Weight Loss and Menopause
Are you in a phase of peri-menopause or post-menopause and find that weight loss is more difficult than it once was? Maybe you’ve blamed your weight gain on just “getting older” and are resigning yourself to the fact that you may never have a body you love ever again. This doesn’t have to be the case. There are things you can do to keep (or build) a rocking body and metabolism even if you are in peri menopause or are post menopausal. Sadly, females have much more sensitive hormones and see more issues with dieting than men. Therefore, what works for a male to lose weight may not work for a female. Also, what “worked” in the past, may not work as our hormones change with age.
Can I lose weight during menopause
In summary, yes! But you might notice that what worked before no longer works. If you have enjoyed a lifetime of HIIT training or endurance activities and those activities previously allowed you to feel energized and keep your weight under control, you will likely find that those same activities may no longer be producing positive results for you. In fact, those specific activities may be doing more harm than good once you hit peri or post menopause. Additionally, while restricting calories may have also “worked” well for you in the past, you may now find that you are gaining weight despite eating a low calorie diet. These same effects can be seen in someone who has chronically dieted (or yo-yo dieted) for extended periods of time. While doing lots of cardio and eating low calories may have produced some positive short-term results, it will likely backfire when done for too long.
Metabolism during menopause
Many claim that they hit a certain age and felt like their metabolism just “slowed down” and they were no longer able to maintain a weight that was once easy for them to maintain. This is due in large part to lifestyle choices and not necessarily due to age or menopause. If you have not been strength training, you will naturally lose 3-7% of your muscle mass per decade after age 30. This will slow down your metabolic rate if you are not doing anything to consciously build muscle to combat this. Additionally, we naturally become more sedentary as we age. If we are not consciously trying to be active, we will naturally move less as we get older. Finally, if you have dieted chronically or off and on for many years, this will absolutely down-regulate your metabolic rate. Ironically, the worst thing we can do for our metabolism is to diet.
Cortisol during menopause
One common trend I’ve seen in peri and post menopausal women is very high stress levels. They may be not getting enough sleep, not eating enough, doing lots of intense cardio, and over committing themselves in many areas of life. Cortisol can really inhibit fat loss and if you are not able to control your cortisol levels, you may be working hard to lose weight and not seeing results simply because you are over-stressing your body. The perfect storm for elevating cortisol to unhealthy levels is to skimp on sleep to wake up early for an hour of HIIT training while eating low carb. Do this for too long and your adrenals will be shot and you will end up frustrated that your body is not responding despite all of your “hard work” and “doing all the right things”. Sadly, this is typically what we see when someone is trying to lose weight.
How to lose weight during menopause
Let’s finally get to the answers here! We’ve talked about WHY we may have issues losing weight during menopause, but how do we actually lose the weight? You may need to do the exact OPPOSITE of what you’ve been doing – and the opposite of what you may have heard for years.
Best exercises during menopause
First, if you are doing any sort of HIIT training or endurance training and not having success losing weight, STOP! Yes, stop the intense cardio. We, especially women, have been told that if we want to lose weight we need to simply eat less and move more. That only works in the very short term and often has very negative effects when done for too long. I would recommend walking and strength training and NOTHING ELSE. If you want to get sustainable results and not continue to stress your body and continue the weight loss resistance you are experiencing, I would lift weights three times per week and try to hit 10,000 steps per day from walking. That’s it! It sounds simple, but it works!
Best diet for menopause
In terms of diet, you want to be sure you are properly fueling your body. If you have been dieting off and on (or even chronically) for many years, you need to spend some time repairing your metabolism. You can do this by walking your calories up to a healthy level and ensuring you are eating enough of each of the three macronutrients – protein, carbs, and fats. Dieting is a huge stress on your body and, when done for too long, will down-regulate your metabolism and make weight loss more and more difficult. If this is you, you will need to do the exact opposite of what you had been doing – you need to get your calories up and keep them there for at least a few months before your body will once again respond to a caloric deficit again.
Finally, there is one big, inevitable change that occurs as you go through menopause. Your hormones are going to change…there is no way around that. Because estrogen sensitizes your body to insulin, you may become more insulin resistant as your estrogen levels fall. In this case, you may need more protein and possibly (but not necessarily) lower carbs. You will also want to be sure to pair your carbs with protein and fats and keep them high in fiber. This is no different than what we would instruct someone of any age, but it becomes even more important in this phase of life. Walking and lifting weights can also combat this loss of insulin sensitivity.
Hormones and metabolism
Lastly, I wanted to tough on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). While this is outside of my scope and would require that you be under the direction of a doctor, this is an option for women as well. If you are doing everything you can to minimize stress, are eating enough, and not over-training but you are still not feeling at your best during peri-menopause, HRT may be an option for you. While I would always recommend trying to balance your hormones naturally first through diet, exercise, and lifestyle, HRT may be something to consider if you are still feeling negative symptoms from imbalanced hormones during this phase of life.
So there you have it! You absolutely can make positive physique changes while in peri-menopause or if you are post-menopausal.
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