I had a client recently who started coaching after spending over a year trying to lose weight on her own.

In her own words, “I wasn't getting anywhere.”

She'd lose a couple of pounds, only to annoyingly gain them back again soon after. She'd try again, make a little bit of progress, and then find herself back where she started.

It was a cycle she stayed stuck in for around a year and a half before eventually reaching out for help.

But during that time, something else had started to happen. She'd begun convincing herself that maybe the reason she couldn't lose weight was because of her age.

I had convinced myself that I was too old to do anything about it.

Personally, I don't think that was an excuse. I think it was a reason.

If you've spent a year and a half genuinely trying to lose weight and you've got very little to show for it, eventually you start looking for an explanation.

Maybe it's my metabolism. Maybe it's my hormones. Maybe losing weight is just harder for me now. Maybe I'm simply too old to do anything about it.

And when you've struggled for long enough, it's very easy to start believing those things.

But just because you're getting older doesn't mean you have to accept that you can't change.

11 weeks later, she's 10kg down

As I'm writing this, my client is currently 11 weeks into coaching and she's lost 10kg.

She's getting fitter and stronger by the week. The scales are coming down, her measurements are changing and you can see the difference in her progress pictures.

We're already talking about where she could be by Christmas.

What I find most interesting, though, is that the one thing she thought was stopping her hasn't changed.

She hasn't suddenly got younger.

She's the exact same age she was when she spent a year and a half struggling to make progress.

The difference is that she's now lost more weight in 11 weeks than she managed to lose during that entire period.

Her age wasn't something we needed to change.

Her approach was.

Does losing weight get harder as you get older?

I'm not going to pretend your life and body are exactly the same at 40, 50 or 60 as they were at 20.

They aren't.

Your lifestyle might be completely different. You might have children, a demanding career, more responsibilities and less free time. Your activity levels may have changed over the years, and training might need to look different from how it did when you were younger.

But there's a big difference between saying “things are different now” and saying “there's nothing I can do about it.”

You don't need to accept feeling unhappy with your weight, fitness or strength simply because you're getting older.

You also don't need to train every day, completely overhaul your diet or cut out everything you enjoy to change it.

You need an approach that works with the life you have now.

We didn't do anything extreme

There wasn't a secret diet behind my client's 10kg weight loss.

We didn't remove all of her carbs.

She didn't start training seven days a week.

She didn't have to stop having a social life.

Instead, we worked on creating a routine she could actually stick to.

We improved her nutrition without expecting perfection. We got her training consistently and focused on becoming stronger. We made sure she was staying active, and when life inevitably got in the way, the answer wasn't to give up and start again next Monday.

None of it was particularly extreme or exciting.

But that's exactly the point.

You don't necessarily need to do more. You need to consistently do the things that actually move you towards your goal.

And after spending so long feeling like nothing was working, she's finally seeing what can happen when she has the right approach, structure and support around her.

Maybe age isn't actually the problem

I think this is the biggest thing I'd want you to take from her story.

If you've spent months or even years trying to lose weight without getting anywhere, I completely understand why you'd start looking for reasons.

And age is an easy one to land on.

You look back at yourself 10 or 20 years ago and remember losing weight feeling easier. You might feel like your metabolism has slowed down or that your body simply doesn't respond anymore.

Eventually, “I'm struggling to lose weight” becomes “I'm too old to lose weight.”

But those aren't the same thing.

My client spent around a year and a half thinking she couldn't do it.

Eleven weeks later, she's 10kg lighter, fitter, stronger and looking ahead at what else she can achieve.

Not because she suddenly became younger.

Not because we found a magic diet.

And not because she's been perfect every single day.

She simply started following an approach that worked better for her.

So if you've found yourself saying:

I'm too old to do anything about it.

Maybe you're not.

Maybe you've just spent so long trying approaches that haven't worked for you that you've started believing you're the problem.

And sometimes, the answer isn't giving up.

It's doing things differently.