Complete guide to reducing inflammation in the body at 40

If this sounds like you—trying diets, fasting, and working out… and still not losing even half a kilo—or stepping on the scale the next day and weighing even more than the night before—stay here.
It’s happened to me too. And it worried me a lot.
So much that, once I finally understood what was happening to me and what I could do to change it, I felt the need to share it.

This post is exactly that: an honest explanation of why we can gain weight in our 40s even when we “do everything right” and of what has truly helped me reduce inflammation in my body and start losing weight.

This post is for you if this resonates:

There comes a point—usually after 40—when you do everything you’re supposed to do… and your body still doesn’t respond.

You work out, you move, you try high-protein diets, cut back portions, start the day with hot water with lemon, ginger, even a little pepper. You try fasting. You go hours without eating. And nothing.

The weight doesn’t go down. Sometimes you even weigh more after working out and fasting.

And no, it’s not just a one-off feeling. It’s something I’ve talked about many times with friends: it’s almost a classic at this age.

For a long time I thought the solution was to push harder. Eat less. Restrict more. Be stricter.
Until I understood something key: I wasn’t gaining fat, I was inflamed.

What’s happening and what you should do to stop the weight gain

I think it’s important to say it clearly: extreme diets and fasting haven’t worked for me. Not prolonged intermittent fasting, not training fasted consistently, not stringing together days of heavy restriction.
On the contrary: more than once, after a “perfect” day, when I stepped on the scale the next day I was the same… or even heavier!

That’s not lack of willpower. It’s a body that, as you get older, responds to stress by retaining. It’s key to understand that you’re dealing with inflammation in the body. The body is on constant alert and holds on instead of letting go.

When I changed my approach and started a anti-inflammatory diet, my body responded quickly: in five days I lost three kilos! Not by starving myself. Not by doing anything extreme. Just because my body stopped being in defense mode.

This is where something that doesn’t get talked about much when discussing weight comes into play: cortisol.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. And in your 40s, between work, family, responsibilities, and constant self-pressure, we usually have more of it than we think.

When the body lives under stress:

• Retains fluid
• Becomes inflamed
• Makes weight loss harder
• Goes into “defense mode”

That’s why sleeping better, eating dinner well, and not living permanently in restriction are part of the process of reducing inflammation, even if it’s not always directly linked to weight.

In my case, improving sleep has been just as important as changing what I eat (and eating a light, better dinner has helped me sleep better).

The shift in approach: first reduce inflammation, then the rest will come.

The anti-inflammatory diet that works

The turning point was stopping thinking about a “diet to lose weight” and starting to think about how to calm the body.

The idea is actually very simple: eat more easy-to-digest foods, more gentle cooking methods, avoid raw and fatty foods, and eat more hot dishes.

For a while, go back to basics:

• Cooked vegetables
• Boiled or steamed foods
• Simple dishes
• Hot food

Nothing fancy—just food the body can process without effort.

Yes to carbs! (yes, to potatoes... boiled)

Yes, I’ve gone back to eating potatoes (and no, they haven’t made me gain weight). It’s vital that you do it—you’ll see how well it sits with the body.

Potatoes are often on the blacklist of many diets after 40.
And yet, boiled potatoes are a great ally for reducing inflammation.

The same goes for pumpkin or carrots. Carbs, yes, but:

• Well cooked
• In reasonable amounts
• As part of a balanced plate

These gentle carbs haven’t made me gain weight; instead, they’ve helped to:

• Calm digestion
• Reduce inflammation
• Lower sugar cravings

If you’re in the same place I was—you’re over 40, you exercise, you’ve tried cardio, fasting, and still nothing works—I truly encourage you to try going back to boiled potatoes and an anti-inflammatory diet. In three to five days, the change shows. In my case, three kilos less, simply by releasing inflammation.

Then later comes the time for a maintenance way of eating, adapted to this stage of life. But first, calm.

How I eat now: a real example of a day

No rigid rules. No weighing food. No obsession.

Breakfast

• Omelet made with 2 or 3 eggs and sautéed vegetables (zucchini, spinach, eggplant…)
• A coffee or tea.

It’s a filling breakfast that keeps me going until midday without hunger and doesn’t bloat me.

Lunch

For lunch, build your plate with 3 key elements:

1. A simple protein: chicken or white fish, always cooked gently (in a pan or steamed).
2. A side of boiled potato or white rice
3. And some well-cooked vegetable: pumpkin, carrots, zucchini.

Simple dishes, the usual kind.

Snack (if needed)

• A plain yogurt,
• Or a piece of fruit that sits well

If I’m quite hungry, I add applesauce or fruit to the yogurt.

Dinner

Dinner, at this stage, for me is key to be calming and easy to digest. So the ideal dinner is made up of two parts:

1. A smooth soup or cream
2. Fish (hake, monkfish, fresh cod, sole…, light and easy to digest) or a plain omelet.

Here, vegetable creams play a fundamental role.

Some that work especially well at night:

• Pumpkin cream
• Zucchini cream
• Carrot cream
• Leek cream

Important: when you make vegetable creams, always add a little potato. It’s comforting and filling, and it brings a lot of calm at night. You’ll see it helps relax the body so that, after resting, you wake up lighter.

