and stressed out and overwhelmed and there’s no need to add more complex layers to your schedule by stopping to track all damn day.

So what happens? You stop.

Maybe you skip a meal or two. Or even a full day.

Then you get out of the habit, it feels annoying and daunting and time-sucking, so your avoidance goes from one or two days to an entire week.

You get back into it for a week or two and then fall off again. And again.

Then you blame yourself for falling off the wagon, when in reality it’s not totally your fault.

Instead, it’s a faulty system that was doomed to fail.

Instead take the time now to learn the skill of eating healthy so you never have to count calories again.

Eating healthy after 40 should be simple

Ten years from now, you won’t care that it took so long to learn this process, you’ll be proud of yourself for sticking with it because it broke you out of macro prison.

While friends are scrambling to worry about the amount of calories and protein in a dish, you’ll be all set to continue eating with your own path. Like a damn grown up.

You are learning a new skill.

And new skills take time to learn, just like math when you were a kid.

Practice. Understand you will make mistakes here or there.

But as you improve, you’ll realize that nutrition doesn’t have to be some complicated slog through dieting that promotes misery and restriction, it just takes simple, small little tweaks here or there and staying as consistent as possible.

Once you learn the skill of eating like a real human, you are no longer prisoner to measuring cups, food scales and tracking apps.

You’ve been liberated.

Free to eat like a responsible adult that understands the basic principles of healthy eating.

No more anxiety over your arbitrary streak of “consecutive days logged” with your calorie counting apps.

No more scouring a menu before you go out to eat to make sure they have a salad for you (with chicken or salmon for protein!).

No more ordering just egg whites every single time you have brunch.

This is what I want for you: Simplicity.

The funny thing is that as a result of this simpler and more lifestyle-friendly process, I ended up getting into the best shape of my life.

Your plan to eating healthy after 40 so it doesn’t take over the rest of your life

Here’s the deal: managing nutrition is all about managing your hunger.

If you win the hunger games, you will be well on your way to unlocking a life of eating like a real human, learning the true meaning of eating without counting the calories to do it.

The biggest enemy in the game of healthy eating is your hunger.

There are three simple ways to make sure you can manage hunger better without using a smartphone app:

• Protein
• Fiber
• Timing

Allow me to explain …

First: Add Protein to each meal

Protein is incredibly important. Especially as we age.

We risk the loss of muscle, which will dramatically lower your quality of life going forward.

Now one way to preserve muscle is to make sure you’re strength training (if you’re new here, I like a minimal approach to strength training that you can learn about here).

But, in addition to your training, you must consume an adequate amount of protein.

Okay, cool. But what’s an “adequate amount of protein” anyway?

Because if you’re online enough, you’ll see all of the jacked bros telling you to eat eight eggs, two chickens and a half of a cow every single day.

Unnecessary.

Most people could stand to eat a little more, sure. But, the science around how much is effective is far less than what those bros would have you believe.

Heads up: We’re gonna be a tad sciencey here, so pardon the math.

Studies show that you need 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight.

For a 150 pound individual, that comes out to a very manageable 109 grams of protein per day. On average.

We’re not going to track this down to the letter, because screw that.

But we do need to keep in mind those specific protein requirements. Which is why portion control will help you fulfill that protein necessity.

Simply make sure that every single time you eat, you include a protein source that either:

• fills up at least ¼ of your plate
• OR compares to the size of your palm

If you do that consistently at your 3-4 major meals, you’ll be close enough.

Protein is also filling.

Part of eating like a real human is to stop worrying about the little things like a cracker and start thinking about fullness.

If you are actually satisfied after a meal, you’ll be far less likely to reach for snacks between meals. Protein will help.

Second: Reduce processed foods in favor of more plants

I eat chocolate every single night.

For me, it makes sense to have a nightly indulgence rather than larger “cheat” meals once or twice per week.

Again, this is what I prefer. If you like bigger meals done just a few times per week and it works for you … keep it up.

But, my point is that I’m clearly fine with processed foods.

However, we also know that processed foods carry:

• More calories
• Less nutrients
• And more important for the hunger games, they carry far less fiber and protein

Plants on the other hand are going to pack the opposite of the processed variety.

You’re going to get the benefit of more nutrients that will keep your system running healthier

A slice of whole wheat bread will have a few games of protein, a bunch of whole grains and loads of fiber.

Compare that to a slice of white bread that is lacking all of the above.

Plants (even fruits) are definitely lower in calories

And plants will pack a big punch of fiber. Now you’re getting fuller off of fewer calories? That’s a win.

A simple way to get started eating this way is my portion guideline approach.

You can aim to make your plate match up to this graphic:

It’s a super simple way to get started and you can make just about any plate of food at almost every single location look like this setup.

I’ll use the plate guidelines myself if I’m on vacation or at someone else’s house at a birthday or dinner party, or even a buffet or wedding.

