For menopausal or post-menopausal friends out there

dianalmay8

How have you altered your eating plan and work out plan to stay in shape?

claireychn074

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I haven’t. I’ve been tracking for 9 years and my calorie needs are the same even in the throes of peri. The issue for me is when my sleep is affected, or I feel low, I will reach for my dopamine food which is chocolate. So I limit how much I have in the house. I’ve been lifting through peri so the only figure changes I’ve personally noticed are muscles building. Our metabolism isn’t really affected by menopause, but it’s possibly easier to put on weight because we feel crummy, move less and eat too much. I know when I’m tired from lack of sleep I don’t exercise as much.

dianalmay8

Thanks Claire! I love your springer! I have had 3 in my lifetime and love them!

I've been listening to some excellent podcasts to get me through.

claireychn074

🤣 Yeah, she’s a rescue and complete nut job. To be fair, just having springers is enough to make anyone reasonably active!

AnnPT77

Altered in menopause . . . yes, but no?

I've been in menopause since chemotherapy brought it on nearly instantly at age 44. Since I'm 69 now, a heckuva lot of things have changed, but none of them were intentional changes because of menopause.

Over that 25 years, I did get lots fitter and around 50 pounds lighter, but none of that was because of menopause (or explicitly in spite of menopause or to spite menopause) either.

Before cancer treatment, I was generally pretty much of a couch lump, with a few periods of being episodically active, but nothing consistent. The final couple of years, roughly age 42-44, were . . . um, challenging, lots of things happening, few of them good. As a consequence of those years, the cancer, and its treatment, I was very physically depleted. Then I was diagnosed as severely hypothyroid on top of it all.

At that point, I realized that I seriously needed to become more active if I ever wanted to feel strong, vital and even happy again. It was a gradual thing, starting with some yoga classes around twice weekly at community education, proceding to a short daily yoga practice at home, some other classes including a Weight Training for Women class that was like a group version of personal training, taught by a very good instructor.

Then the magic happened: A rowing program for breast cancer survivors started up here - rowing those skinny boats like in the Olympics, though of course ours was lots slower. 😉 I got addicted to rowing, joined the local rowing club in addition to my team, went to rowing camps around the country, even raced (a thing I wouldn't have dreamed of as even possible just a few years earlier).

Rowing was an on-ramp to fitness . . . in itself, but also because it encouraged me to do other things in order to row better. I took adult learn-to-swim and lane swimming classes, did aerobics to stay in shape better during Winter, added spin classes, got a new bike to ride in summer. I'm still pretty active, rowing on water 5 days a week now in season, machine rowing and stationary biking in the Winter, and more.

If you'd told 44 year old me what 69 year old me's life would be like, she wouldn't have believed you - would've laughed at the thought.

Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to lose weight right away. I sort of became the semi-mythical pretty-fit class 1 obese woman, and stayed fat for another dozen years.

At 59-60, I finally had to admit to myself that decent-ish fitness alone wasn't bringing me to full good health, because I still had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. That was when I committed to losing weight, and joined MFP part way through the process to make things more predictable. As a bonus, logging also helped me tune up nutrition, though I was already a pretty healthy eater (just eating too much).

It took just under a year to lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight. I averaged about a pound of loss per week, but it was faster at first, quite slow (intentionally) toward the end. I've been at a healthy weight for 9+ years since, and still am active. My blood pressure, cholesterol, and other health markers are now solidly normal.

So: All of that happened during menopause, none of it explicitly because of menopause. I have to say, each of becoming reasonably fit and reaching a healthy weight were big quality of life improvements for me, and the combination of both is absolutely gangbusters.

Whatever your goals, I wish you success: IME, it's worth the effort!

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I haven’t changed eating habits because of peri. I became a vegan about 6 months ago for health and ethical reasons. I’ve gained a bit of weight since then. I don’t put it down to menopause though. I’ve been on a lot of holidays and out of my usual routines.

rms62003

I'm perimenopausal, and except for the question - will or when my period will come- it hasn't changed anything. I've lost >90 lbs in the last year being perimenopausal.

I dont' believe our metabolism changes a lot because our periods stop. You can follow the same rules for weight loss or maintenance in the peri/menopausal period as you did when you are younger.

