Menopause

jbinhack

I am at the beginning of menopause and was curious if anyone had any advice on weight loss. I would like to lose 15 lbs, but feel that menopause is preventing this. I have lost a couple of lbs, but it is slow going.
Any thoughts or advice?

joshnamy2000

I need resources for Food,Nutrition and Weight-loss for women going thru Peri Menopause...
Sincerely Amy

ddsb1111

For both of you, the answer is to do the same as before you were in menopause or perimenopause. The physics doesn’t change just because you get older. It’s CICO, despite what the media says to sell you something. It wouldn’t hurt to increase your protein during and after menopause though.

As we age we’re typically less active (because busy and tired) and therefore don’t burn as many calories. Over time we’ll lose muscle mass from lack of use, and replace it with fat. But don’t worry, you can completely reverse it if you want by working out and building muscle again. We also have the ability to eat whenever, whatever, and how ever much we want. This sneaks in hundreds of calories we’re typically oblivious to.

Increase your activity, eat in a 250-500 calorie deficit by weighing and logging everything, and you should be losing the .5-1 lb a week like everyone else. Anything more than that would be too aggressive unless you’re obese. I hope this helps.

cmriverside

Yeah.

I lost 80ish pounds in menopause.

Same things apply. Eat less, move more.

Doesn't matter *what* you eat or when, just start logging food and study that FOOD diary.

AnnPT77

What they've said above is my experience: It's a less lively overall lifestyle than when I was younger (job, hobbies, home chores, social life not just exercise), plus the gradual loss of fitness (so less muscle, flexibility) making it less fun/easy to move so the unconscious tendency is to move even less. It's not menopause per se, no matter what the diet/exercise program marketers are pushing these days.

For women with a history of yo-yo dieting, that yo-yo-ing can also reduce calorie needs below what they might've been. At least as I've seen that play out among women I know IRL, the diets have been extreme (even if not lengthy or successful!), eating super low calories, eating mostly salads/veggies (insufficient protein), maybe doing lots of cardio (no strength exercise) on top of that. That causes more than minimum loss of muscle alongside fat loss. When that extreme regimen eventually fails, regain usually includes a lot of treat foods triggered by the deprivation, like fried foods and baked goods, often still not enough protein, usually no exercise (cardio or strength). That's a recipe for gradually and subtly lowering calorie needs each round, and the effect adds up when repeated many times.

I went into menopause at 45 (triggered by chemotherapy for advanced stage breast cancer). I took anti-estrogen drugs for 7.5 years after that; those create a hyper-menopausal state in some respects. Shortly after chemo, I was diagnosed as severely hypothyroid besides. (I'm now properly medicated for that.)

At 59-60, I lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight. I was already active, so I didn't even materially increase exercise, just got real about managing my calorie intake. Now 68, I'm still at a healthy weight. Since I'd been very active for a dozen years while staying overweight, I thought I had a "slow metabolism". No such thing. I just needed to stop telling myself stories about the things I thought limited me (that I couldn't do anything about, like menopause and hypothyroidism), and focus on the things I could actually control (like eating and activity).

So, I think the solution is to find and eat the right number of calories, ideally prioritizing nutritious foods the individual finds tasty and filling; plus become more active in ways that are ideally fun, but at least tolerable and practical. Some activity that challenges current strength, to rebuild lost muscle tissue long term, is a useful part of that. (It will also help avoid extremes of things like osteoporosis, so common among aging women . . . and potentially life-threatening.)

One dimension that's often overlooked is daily life movement, basically trying to push our habits back toward the daily life calorie expenditure when we were younger. Various MFP-ers share their ideas about that here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Not everything in there may suit every person, but perhaps there are some do-able things.

Best wishes!