Can anyone speak to Menopause and Metabolism AND how that af

skinnyb450

Bump -

juliapurpletoes

Hi Ladies, well TangoTerry and I thought a "Flame Dolls" Menopause Support Groups Might be Fun!

Go here to become part of it!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/197230-the-flame-dolls-menopause-support-group

It's about sharing and supporting each other through health fitness AND menopause 'cause "we're still hot!"

kmanfredo1212

Yeah....I love everyone's optimism here!!!! I guess I have to start looking at menopause as just another phase of my life! I am 48, still have periods regularly every month, no hot flashes yet....but the thing that is bothering me the most is that I am losing hair!!!! Has anyone else had this problem????? This really freaks me out....I know it's probably not important...just a vanity thing...but us ladies like to look pretty!!! I have noticed in the past few months my hair is really thinning in the front!! I saw online that this is something you can expect with menopause, because of your fluctuating estrogen levels. What can be done about this???? I am going for my yearly ob/gyn check soon, and I am thinking about asking my doc to put me on a low dose HRT. Is there any natural herbal remedy that can bring estrogen levels (and maybe my hair) back? I take vitamins and biotin for my hair everyday. I appreciate any and all help!!!!! :flowerforyou:

kylakesgal

So much great info on here! Bumping for later:)

juliapurpletoes

Hi Ladies, well TangoTerry and I thought a "Flame Dolls" Menopause Support Groups Might be Fun!

Go here to become part of it!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/197230-the-flame-dolls-menopause-support-group

It's about sharing and supporting each other through health fitness AND menopause 'cause "we're still hot!"

really rolling along - we're on fire so to speak! :laugh:

tamheath

[/quote]

really rolling along - we're on fire so to speak! :laugh:
[/quote]

Lol! And bumping to read later! :smokin:

tinboy

Yeah, I'm in the boat....55 and still not technically menopausal, but hopefully this summer will join those ranks....for Pete's sake, I'll be 56! I've been perimenopausal forever, it seems!

susanswan

from an article on Mayo Cinic website:

Eat less. To maintain your current weight — let alone lose excess pounds — you may need about 200 fewer calories a day during your 50s than you did during your 30s and 40s. To reduce calories without skimping on nutrition, pay attention to what you're eating and drinking. Choose more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Opt for lean sources of protein. Don't skip meals, which may lead you to overeat later.

So how does this fit in with not going into starvation mode philosophy???

If we need to eat a few hundred less calories a day (because as we age we have a metabolism slow down as well as menopause), it brings up a coupla questions:

Does MFP take this into consideration when they guide us though setting our limits? (age factor)

And it seems, it would set us pretty close to starvation mode??

Thoughts?

Good, makes me feel better about not eating my exercise calories. I usually leave 200 - 300 out there. That was my question, I don't think MFP takes age into consideration, or did i miss that part?

For me, maybe being okay with losing less than a pound a week will HAVE to be okay and even less as I get closer to my goal. It will be a long time c oming, but it beats the alternative of throwing everything out the window and returning to my former heavier and out of shape-er body!

Just keep doing what you know to do. It can only make us stronger - bones, etc. if not totally thin as quickly or if ever as we want to be.

Shelle68

kmanfredo.... I just want to a dr that does natural bio-identical hrt. They balance out every hormone the body has which keeps us from going through the menopausal stage as serverely as those who simply continue to lose hormonal levels. You might want to look into this. Suzanne Somers advocates this in detail. It is great reading. Hope this helps! I want my hair too!

RMinVA

from an article on Mayo Cinic website:

Eat less. To maintain your current weight — let alone lose excess pounds — you may need about 200 fewer calories a day during your 50s than you did during your 30s and 40s. To reduce calories without skimping on nutrition, pay attention to what you're eating and drinking. Choose more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Opt for lean sources of protein. Don't skip meals, which may lead you to overeat later.

So how does this fit in with not going into starvation mode philosophy???

If we need to eat a few hundred less calories a day (because as we age we have a metabolism slow down as well as menopause), it brings up a coupla questions:

Does MFP take this into consideration when they guide us though setting our limits? (age factor)

And it seems, it would set us pretty close to starvation mode??

Thoughts?

Good, makes me feel better about not eating my exercise calories. I usually leave 200 - 300 out there. That was my question, I don't think MFP takes age into consideration, or did i miss that part?

For me, maybe being okay with losing less than a pound a week will HAVE to be okay and even less as I get closer to my goal. It will be a long time c oming, but it beats the alternative of throwing everything out the window and returning to my former heavier and out of shape-er body!

Just keep doing what you know to do. It can only make us stronger - bones, etc. if not totally thin as quickly or if ever as we want to be.