OR alternatively, if you want a bit more control over your specific macronutrients you could go with a little more advanced portion control and use the hand method, which I explain in this TikTok video.

This is for those that have likely been tracking macros for some time and want to really dial in the protein, carbs, fats, etc.

But honestly, the plate method will work just fine.

Third: Manage the feeding window

This is not going to be some article telling you that fasting is the key to all things awesome.

It’s a useful tool. One that I’ve been using off and on since I first read the research of Brad Pilon back in 2008.

His approach to fasting once or twice per week for 20-24 hours on nonconsecutive days (which he calls, Eat Stop Eat) is my preferred method to time-restricted eating because it’s simple––both in theory and practice. It doesn’t go down some strange dogmatic rabbit hole of pseudoscience.

However, the fact remains that if you are giving yourself a little less time to eat, it’s going to make it harder to overeat.

A simple approach I like is matching your feeding time around your sleeping habits.

One of the biggest pitfalls of eating healthy is snacking. Particularly those snacks you start stuffing into your fave hole whilst catching up on “House of the Dragon” shortly after putting your kids to bed.

None of those late night snacks are of the healthy, higher protein, minimally-processed variety are they? Be honest with yourself.

Two hours before bed (and you should have a consistent bedtime ritual, which will promote better restful sleep and that will keep your hunger hormones in check) you will close down your kitchen.

Eating directly before bed can cause your digestive system to go into overdrive as you are trying to sleep.

Poor sleep can wreck your hormonal systems that regulate hunger, satiety and stress. In other words, you will wake up less restful and hungrier making it more likely that you’ll end up snacking.

Shutting down the kitchen and sticking to that 2-hour rule will likely keep most of the extra processed triggers from being a consistent late night habit.

You’ll be saving on calories here … without having to count them.

The order of operations to eating healthy after 40

Just like when you learned the order of math with the catchy phrase, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” there’s a way to learn how to make this three pillar approach to eating healthy after 40 and beyond:

1) You’ll start with protein.

This is exactly where I start just about all of my students over my decade-plus of coaching.

Add protein to every meal you eat. Even snacks. It doesn’t have to be much.

• Scoop of greek yogurt
• Add some string cheese
• Toss in some grilled chicken, steak, fish or tofu to your plate, salad or stew

This is going to start paying immediate dividends in your fullness, recovery from workouts and muscle development.

My student Allison worked with me for six months.

The only addition I made to her eating was to opt for more protein.

The additional protein with a consistent strength training routine led to incredible fat loss and muscle retention without losing any scale weight.

We call this a body recomposition and it shows the power of this practice as long as you are consistent with it.

But, if you’re hitting your protein consistently and seeing no results (in measurements, too), then after 3-4 weeks, it’s time to look at the next level.

2) Keep the protein the same (this is the baseline habit). But now, you must look into how much processed versus plant foods you are consuming.

Remove one or two processed foods from your daily routine. Keep the protein amount the same. Now test that out for a few weeks.

If this jogs things into a solid rhythm, then you are good to go. But, if things are still not really clicking … then you can play around with:

3) Alter your time structure around when you’ll eat.

Maybe shutting down the kitchen a bit earlier will lead to better adherence and results. Or waiting one to two hours after you wake up to enjoy breakfast might make things a tad easier.

When you reach your goal, you can simply reverse the order of operations slowly until you reach a comfortable spot where you are maintaining.

None of this will lead to dramatic results overnight. You must be ready to play the long game.

A couple of days is not nearly enough.

One to two weeks is probably not enough.

Think more in months.

Make a tweak. Be consistent with it for one month. Check the progress; your adherence to the new variable; and then tweak accordingly and only as needed.

No need to rush the process. This is for life.

You are learning the skill of nutrition without needing extra help or fancy apps.

Now go forth and start eating like a human again.

The real key to eating healthy after 40 is to be a scientist of your own body

Your job is to be a scientist (I tell this to my students all of the time).

Think about your transformation, your health as your own personal science project. Except you cannot fail at this.

Instead, you are learning what works for you and what needs to be tweaked.

Don’t change everything and blow it all up after one week because you experienced some random scale weight spike.

That’s not eating like a human adult, that’s eating like a damn immature, impatient child.

Be analytical with what’s going on.

Was that spike actually random? Or did you perhaps overindulge a bit too much in processed food?

Or maybe the spike was actually just random and your measurements show a different story (make sure you are tracking more than just your weight).

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

If you’re interested in working with me to get a complete body transformation program that couples minimalist training with a personalized approach to nutrition, then you should check out my Lean4Life Coaching Program.

All of my students are encouraged to keep a journal and map out their many goals, obstacles and consistency with new healthy habits.

Not ready for all that yet? No worries.

Take what you’ve learned here and slowly apply it over the next month or two and let me know how it works out for you.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “eating healthy after 40” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete