So, you’ve swapped the chips for kale, traded wine for kombucha, and you’ve actually started carving out some time for daily exercise. And yet… your scale refuses to budge. Or worse, it goes up just to spite you.
Sound familiar?
If you're a woman over 40 trying to lose weight, you're not alone. Nearly 60% of us are in the same boat—paddling hard, eating "clean," and still wondering if our metabolism has ghosted us.
We blame the usual suspects: Age, hormones, stress, thyroid--but there’s another major player that most women never consider and many practitioners never even consider: Food sensitivities.
And no, we’re not talking about full-blown, EpiPen-level food allergies. We’re talking about the slow-burn kind—subtle reactions that fly under the radar but quietly wreak havoc on your body, metabolism, and waistline.
Wait... My Kale Is Betraying Me?
Yes, it might be. You see, food sensitivities don’t always come with dramatic symptoms. No hives, no throat closing, no ER visit. Instead, they tend to show up in sneakier ways:
• Bloating after meals
• Brain fog
• Fatigue
• Joint aches
• Puffy eyes
…and yes, stubborn fat that seems to have friended you for life.
Your immune system sees certain foods as invaders—even “healthy” ones like eggs, almonds, or yes, kale—and launches an inflammatory response. That chronic, low-grade inflammation becomes a background fire that messes with your hormones, insulin, and cortisol. It can also cause your body to hang onto fat like it’s preparing for indefinite famine.
So, while you’re over here choking down quinoa and green juice, your body is thinking: “This again? Better bloat up just in case.”
Why Women Over 40 Are Especially at Risk
Once you hit your 40s, your body becomes a lot less forgiving (as if you didn’t already know that). Estrogen starts packing up, cortisol moves in full-time, and your digestive system? Let’s just say it’s not the bestie it used to be. Remember when you could eat carbs at will and bounce back like a champ? Yeah… me neither.
Now layer in chronic stress, a sluggish metabolism, and—spoiler alert—a likely case of leaky gut, and you’ve got the perfect internal storm for fat cell fertilization.
Here’s what happens: Food particles that were supposed to stay politely contained in your digestive tract start leaking into your bloodstream. Your immune system sees this and sounds the alarm—cue inflammation, the sneaky saboteur of your metabolism.
And just like that, you’re reacting to foods you’ve eaten for years without a second thought.
Why? Because you eat them all. the. time. And your gut? It gets annoyed and sends the memo through your scale.
When the same foods show up meal after meal, day after day—especially in the context of a stressed, leaky, overworked digestive system—your immune system starts to flag them as troublemakers. Even the "healthy" ones. It's like your gut is saying, “Look, I loved almonds at first... but can we take a break?”
So no, you’re not imagining things. Yes, your body really is acting differently now. And even healthy foods can haunt you.
The Food Sensitivity–Inflammation–Weight Gain Connection
Here’s how it all ties back to the scale:
• Inflammation increases insulin resistance, which makes your body store more fat.
• It messes with leptin, your “I’m full” hormone, so you never feel truly full.
• It raises cortisol, your stress hormone, which promotes belly fat.
• It disrupts thyroid hormone function, slowing down your metabolism.
• And it makes you feel exhausted, puffy, foggy, and unmotivated.
In other words: Food sensitivities may not just make you feel inflamed—they can actually make you fat.
How Do You Know If Food Sensitivities Are a Problem for You?
Let’s start with a few red flags:
• You feel bloated after eating "clean."• You gain weight overnight (despite eating a “healthy” meal).
• You feel better when you eliminate certain foods (but aren’t sure which ones).
• You constantly crave the same food you're reacting to (yep, that’s a thing).
• You have other signs of inflammation like headaches, joint pain, or skin issues.
If this sounds like you, food sensitivity testing might be worth exploring. And no, you don’t have to play detective with an elimination diet unless you really love spreadsheets or like trying to track down which food you ate 1 to 5 days ago is now causing a problem.
I recommend blood spot testing to catch these sneaky, delayed food sensitivities. It’s a simple, convenient finger prick test you can do at home and mail in after you’ve collected the sample. This is the one I recommend for my patients.
Once you’ve pinpointed your fat cell fueling food triggers, you can begin eliminating them without the guess work while you work with a skilled functional medicine practitioner who can help you get your gut back in shape.
Final Thoughts (and a Pep Talk)
You’re not imagining things. The truth is, sometimes the foods you’ve been loyal to for years— your “healthy staples”—can quietly flip sides and start working against you. Not because you’re broken, but because your gut and immune system have decided they’ve had enough.
The upside? Once you uncover and kick out the offenders, your body stops staging daily protests, and your scale finally starts cooperating again. And let’s be honest—we’ve earned this weight loss win.