It does take age into consideration but a lot of people take the #'s as "gospel," and that's just not the case. They are a guideline, nothing more.

mmtiernan

from an article on Mayo Cinic website:

Eat less. To maintain your current weight — let alone lose excess pounds — you may need about 200 fewer calories a day during your 50s than you did during your 30s and 40s. To reduce calories without skimping on nutrition, pay attention to what you're eating and drinking. Choose more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Opt for lean sources of protein. Don't skip meals, which may lead you to overeat later.

So how does this fit in with not going into starvation mode philosophy???

If we need to eat a few hundred less calories a day (because as we age we have a metabolism slow down as well as menopause), it brings up a coupla questions:

Does MFP take this into consideration when they guide us though setting our limits? (age factor)

And it seems, it would set us pretty close to starvation mode??

Thoughts?

Good, makes me feel better about not eating my exercise calories. I usually leave 200 - 300 out there. That was my question, I don't think MFP takes age into consideration, or did i miss that part?

For me, maybe being okay with losing less than a pound a week will HAVE to be okay and even less as I get closer to my goal. It will be a long time c oming, but it beats the alternative of throwing everything out the window and returning to my former heavier and out of shape-er body!

Just keep doing what you know to do. It can only make us stronger - bones, etc. if not totally thin as quickly or if ever as we want to be.

It does take age into consideration but a lot of people take the #'s as "gospel," and that's just not the case. They are a guideline, nothing more.

This is not giving you the complete picture. What this little 'blurb' is not saying, is that as you age, you lose muscle at the rate of about 5% per year after the age of 30 - IF you don't do anything about it. Because of this muscle loss, you may need about 200 fewer calories per day in your 50s than you did during your 30s or 40s. However, what it is also not saying, is that it can be reversed simply by including resistance training at least 3 times per week. Increasing your muscle increases your metabolism because muscle requires more calories to maintain when not doing anything at all. I have read that the actual number is 50 cals more per day per additional pound of muscle, if you are just sitting still all day.

I am 48 years old. The muscle loss and sluggish metabolism did absolutely describe me until I read about it and the light bulb went on about a year ago and I began weight lifting - heavy weights, 3 x per week - to rebuild my lost muscle. I eat between 1400-1600 calories per day, sometimes closer to 1800 if it is a heavy workout day. That would be total - not the 'eat your exercise calories back' thing - just straight up, that's what I eat. I am a normal size, not overweight and I am able to maintain it easily with this regime.

Before you balk at the idea of weight lifting, know that you won't 'bulk up' - women don't have enough testosterone for that - but you will get stronger and your metabolism will crank back up where it belongs. Oh, and there is one more bonus - no more underarm flapping! The other bonus is that strength training also helps keep and increase bone density, another part of your body that tends to deteriorate with age unless you do something about it! You don't have to lift weights to build up your muscle - you can also use kettlebells, resistance bands or do exercises that make use of your own body weight.

I am sure that the MFP calorie calculator does not take into account your body composition (your muscle vs fat ratio) - it's just a standard calculator and as RMinVA pointed out, it's just a guide. You'll have to listen to your body to figure out what works best for you. The advice from the article on paying attention to nutrition is right on the money however - you simply can't out exercise a bad diet.

So the good news is that you don't have to just accept your metabolism slowing due to age - you can do something about it!

change_happens

Hormones are a fascinating subject that I've had to read quite a bit about due to my own problems over the past year or so. I've been doing the perimenopause thing for at least a couple of years, but all of a sudden last fall everything went to hell on a rocket and I couldn't figure out why. Major MAJOR bleeding that went on for as long as 2 months at a time, weight shot up, I was C.R.A.N.K.Y. and always hungry and miserable.

Finally found a GREAT doctor who put me through a bunch of tests and found that I had an ovarian cyst and a bunch of uterine fibroids. Then I had to see a specialist about those things... he recommended either endometrial ablation or hysterectomy. So I went to another gyn at a big fancy place - she tried to push me straight into a hysterectomy right then and there. So I went back to my regular doctor, told her what the others said, and she said, "Well, if you have the patience and willingness to try, we can experiment with some diet and lifestyle changes that might help. No promises but I'll work with you if that's the way you want to go."

COUNT ME IN!!!

She advised cutting "estrogenics" out of my diet - especially from soft plastic water bottles. I'd been drinking out of them day and night for years and lord knows how much of that toxic crap was in my system. So I got a reuseable stainless steel 24 oz bottle and that was the end of that.

Since the tests showed that I had an extreme estrogen imbalance, she put me on progesterone for a few weeks to even things out. Meanwhile the ovarian cyst went away on its own. The doctors all said that cyst was probably at the root of the problem, because they can generate large amounts of estrogen...

Estrogen can cause your body to store more fat, especially in the belly, hips and thighs. The visceral fat tends to produce estrogen, which goes in a vicious cycle storing more fat, which produces more estrogen, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

The estrogen is considered a primary culprit in causing the uterine fibroids, which cause heavy bleeding AND GET THIS: they've been implicated as estrogen producers toooo...