Cook the creams well and enjoy vegetables that are well cooked, blended, and served hot. These are dishes that don’t inflame, comfort you, and help the body wind down at the end of the day.

One or two days a week I also include oily fish, like salmon, in moderate portions, always with cooked vegetables or a smooth cream soup.

At night I avoid:

• Salads and raw foods
• Mixing too many foods
• Large dinners

The idea isn’t to eat very little at dinner, but to eat in a way that lets the body rest.

Eating very early: I still do it, but with an important nuance: I eat very early, around 6 or 6:30 p.m., and it works well for me. In my case, dinner doubles as a snack-and-dinner meal. That said, eating so early has taught me something important: before going to sleep, it’s a good idea to have something small, like a plain yogurt. Not to fill me up, but so the body doesn’t go into alert mode during the night.

Sleeping with a completely empty stomach can raise cortisol and worsen rest.

Sleeping well is also part of reducing inflammation.

Questions I asked myself (in case they help you)

Should I definitely add carbs?

Yes, absolutely. Always boiled, and if you let the potatoes sit in the fridge for 24 hours, their structure changes and they sit even better.

Besides, you’ve already tried avoiding them and it didn’t help, right? Going back to eating potatoes and sweet potatoes was one of the hardest things for me, after reading so many other recipes for people in their 40s and thinking it would make me gain weight, and it has saved my life (it fills me up and feels super good on my stomach). Try it, trust me, and you’ll see.

Do I have to stop exercising?

No. But you do need to change the approach.

How many strength days a week?
Ideal: 2 or 3 days. Strength training helps regulate hormones, protects muscle, and improves metabolism.

Cardio every day?
Not necessary. Too much cardio can increase stress if the body is already overloaded.

Morning workouts: do I need to eat first?

It depends.

• Gentle exercise: can be done without eating
• Strength or higher intensity: better to eat something small before or right after

What if I train in the afternoon?
Eat something light beforehand if many hours have passed, then have a simple dinner.

Does fasting work in your 40s?

For some people, yes.
For others, it raises stress and worsens inflammation. You have to listen to your body.

Is this hard to keep up day to day?

No. In fact, one of the things that’s helped me most is getting a bit organized on the weekend.

On Sundays I usually:

• Prepare one or two vegetable creams (pumpkin, zucchini, leek, carrots…)
• Store them in the fridge so they’re ready for weekday dinners

Coming home tired and knowing I have a cream ready keeps me from improvising badly and makes it much easier to stay calm at night.

Every two days I boil potatoes and keep them in the fridge, so I always have a ready side dish and the rested potato digests better (it’s more anti-inflammatory).

Is this forever?

No. It’s an anti-inflammatory phase.

The idea is:

• Calm the body
• Reduce inflammation and fluid retention
• Feel light again

Then comes a maintenance diet, balanced and adapted to this stage.

How long do you have to do it?

In my case, changes were noticeable in a few days.
After three to five days the body had already started to release fluid. Keep it up for about 3 weeks to settle this inflammation reduction and these habits.

Then you can gradually expand the foods you eat.

What small habits have helped me reduce inflammation?

There are details that seem minor, but they add up a lot in daily life:

Choosing fruit wisely

Not all fruit feels the same. In this phase, these have worked better for me:

• Apple
• Pear
• Ripe banana
• Blueberries
• Cooked fruit or applesauce

Cooked fruit is easier to digest and prevents fermentation.

Applesauce with yogurt

Plain yogurt with a little applesauce or pear sauce is a very useful option:

• For a snack
• Before bed if hunger appears
• To calm the digestive system

Cutting back on coffee

I haven’t given up coffee, but I have reduced it:

• Fewer coffees a day
• Avoiding it late in the day
• Prioritizing having it after meals

Too much coffee can increase cortisol and inflammation.

Classic foods that are off the menu for now

Despite the recommendation to eat cooked lentils and chickpeas, you should set them aside for now because they’re very healthy, yes, but they’re also fermentable and, during an inflammatory phase, may not sit well. Leave them out while the body “calms down.”

And not avocado either! For now, avoid very fatty foods.

Also avoid cheese and cured meats, and raw vegetables (no lettuce, tomatoes... and other raw foods that are harder to digest).

I avoid cauliflower and broccoli because they personally inflame me. As well as asparagus. See if you should avoid them too.

And of course, no bread and products made with refined flours.

If there’s hunger or anxiety, have a tea.

Often it’s not real hunger, but a need for calm.
A hot tea (chamomile, fennel, gentle ginger…) helps to:

• Relax the body
• Improve digestion
• Avoid snacking needlessly

These small gestures, sustained over time, help just as much as the big changes.

To finish

If you’re in your forties and you find that you try everything to lose weight but still don’t manage it, it may simply be that you’re asking too much of your body when what it needs is care.

Sometimes moving forward isn’t about doing more, but doing it more gently. That’s what I’ve realized after a thousand tries, and I feel super good now.

If you’ve tried everything, I encourage you to try what I’ve told you… In the end, what do you have to lose? It worked for me.

And no, you’re not alone. There are many of us 🤍