Caveat - our metabolism does slowly go down as we age - this is the same for men. I DO recommend adding/continuing strength/resistance training to help with this. It also does help counter the bone loss that is a part of menopause as well.

tkessio21

I am starting over after falling off the wagon of healthy eating and exercise due to illness, gained 10 kg and now in Peri meno. I'll be sure to let you know if weight loss will be as easy as it has been in the past for me. Wish me luck

janieblack

Perimenopause was ok and not hugely different from earlier adulthood but once I hit menopause proper (e.g. had stopped bleeding), I found a few differences:

— my weight shifted around and my belly fat became more stubborn… I lose inches from my hips and thighs much more quickly than my waist and bust now (age 60, in menopause 12 years…).
— my muscle mass is harder to maintain. Everything they say about strength training over 50 is true!
— my base metabolic rate is just lower now. I can't eat as many calories. I am a 6' tall woman and can't eat more than about 1800-2000 calories/day, as a moderately active person, without gaining weight.

YellowMushrooms

My hormones become really battered when I turned 40 and everything changed again for me when I hit 45 when the perimenopause hit properly.

I've actually got a chronic pain condition and I'm on a lot of pain medication so that I can just function normally.

Thanks to that it covers most hormonal pain I get.

I know this isn't really answering your question but I realised that I can now do things that before I would never thought of.

I've been going to the gym regularly now at least twice a week and my friend and I do weights training.

I actually discovered that it's actually what I need to be doing during the perimenopause because we start to lose muscle. So I was really pleased to realise I had started at the right time for me.

I'm 46, in fact I will be 47 this month.

I'm eating more protein now to help my body repair itself.

I've always taken calcium to help control my hormones as they are nasty in crazy ways,I scared family members.

My eldest actually told me a few years ago that he was extremely scared of me and thought I was going to stab him to death while sleeping. So yeah I was really bad. The calcium isn't prescribed but I don't hide that I take it from my doctor's if I feel the need to tell them, I'm taking 1200mgs like I did in my 30s when I first noticed the raging mood swings. So just to make it clear I am not saying to do the same but simply explaining what I am doing personally to try and control my hormones in the best way I can without medical intervention. It's definitely helped me.

It went down hill for me after trying keto with a friend,we were doing it the correct way and not doing the made up versions like lazy keto.i found I kept eating far too much fat and I missed my fruit etc so stopped that but it gave me the taste for fat again.

So I'm back to a low fat low to moderate carb diet (I'm prediabetic).

So really the biggest change has been the weight training.Which I enjoy despite my screwed up face that seriously red my friend and I try to train to failure and even though it's only been a couple of months we are noticing the difference in ourselves.

We're no longer really sore after a workout,which my friend looked up to find that it's possibly due to our bodies healing and that it's due to a good in take of protein. Along with our bodies are now use to what we are doing to it.

We are definitely getting stronger.I had also taken up pilates before the weight training.I've actually bought several pairs of dumbbells for home training too for when I can't get to the gym.

I've actually gone from my body being in crisis to being stronger and healthier than it had been for around 10 years.

I also realised I can wear big heels again 😂,so it's a win all round for myself.

My exercises was just walking before Pilates and weight training. Since having a friend to do it all with everything has improved for the both of us. It spurs us both on to keep pushing ourselves.

Hope_bay74

I had a complete Hysterectomy in 2023 when I was 49 and went on HRT. I was going through Peri for about 5 years before that. I had gained alot of weight over the last 10 years from getting lazy due to work stress, dealing with a sick in-law and just generally burnt out. I developed severe sleep apnea, insulin resistance and fatty liver. I do have a sweet tooth and tried a few different diets that didn't help because I didn't have the will power to stick to them.

I suddenly lost my wife of 22 years in June after a short 2 month battle with Brain Cancer which came out of the blue. I've been stress eating since. The stress of loosing her, getting my son graduated from high school at the same time as her being sick, launching him to university on my own, and helping him with his own Crohn's disease has added to it all.

The house is quiet with them both gone. I am trying to learn to live with this new normal and will now try and start focusing on getting back in shape. I have started intermittent fasting, as I continue to hear that is the best for menopausal women. My goal is to try and cut out the sweets and stick to IF.

HealthyBrandi

I haven’t technically changed, but I know I should. Since my period started becoming inconsistent and I started having hot flashes about 6 months ago, I had to go up a pants size and of course gained the weight. My eating habits had not changed, but the weight came very quickly. I realize that I need to make changes if I want to fit in the jeans I bought less than a year ago.