Perimenopause & weight loss

jackkro

I’m so glad to see this thread! Because I feel awful😀
I’ve been on MFP for 8 years. My weight never changed for years then boom! I’ve gained 20 lbs. in the last 4 years.
It’s awful. I’m on HRT. Which helps but I’m also suffering from depression. Everything has kind of gone down the tank.
I’ve been going to the gym since May. Had a few starts and stops. But I do enjoy it. I need somebody to say “this is what you need to do”. For a workout for food. I live in a small town and it’s pretty hard.
Do I try low carb? High protein? I don’t eat a lot in general. I never have. Only about 1300 calories a day. And I gain. It’s frustrating. I just stay in the house.
Anyway. If anyone has any ideas, I’d be grateful! I need to raise my metabolism. Raise my mood. Taking anti depressants. But it’s not enough.
Thanks for sharing your stories!

HoneyBadger302

@jackkro re: HRT improvements - some of the things were quick resolutions (sleep; night sweats - although I still need the room pretty cool; ADHD; rage; "incontinence" - just leaks/drips when using/about to use the bathroom).
Other things have been a much more "slow burn" improvement. Energy is improving despite the time of the year, and I'm back to my workouts, but it's really obvious I've actually lost a fair bit of strength, so I'm sure that's not helping the weight! Muscle ups our metobolism, and it's clear my strength dropped a lot and very rapidly. Thankfully it is coming back at an expected pace, but there's a long ways to get back to where I was just a couple years ago.
Food wise - I personally prefer higher protein/lower carb, but I don't "avoid" carbs, I just keep them minimal. Have a feeling I should reduce dairy, I just haven't been willing to do so yet (mostly in the form of cheese). I go for "whole" foods, with limited ingredients as much as possible. If I'm comparing two similar items, I will go with the one with fewer and more basic ingredients. I find I feel better when I eat this way - I'm just struggling with the time to cook!!
Supplements: creatine; omega-3; collagen. Protein shake with extra creatine on days I lift. Trying a beef organ supplement - too early to say or notice any changes.
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I can't pretend that the weight isn't extremely frustrating. I'm eating less/within my calories, keep upping my activity, but the scale is stubbornly staying in one place. I am not as consistent eating as I should be though, so only so much blame I can place on peri, but it is definitely a huge factor as historically what I'm doing would have me shedding pounds easily, even if it wasn't enough to reach my goal weight, I'd be feeling pretty good overall. Not the case now.
---
As for those workouts - start light and easy. Just 15 minutes - get up and do a 15 min YouTube, or some bodyweight exercises or just get outside for a walk.
At this stage in our lives we have so much going on in general, and now our very body is rebelling, and modern life doesn't allow us the luxury to just take a step back and deal with it.
I'm also finding that a redirection with my business venture is invigorating me a lot right now. While the previous direction was nice financially, it was no more fulfilling than my day job. So, I'm embracing what I originally wanted the business to be, which speaks to who I am, my why, and embracing all of me and my life, and that is rather energizing as well. Finances will be tight for a bit, but it feels very worth it, too.
Might be time to examine a few things on the life side of things as well, nothing wrong with taking your experience and shifting focus to the second half of things - life is far from over!

Mrscanmore

jackkro wrote: »

I’m so glad to see this thread! Because I feel awful😀
I’ve been on MFP for 8 years. My weight never changed for years then boom! I’ve gained 20 lbs. in the last 4 years.
It’s awful. I’m on HRT. Which helps but I’m also suffering from depression. Everything has kind of gone down the tank.
I’ve been going to the gym since May. Had a few starts and stops. But I do enjoy it. I need somebody to say “this is what you need to do”. For a workout for food. I live in a small town and it’s pretty hard.
Do I try low carb? High protein? I don’t eat a lot in general. I never have. Only about 1300 calories a day. And I gain. It’s frustrating. I just stay in the house.
Anyway. If anyone has any ideas, I’d be grateful! I need to raise my metabolism. Raise my mood. Taking anti depressants. But it’s not enough.
Thanks for sharing your stories!

