Why parents over 35 aren't losing discipline — it's your hormones

You're doing everything right.

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You're training harder than you did in your 30s. Eating reasonably well. Getting to bed at a decent hour when the kids allow it.

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So why does your body feel like it's working against you?

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Here's the truth: it might be.

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Not because you've let yourself go. Not because you've lost discipline. But because after 35, your body's chemistry changes in ways that most fitness advice completely ignores.

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This isn't an excuse. It's biology. And once you understand it, the path forward becomes a lot clearer.

The hormonal shift nobody talks about

From around 35 in women and 30 in men, sex hormone levels begin to decline. Oestrogen and progesterone in women, testosterone in men — both dropping at roughly 1–2% per year.

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On their own, these changes reduce resting metabolic rate, impair insulin sensitivity, and shift where your body stores fat — specifically toward the abdomen.

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That belly fat that wasn't there in your late 20s? It's not because you stopped caring. It's visceral redistribution driven by hormonal change. It happens to almost everyone in this age group who isn't doing specific things to counteract it.

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And cardio — the go-to for most people — doesn't counteract it. Resistance training does.

Cortisol: the stress hormone your parenting life produces in bulk

Parenting is physically and psychologically demanding in ways that add up quietly.

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Disrupted sleep. Decision fatigue. The baseline hum of managing everyone else's needs. All of it elevates cortisol — your body's primary stress hormone.

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Chronically elevated cortisol promotes abdominal fat storage, suppresses the anabolic hormones that help you build and maintain muscle, and disrupts sleep architecture — which then cycles back into more cortisol production.

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The result: even when your diet and exercise look reasonable on paper, your body is running a biochemical deficit that makes progress feel impossible.

What actually works — and why it's not more cardio

The answer isn't harder. It's more specific.

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Resistance training — particularly the kind that progressively loads your muscles over time — directly addresses the hormone-driven muscle loss that begins in your mid-30s at roughly 1–2% per year.

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Paired with adequate protein (1.2–1.6g per kilogram of bodyweight per day) and consistent sleep, resistance training is the most evidence-backed intervention for this demographic. By a significant margin.

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At CrossFit Proficient Windsor Gardens, the programming is built around exactly this. Every session is coached, scalable, and designed for the reality of a busy parent's life.

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Book a No Sweat Intro — come in and speak with a coach.

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