Menopausal Journey

TwinkleGlow25

Happy to say that I don't have the "HAWT" flashes or the mood swings. I am past my pre-menopausal and have entered the menopausal for 3 years now... so its been 6 years so far. My only concern is that no exercise or diet seems to be working for the bodily expansions. I am not giving up, but a little co-inspiration towards the goal would help.

totameafox

Welcome to your golden years of womanhood. Feel free to join my community. We can keep each other company during our wise years.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/147555-speak-friend-and-enter

AnnPT77

It's as likely to be a subtly less physically active lifestyle with aging, plus loss of muscle mass and the implications of that, rather than menopause per se.

Eating the right calorie level - a manageable amount fewer calories than one burns - will trigger fat loss. The calorie goal given us by MFP, some other calorie calculator, or even a fitness tracker is an estimate, basically the average for demographically similar people. Each of us is an individual, and we can vary from those averages. Most people are close - that's the nature of averages, right? - but a few can be surprisingly far off.

If a person sticks consistently on average with a reasonable starting calorie goal for 4-6 weeks, and loses nothing over that time period, that's almost certainly maintenance calories. They should cut 250-500 more calories daily, and try for another 4-6 weeks.

There's a narrow range of exceptions to that: Certain health conditions (some of them serious), instances of extreme low calories that won't stop weight loss altogether but can slow it down more than one would expect, stress-related water retention or extreme water retention from other causes, etc. Generally, though, if not losing over 4-6 weeks or more, then there's no calorie deficit in reality.

Logging problems can be part of that picture, if a person is calorie counting and food logging. That's not a diss: Logging is a surprisingly subtle skill, and most of us have had face-palm moments when we discovered some systemically incorrect thing in our logging. If adding exercise calories in the standard MFP way, over-estimating those is also easy to do.

If someone is using the "eating healthy foods but not logging" method or following a structured meal plan but not logging or similar . . . there are probably no metrics in calorie form, but the solution is still the same: Eat fewer calories, whether the person counts them or not.

P.S. I'm saying the above as a woman who lost substantial weight in menopause, and while also severely hypothyroid (medicated) and pretty old (59-60 at the time), any of which some people will say is weight loss doom. I think it isn't. In particular, I don't think menopause requires special tactics, but it can't hurt to get overall good nutrition, especially adequate protein, and do both strength and cardiovascular exercise.