I've been meeting with a dietician online. It's covered under my health plan. I feel like I've always ate fairly well, we rarely eat out, and I prepare a lot of things from scratch, but when I started tracking and watching, we realized that my protein and fiber were low. So now I'm aiming for 125 g of protein and 25 g of fiber a day. I'm feeling fuller and less tired.

HappyDonkey75

Isn't the clarity that tracking brings surprising? I hated the idea of tracking for years but when I started getting serious again about my weight, I finally knuckled down . So glad I did and now I realize anyone who is serious about their health has to track and its not just me. This is a necessary evil .

kgh1919

Check out Dr. Mindy Pelz. She has a few books and a paid support group, BUT most, if not all, of her info is free via Podcasts and YouTube videos, and there's a Facebook group, too.

AnnPT77

With any diet advocate, especially one who has influencer-style web presence, I'll always recommend checking out critiques (from others with relevant education and sound credentials) in addition to the content from the person recommended.

There absolutely is good information out there, but there are also some sources who are way out of line with the consensus of current good scientific research, including a few medical doctors or PhDs who wield those credentials out of proportion to their credibility in the realm they're marketing about. (Marketing itself can be a red flag, even if they're just using our eyeballs to reap advertising dollars.)

It's true that over long history, some iconoclasts - individuals who advocate against the consensus of their times - have been proven right. It's possible. But the much more common case has been iconoclasts who dropped into the mists of history because they were dead wrong, sometimes dangerously wrong. (Sure, the mainstream is wrong sometimes, too. This stuff is complicated.)

Right now, there seems to be a particularly large contingent of online sites/people using menopause as a marketing tool, and a fair share of them are pushing nonsense, and reaping financial rewards by doing so. Not all. But common.

I'm not personally critiquing any specific source here. All I'm saying is that it's good to be a smart consumer: Caveat emptor.

HappyDonkey75

@AnnPT77 - I couldn't agree more with your statement on the big online focus targeting the women who are in the peri/menopause phase. They are feeding on us like sharks because there are alot of us out there looking for the answer. So much bad information.
Bottom line that we should all remember. There is no magic pill, no unicorn dust, no super sonic shot or miracle cream.

There is HRT and for some the Bio-identicals (but don't get me started on those, been there ,done that.. it was a total scam and waste of lot of money) but at the end of the day its eating correctly, getting alot of the right exercises ( Lifting heavy and not killing ourselves with cardio) and finding ways to manage stress. Beyond that, we're in this phase like millions of women before us. This generation is definitely more vocal than previous about this phase and there is a big push to make it more relevant and spoken about openly. I think its good that we are making waves . But , the it does come with attention ( as mentioned above) we maybe didn't intend for , or need for that matter. I'm referring to to getting preyed upon by so called experts that just want to sell us something.

Case in point, I was following Maverick Willett (go ahead, google him) because he was entertaining and I thought he had some good information to share that I found helpful, not to mention , he's easy on the eyes. He has recently tarted a hormone program where he is getting people on Bio identicals. His fitness online coaching program is $2500. A one time, one hour phone call with him is pretty steep too (can't recall the number) but this is a good example of someone who , while he has spent the greater part of his life in the gym and health industry, and obvioulsy knows his way around the gym , he lost me when he began selling himself as an expert in women's hormones. He does not have the qualifications to be putting this information out there in my opinion. Chances are he is hiring people to do the medical part but seriously, the more I dug into his program and information the more I felt like I was dealing with a used car salesman. Unfortunately this seems to be the trend out there in social media and women are flocking to it.

As for me, I'll stay seated in the back of the room with my estradiol patch firmly attached....

ddsb1111

Case in point, I was following Maverick Willett (go ahead, google him) because he was entertaining and I thought he had some good information to share that I found helpful, not to mention , he's easy on the eyes. He has recently tarted a hormone program where he is getting people on Bio identicals. His fitness online coaching program is $2500. A one time, one hour phone call with him is pretty steep too (can't recall the number) but this is a good example of someone who , while he has spent the greater part of his life in the gym and health industry, and obvioulsy knows his way around the gym , he lost me when he began selling himself as an expert in women's hormones. He does not have the qualifications to be putting this information out there in my opinion.

Weird, I couldn’t find a woman who identifies as a male hormone specialist that wasn’t a doctor. I wanted to read the comments to see what men thought about that lol.