NO WONDER I WAS SO MESSED UP!!!!

Other adjustments my doctor recommended were to bump up my Vit D because blood tests showed it was too low (she kept retesting me until we figured out how much I need to take to stay in a healthy range) and to add a B complex and some other supplements. She also advised MORE exercise because I'd dropped it down to about 45 minutes a day towards the end of the hot Arizona summer - and that's when all the trouble seemed to start too. So I went back to 90-120 minutes a day of walking. She said that should help balance out my hormonal system too.

I started all of that in October. When I went for a followup ultrasound in late December the ovarian cyst and the uterine fibroids were all GONE GONE GONE. No endometrium, even. Haven't had a period since. Hot flashes on the other hand, LOL!! (That's okay, they're a lot easier to deal with than the bleeding I had.)

My weight has dropped from a high of 133 last fall to 119 right now. I feel GREAT!!

Was it luck or did my doctor nail it? I don't know but I'm thrilled that it eventually turned around and I didn't need a major surgical intervention to deal with it.

interesting

change_happens

from an article on Mayo Cinic website:

Eat less. To maintain your current weight — let alone lose excess pounds — you may need about 200 fewer calories a day during your 50s than you did during your 30s and 40s. To reduce calories without skimping on nutrition, pay attention to what you're eating and drinking. Choose more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Opt for lean sources of protein. Don't skip meals, which may lead you to overeat later.

So how does this fit in with not going into starvation mode philosophy???

If we need to eat a few hundred less calories a day (because as we age we have a metabolism slow down as well as menopause), it brings up a coupla questions:

Does MFP take this into consideration when they guide us though setting our limits? (age factor)

And it seems, it would set us pretty close to starvation mode??

Thoughts?

Good, makes me feel better about not eating my exercise calories. I usually leave 200 - 300 out there. That was my question, I don't think MFP takes age into consideration, or did i miss that part?

For me, maybe being okay with losing less than a pound a week will HAVE to be okay and even less as I get closer to my goal. It will be a long time c oming, but it beats the alternative of throwing everything out the window and returning to my former heavier and out of shape-er body!

Just keep doing what you know to do. It can only make us stronger - bones, etc. if not totally thin as quickly or if ever as we want to be.

It does take age into consideration but a lot of people take the #'s as "gospel," and that's just not the case. They are a guideline, nothing more.

This is not giving you the complete picture. What this little 'blurb' is not saying, is that as you age, you lose muscle at the rate of about 5% per year after the age of 30 - IF you don't do anything about it. Because of this muscle loss, you may need about 200 fewer calories per day in your 50s than you did during your 30s or 40s. However, what it is also not saying, is that it can be reversed simply by including resistance training at least 3 times per week. Increasing your muscle increases your metabolism because muscle requires more calories to maintain when not doing anything at all. I have read that the actual number is 50 cals more per day per additional pound of muscle, if you are just sitting still all day.

I am 48 years old. The muscle loss and sluggish metabolism did absolutely describe me until I read about it and the light bulb went on about a year ago and I began weight lifting - heavy weights, 3 x per week - to rebuild my lost muscle. I eat between 1400-1600 calories per day, sometimes closer to 1800 if it is a heavy workout day. That would be total - not the 'eat your exercise calories back' thing - just straight up, that's what I eat. I am a normal size, not overweight and I am able to maintain it easily with this regime.

Before you balk at the idea of weight lifting, know that you won't 'bulk up' - women don't have enough testosterone for that - but you will get stronger and your metabolism will crank back up where it belongs. Oh, and there is one more bonus - no more underarm flapping! The other bonus is that strength training also helps keep and increase bone density, another part of your body that tends to deteriorate with age unless you do something about it! You don't have to lift weights to build up your muscle - you can also use kettlebells, resistance bands or do exercises that make use of your own body weight.

I am sure that the MFP calorie calculator does not take into account your body composition (your muscle vs fat ratio) - it's just a standard calculator and as RMinVA pointed out, it's just a guide. You'll have to listen to your body to figure out what works best for you. The advice from the article on paying attention to nutrition is right on the money however - you simply can't out exercise a bad diet.

So the good news is that you don't have to just accept your metabolism slowing due to age - you can do something about it!

bump

babygurl48

I to have been dealing with menopause but a year and a half a go found some supplements that my DR reviewed and said would not hurt me to try and I have lost close to 70 lbs-and feel better than I did in my 40's. No more dealing with hot flashes, night sweats, joint pain etc. Starting to think the 50's may be the best years of my life! this site also helps me to stay focused and realize there is a whole world out there going thru the same thing. Gives me hope and encouragement daily!

Do tell! Which supplements are you taking?

yes, what supplements are u taking?