Menopause And Weight Gain

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cinblog1965
cinblog1965 Posts: 133 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I'm one of those annoying women that always thought she was fat, but damn it now I all of a sudden am. 30 pounds up from where I was 15 years ago. My energy level slowed down when I started menopause and even though bio-identical hormones, that miracle cure, has me feeling better and more energetic, the weight is just not coming off! I admit, I'm not killing myself like I used to with karate or running until I can't breathe, my joints can't take that anymore, but I'm doing pushups, PiYo which includes a lot of lunges and squats, and I walk a lot at my job. When I get rid of this darn sinus infection, I'm going to start HIIT training on my treadmill a day or two a week. I've recently started following the PiYO eating plan which is putting me at 1500 calories a day (at 52 and 5'3"). But I seem to keep gaining weight. I have a neverending appetite. I will admit I have a free day and I do drink wine of Fridays and Saturdays. What more can I do? After working all week I really look forward to sharing that bottle of wine with my husband.

Just very frustrated!
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Replies

  • cinblog1965
    cinblog1965 Posts: 133 Member
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    Thank you quicksilver. I do measure or weigh foods.
  • geneticsteacher
    geneticsteacher Posts: 623 Member
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    Are you accounting for the calories of your free day and your wine? If not, you could be undoing the rest of the week's deficit. Weigh (measure liquids) and log everything.
  • Cynt214
    Cynt214 Posts: 11 Member
    edited August 2017
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    It could be a number of reasons. You could be consuming more calories than you think on your free days. You could be retaining water due to high level of sodium. If you just started exercising, your body could be going through a normal transition. Tracking make issues so much easier to find in my opinion. I suggest your track every day and see if you could pinpoint your problem after a few weeks.
  • scarlet67
    scarlet67 Posts: 107 Member
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    cinblog1965 wrote: »
    So I'm one of those annoying women that always thought she was fat, but damn it now I all of a sudden am. 30 pounds up from where I was 15 years ago. My energy level slowed down when I started menopause and even though bio-identical hormones, that miracle cure, has me feeling better and more energetic, the weight is just not coming off! I admit, I'm not killing myself like I used to with karate or running until I can't breathe, my joints can't take that anymore, but I'm doing pushups, PiYo which includes a lot of lunges and squats, and I walk a lot at my job. When I get rid of this darn sinus infection, I'm going to start HIIT training on my treadmill a day or two a week. I've recently started following the PiYO eating plan which is putting me at 1500 calories a day (at 52 and 5'3"). But I seem to keep gaining weight. I have a neverending appetite. I will admit I have a free day and I do drink wine of Fridays and Saturdays. What more can I do? After working all week I really look forward to sharing that bottle of wine with my husband.

    Just very frustrated!

    You are my twin
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    geneticsteacher wrote: »
    Are you accounting for the calories of your free day and your wine? If not, you could be undoing the rest of the week's deficit. Weigh (measure liquids) and log everything.

    I was wondering this as well.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    I was thin my whole life but gained about 10 pounds when I turned 50, making me average. I started to really watch portion sizes and cut down and cut back. There's no other way.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,107 Member
    edited August 2017
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    Tighten up your food logging - use a digital food scale and grams.

    1500 may or may not be a good calorie setting. I'm 5'7" - past menopause 20ish years ago and I lose at 1500 - but slowly. I am at my goal weight and I exercise on average one hour a day 3-4 times a week. Other than that I'm pretty sedentary. Retired. Single. Small condo, so not a lot of maintenance/cleaning. I do cook/prepare all my own meals. At the very most I eat out once a week.

    That "free" meal or free day you have could easily negate the entire week's worth of lower calorie. Just log everything. That video above is a really good one to watch. It will open your eyes on the whole "log accurately" thingy.

    Open up your food diary so we can take a peek and maybe spot problem areas...

    Here's where you do that: (at the bottom of the page, choose "Public")

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • cinblog1965
    cinblog1965 Posts: 133 Member
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    No I don't watch my calories on free days, that's probably a big issue. As far as measuring I measure by weight unless it's a sauce or liquid which I measure in cups. Truthfully, I don't measure lettuce, or a slice of bread, but I track it by brand. I'm just frustrated. Never would have believed it would be this difficult to lose.
  • RaeBeeBaby
    RaeBeeBaby Posts: 4,245 Member
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    I'm also post menopausal 5'5" and 57 years old, and gained the less-than-lovely 30 pounds after I retired in 2014. Even though I had a desk job I was quite active with always taking the stairs, walking on breaks and lunch and fairly active on the weekends, so I was able to maintain until retirement. I had about 6 months of being lazy before I really woke up and got serious.

