Lose fat not muscle

Tania Gustafson – Aug 29, 2026 / 11:00 am | Story: 629555

Photo: Contributed

Your body doesn’t build muscle or health from a calorie. It builds from nourishment—protein and whole, balanced food choices that reduce inflammation instead of driving it.

Every few years, the health and fitness industry finds something new for us to obsess over.

One year it’s calories, the next it’s carbs. Then it’s fasting, detoxes, supplements or the latest miracle weight-loss medication. But conversation always seems to come back to one thing—how do we get the number on the scale to go down?

While women everywhere have been busy chasing smaller bodies, we’ve also been quietly losing something far more valuable in the process—muscle.

We know this because younger and younger women are being diagnosed with osteoporosis, a condition you are more likely to get when muscle mass has been depleted.

I believe it’s one of the biggest health crises facing women today, yet hardly anyone is talking about it. Perhaps that’s because muscle may not be as noticeable as the smaller belly in before-and-after photos. It’s built slowly. It requires consistency, patience and a willingness to think beyond next month’s vacation or fitting into a certain pair of jeans.

However, if you could convince every woman to focus on one thing as she gets older, it shouldn’t be losing another ten pounds. It shsould be building and protecting her muscle.

That may surprise you coming from someone who has spent decades helping women lose weight but here’s what I’ve learned after nearly 40 years in this industry—weight is a symptom of health and hormones.

Therefore weight loss is not the ultimate goal. Health is and when we take care of the health, the weight takes care of itself.

Muscle plays a much bigger role in overall health than most women realize. For years, we’ve been conditioned to believe our success should be measured by how little we weigh. We celebrate shrinking our bodies, eating as little as possible and burning as many calories as we can in that spin class. Unfortunately, the scale won’t tell you what you’re actually losing.

All weight is not created equally. When the number on the scale drops, you may be losing body fat but you may also be losing muscle, water or even bone, depending on how the weight is lost. The scale doesn’t know the difference and sadly, more often than not, neither does the person celebrating the number.

This conversation has become even more important with the recent popularity of GLP-1 medications and the return of Hollywood’s “ultra-thin” look. Again, this isn’t about criticizing medications or judging personal decisions, it’s about making sure women understand the whole picture.

If weight is lost without preserving muscle, there can be consequences that extend far beyond appearance. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. It helps regulate blood sugar, supports insulin sensitivity, protects bone density, improves balance, enhances mobility and gives us the strength to continue doing the things we love as we age.

Muscle also supports both immune and cognitive functions and is one of the greatest predictors of healthy aging. Yet, many women still think of muscle as something that’s only important for athletes or bodybuilders. They don’t want to get “bulky”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Your body is your vehicle that drives you through life.

When you buy a vehicle, you don’t choose it simply because it looks good sitting in the driveway. You want it to be reliable. You want it to perform when you need it. You want to trust that it will safely take you wherever you want to go. Our bodies deserve the same consideration.

I don’t want women simply looking good in photographs. I want them climbing stairs without pain at 75. I want them lifting grandchildren without worrying about hurting their backs. I want them confidently carrying groceries, travelling, hiking, gardening and living independently for as long as possible.

That future is built long before we reach our 70s. It’s built in the choices we make today.

This topic resonates with me because I know what it feels like when your body doesn’t cooperate. I had arthritis for 20 years. Every time it was going to rain or snow, I could tell you by the severity of the pain in my legs. I also seemed to catch every virus that was going around. Becoming sick several times a year for a few weeks at a time was normal for me.

This is from someone who grew up on a farm, cooked at home and rarely ate out.

Back then, I assumed getting older meant I would always have to deal with these challenges. Until I learned what I didn’t know before. Then the opposite happened.

Today, I’m healthier and stronger at 58 than I was in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had no arthritis pain for 18 years. I rarely get sick and I moved through menopause without experiencing hot flashes or many of the other nasties women consider standard at that point in their lives.

The transformation didn’t happen because I discovered a miracle product. It happened because I stopped chasing quick fixes and started building health from the inside out. What I also learned was it doesn’t matter when you start, you can always make significant improvements to your health.

One of the first lessons I learned was symptoms are signals, they’re not evidence that your body has failed you. They’re your body’s way of asking for support.

Just as the check engine light in your car tells you something under the hood needs attention, symptoms such as fatigue, cravings, stubborn weight gain, poor sleep and declining strength are invitations to look deeper, not simply cover them up.

Unfortunately, our culture has become very good at masking symptoms while ignoring their cause. We chase weight loss instead of metabolic health, celebrate smaller bodies while overlooking weaker ones and count calories instead of asking where those calories came from.

Numbers are not nutrients. Your body doesn’t build muscle or health from a calorie. It builds from nourishment—protein and whole, balanced food choices that reduce inflammation instead of driving it. Stable blood sugar, strength training, quality sleep and managing stress are the investments that pay health dividends for decades.

The women who age well aren’t necessarily the women who spent their lives trying to weigh the least. They’re the one’s who consistently invest in their health.

Watch Tania’s video, the foundation of the FIT Menopause Method, on how to protect muscle, balance your body to get the results you want while aging well.

Fall sessions begin Sept.r 21.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.