# @ciarafoyinc on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUZZJ9aEbRZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61793358-ciarafoyinc-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/c9d2152813.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-06T00:44:10.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Ciara Foy // Nutritionist • Hormone Expert • 20 Yrs (@ciarafoyinc) — https://gondola.cc/ciarafoyinc

## Caption

Every 25-year-old trainer will tell you “just eat less and move more.” 

As a nutritionist with 20+ years of clinical experience, I can tell you that advice is destroying women’s metabolisms after 40.

Here’s what I see constantly in my practice: women fasting too long, eating one meal a day, going ultra-low carb and GAINING weight. Then they eat MORE and the scale finally moves.

Sounds backwards? It’s not. It’s science.

When you chronically undereat, your body triggers a stress response. Research shows fasting and severe caloric restriction significantly elevate cortisol levels, activating the HPA axis, your body’s alarm system (Tomiyama et al., Psychosomatic Medicine, 2010).

High cortisol = belly fat storage. Your body thinks it’s in survival mode.

It gets worse. Severe caloric restriction for too long reduces your active thyroid hormone (T3), while increasing reverse T3 — an inactive form that blocks your metabolism. Your leptin drops, your ghrelin surges, and your body fights you at every turn (Redman et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2011).

The result? Metabolic adaptation, your body burns up to 400 fewer calories per day than expected, even after the diet ends (Johannsen et al., 2012).

So when my clients start eating properly, still in a deficit, but not so extreme their body panics, the weight finally moves. Because a calorie deficit matters, but it’s not the ONLY thing. Your hormones have to cooperate.

You still need a deficit to lose weight. But the deficit can’t be so severe that your body sends up every red flag it has.

That’s what I teach. Fixing the foundation FIRST.

Comment “MASTERCLASS” to learn more! 

👉 SAVE this for when you need a reminder to stop starving yourself

#weightlossover40 #metabolichealth #perimenopausalhealth

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## Tags

metabolichealth, weightlossover40, perimenopausalhealth

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