    Enter MFP with the logging and accountability and I was able to turn that around. It's been a slow go, but I managed to lose most of that 30 in about a 2 year time frame. I wasn't in a big hurry or I could have done it faster, but I'm still enjoying life and having fun with it all. I still have about 5 more to go.

    I have found that I just don't lose at 1500 calories a day, even with moderate exercise. I'm currently eating about 1300-1400 cals per day and exercising 5 days a week doing aquasize, walking, disc golf, or aerobics like dance or stationary bike.

    Sadly, the metabolism does slow down after menopause. Some people will say that's not true, but it IS true for me and many other women my age, but it's not a life sentence. Just have to eat less (or different things) and move more.
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,473 Member
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    menopause makes me reach for the wine bottle. the weight will come off, bad days when I am really bat *kitten* crazy, I reach for whiskey.
  • cinblog1965
    cinblog1965 Posts: 133 Member
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    Thanks Sunna! My hormone doc has me on DHEA, B12 and D3. I will look for Suzanne Somer's book. I appreciate all the help. I don't know that I can eat less than 1500 and stick with it. I feel hungry at 1500 and I eat tons of low cal veggies. I'm trying now to limit carbs to a reasonable amount and up my protein, as that seems to help a lot of people with hunger. I will not ever again though give up a food group.
  • tiffanylengyel66
    tiffanylengyel66 Posts: 1 Member
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    I just completed in June a 60 day challenge through my gym and you are assigned a trainer and mine happened to also be the nutritionist. I am 50, post-menopause and was at 151 pounds in May. She taught me all about macros (carbs 30%, protein 40%, fat 30% ratio) which she adjusted on the myfitnesspal app and had me on a 1200 calorie a day diet plus I was working out 6-7 days a week for 60 minutes. I lost 17 pounds and 24% body fat. I too LOVE my wine but cut it out during the week and enjoyed two glasses each night on Friday's and Saturday's. It was hard but even after it was over, I have maintained these past 6 weeks (upped my calories to 1500 and enjoyed wine a few times a week as well) with learning how to eat better (higher protein is key). I am doing the challenge again starting tomorrow to lose 12 more pounds and hit my goal weight of 120 and get below 20% body fat. I have never felt better!
  • TiffanyLengyel
    TiffanyLengyel Posts: 1 Member
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    I just completed in June a 60 day challenge through my gym and you are assigned a trainer and mine happened to also be the nutritionist. I am 50, post-menopause and was at 151 pounds in May. She taught me all about macros (carbs 30%, protein 40%, fat 30% ratio) which she adjusted on the myfitnesspal app and had me on a 1200 calorie a day diet plus I was working out 6-7 days a week for 60 minutes. I lost 17 pounds and 24% body fat. I too LOVE my wine but cut it out during the week and enjoyed two glasses each night on Friday's and Saturday's. It was hard but even after it was over, I have maintained these past 6 weeks (upped my calories to 1500 and enjoyed wine a few times a week as well) with learning how to eat better (higher protein is key). I am doing the challenge again starting tomorrow to lose 12 more pounds and hit my goal weight of 120 and get below 20% body fat. I have never felt better!
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    During menopause some of your weight gain may be hormonal water weight. It wasn't unusual for me to gain 5-7 lbs of water and keep it for a week or more. But, I just stuck with my goals and had faith that the weight would come off (despite drinking wine every day and not killing myself with exercise). Just be patient and stick to your plan and it will work.

    If you haven't already you should also ask your doctor to check for thyroid problems which are much more common in/after menopause.
  • cinblog1965
    cinblog1965 Posts: 133 Member
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    @TiffanyLengyel I just started following the EM2WL group (eat more 2 weigh less). They call for the same ratios (if I remember correctly that's the 'Zone' diet in a nutshell that Jennifer Anniston swears by). They also get you to lift heavy weights to build muscle and have you set your diet to your TDEE - 15% to lose weight. They recommend that if you have obsessively dieted to do a matabolism reset. It's a very slow weight loss because you're eating so much more but you're finding your body what it needs to have energy to work out. I do feel better already and am back in the gym 5-6 days. Trying to have patience, not a quality I've been known for!
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    edited August 2017
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    I was just doing some reading about menopause yesterday and highlighted several interesting studies. Most women gain 5-7lbs during menopause and our fat migrates to our bellies. We also lose muscle mass(not to mention bone density) which accounts for additional weight gain due to lower caloric needs. In fact, both men and women lose an average of 8-10% muscle mass every decade after the 30's. High Resistance Strength Training helps combat this by increasing and retaining muscle mass and bone density. The more muscle you can keep, the higher your TDEE will be. Also, Vitamin D supplements have been shown to help retain muscle mass on their own. We also need to increase our protein intake to ~1.5g/kg LBM.

    Oh, also - both machine and free weights were shown to increase muscle mass and bone density in menopausal women, but free weights increased significantly more.

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