Menopause

Anlope14

Hello there my fellow mfps, has anyone got any helpful and constructive tips for diet and exercise with regards to menopause?

nowine4me

I don't, but I'm 51 so it's got to be coming soon. I hope you get some good tips. No one seems to want to talk about it.

glassyo

Stay within your calorie goal and exercise for health/to get more to eat.

The only effect it had on me was I didn't have to worry about weight gain during TOM.

Zipp237

Manage your sugar. Lower amounts and keeping it even help many people with hot flashes and I'm one. If I eat a boatload of sugar, the hot flashes will absolutely begin. Some people (not me) notice that daily exercise helps with hot flashes, too. Some people say more soy helps. I always eat a lot of soy, so couldn't personally say one way or the other.

Don't get excited about periods being gone until you're fully menopausal. I hit 100 days with no period and thought Yay, I was done. Day 110, I got another period. Just wait until it's been a year and then celebrate.

I have decided to go natural with my peri-menopause and hope to remain that way. I don't know what effect the hormones would have because I'm not taking them.

SueSueDio

@Zipp237 Thanks for the suggestions re: hot flashes! I'm 50 and have been peri-menopausal for about 18 months, I guess, but only had a very occasional hot flash until recently. I'll keep an eye on my sugar intake and see if that helps!

@Anlope14 I'm not sure if there's really anything specific to weightloss in menopause, although not being there completely yet I can't really say if it makes a lot of difference. I'd guess it may be a bit slower, but the usual method of eating less than you burn ought to still work. I've been averaging just over 1lb per week in my journey so far, nearly halfway through a 67lb target.

debsdoingthis

I set a reasonable calorie deficit as losing too quickly only leads to loose flabby skin which takes forever to bounce back at later ages. Its taken me over a year to lose 65 lbs but whatever, a loss is a loss

SueSueDio

debsdoingthis wrote: »

I set a reasonable calorie deficit as losing too quickly only leads to loose flabby skin which takes forever to bounce back at later ages. Its taken me over a year to lose 65 lbs but whatever, a loss is a loss

That's a good point, and something I've worried about a bit myself! And yes, I don't think it really matters how long it takes (unless you have severe medical issues and need to lose fast for your immediate health), as long as you get there in the end!

Machka9

I haven't reached menopause yet, but I'm well into perimenopause and last year I lost 55 lbs.

Basically ... stick to it.

Enter your info into MFP, choose sedentary as your activity level, and MFP will give you the number of calories you should be consuming.

Meticulously weigh and log everything for the next month.

Exercise can be as simple as going for a 30 minute walk ... or as much as you want. Log your exercise, estimate your calories burned a little on the low side, and eat half your calories back. Do that for the next month too.

Give it your best shot for a month.

Reassess where you are and what you want to do next at the end of the month.

I just kept going one month at a time.

b3achy

@glassyo - wow, you were blessed...I'm hopefully starting menopause (2 months in this round), and I still have bloat / water retention when it should be my TOM. Maybe once I'll fully through to the other side, I can say the same.

@Zipp237 - totally agree that you aren't through it until it has been a year. Last summer, I got 2 months into mine with no period and it started up again the third month (was so disappointing). I'm at about the same point this year too. So, I'm hopeful I can go the full 12 months this time. Interesting tips on the sugar. Didn't know they might aid in the hot flashes. And yes, I've also heard that soy and black cohosh are good supplements to add for some menopausal relief, but we're all different and your mileage may vary (ymmv).

I've heard it is harder to lose during this time, but I'm chugging along so far - still losing about a pound a week. I can say the hormone fluctuations have caused me to sometimes have serious uncontrollable cravings for junk food / chocolate / wine with a 'screw it, I'll deal with the fall out later' attitude, but I think it was worse a couple of months ago before things shut down. Seems to have evened out a bit for me at this point...but as I said before...ymmv.

AnnPT77

I've lost 60+ pounds over about the past year in menopause, while hypothyroid (controlled with meds), following the same basic MFP process most people use to succeed: Set an achievable calorie deficit, stick to it the majority of days, weigh your food when possible to be accurate, don't pick lowball calorie items from the database to log, eat healthy foods you enjoy, find active pursuits you find fun to maintain strength & earn a few extra calories, don't beat yourself up if you have an over-goal day occasionally, learn what foods & timing of eating them helps you feel satisfied. No magic, just persistence.

Chemotherapy put me in menopause right fast at 46, and I had to take estrogen agonist drugs on top of that, so there were some hot flashes & such, but the worst of it was lost in the noise of cancer treatment.

Nowadays, I'm feeling great . . . and weighing what I did when I was 20-something (forty years ago!).