Hormone Replacement and Weight Loss?

Sabine_Stroehm

" p.s. Heavy lifting does a lot to rev up a flagging metabolism. Too much cardio in menopausal women can be counter-productive in that it reduces muscle mass (because it is "catabolic"--that is it breaks down something in the body). In younger women, what is likely to be broken down is fat, but in older women, often what is broken down is muscle because, remember a woman becomes more estrogen dominant as she approaches menopause (because of the loss of ovulation and thus progesterone) and estrogen LOVES to hang onto body fat. So heavy lifting and natural progesterone supplementation may be all that you need to get your body back into "fightin' " shape. "

Can anyone site a study that shows this? I know this topic is a year old, but I'm a menopausal woman who loves her cardio (in addition to lifting heavy) Very interesting thread

You should be okay as long as you do at least as much time heavy-lifting as you do on cardio. High intensity interval training for cardio appears to be much more effective at burning fat (instead of muscle) if you are going to do much cardio. But limiting cardio is probably a good idea, based on the newest research.

You will need to eat at maintenance, if you are trying to increase your lean body mass--something all menopausal women need to do as the loss of hormones makes our bodies want to replace lost muscle and bone mass with fat. Menopausal women are not only at greater risk for loss of muscle mass while doing too much cardio (any more than two 40-minute sessions per week is probably excessive) but also loss of bone as well (the reason why osteoporosis hits with a vengeance after menopause). Heavy-lifting, because it increases androgenic hormones, is ideal for stripping out the fat and increasing muscle and bone mass.

Do you have anything to cite that I can read?

Gosh--I think this information has been around for some time. A google search should yield a plethora of information on this topic.

Oh, ok. I guess I misunderstood. You mentioned "the newest research", so I thought this was something super new. Thanks anyway! And happy Sunday.

zahid222

Bump . :happy:

feedmedonuts

I am so sorry to hear about all of your issues. I wish you all the best.

I can't say I know how you're feeling but I've been struggling with some issues as well. I am 26 but have been diagnosed hypothyroid (subclinical if that makes a difference..?) and much like you my weight gain continues even with careful eating and plenty of exercise. I went from 130lbs that I maintained for YEARS to now 148-150...probably still gaining. There are other symptoms I won't list.

It is interesting you said synthroid made you gain more. I was hopeful that this would help me get back to normal again but I have gained on it as well and can't say I feel much better even! My coverage won't let me try Armour ~_~

margannmks

Very interesting thread. It definetly shows how different each womens transition can be. Im familiar with just about all of it .When i started feeling like a lunatic with mood swings i did the compounding progestrin cream. I was estrogen dominante i guess, it helped alot especially with sleep and panic attacks.,i used it for two weeks each month ,probably for about a year and a half. I was still having normal periods then, i was 48. I had a lot of life stress and just balloned over night it seemed. Eventually i gained about 20 lbs on top of all ready being about overweight. 5'2" and weighed 150. Everything workout diet wise just didnt work my periods starting being more often id gain 5-7 lbs every month then take the rest of the month to lose, so i basically got nowhere but frustrated. Im 53 1/2 now and a year and a half ago i started taking a bootcamp style class 5 days aweek for an hour each day and continued tracking calories. In a year and ahalf ive lost 25 lbs. Thats a long time and some times i went months not losing at all. But ive kept going to the classes continually challenging myself with higher weights and i hurt like hell all the time because of arthritis but im at least in good physical shape otherwise. Sorry this is so long but the one thing ive noticed hormonaly, ive never had them checked by the way, is kinda weird ,i never had much libido and since ive almost transitioned as far as menopause ive had a much stronger one. So i wish id had my hormones checked back in my 20-30s to compare. Its like maybe more hormones were always unbalanced and now there not. Ive had sporadic periods this year and have no real annoying symptons and ive used nothing hormone wise at all. My stomach is fairly flat my thighs are still my worse feature just like theyve always been, my waist is larger not as hourglass shaped but mostly ive lost in my hips more so i think that makes it appear that way, i love my arms for the first time ever. So im just gonna keep doing what im doing and maybe by the time im 55 ill get the last 5 lbs off.

SanteMulberry

Very interesting thread. It definetly shows how different each womens transition can be. Im familiar with just about all of it .When i started feeling like a lunatic with mood swings i did the compounding progestrin cream. I was estrogen dominante i guess, it helped alot especially with sleep and panic attacks.,i used it for two weeks each month ,probably for about a year and a half. I was still having normal periods then, i was 48. I had a lot of life stress and just balloned over night it seemed. Eventually i gained about 20 lbs on top of all ready being about overweight. 5'2" and weighed 150. Everything workout diet wise just didnt work my periods starting being more often id gain 5-7 lbs every month then take the rest of the month to lose, so i basically got nowhere but frustrated. Im 53 1/2 now and a year and a half ago i started taking a bootcamp style class 5 days aweek for an hour each day and continued tracking calories. In a year and ahalf ive lost 25 lbs. Thats a long time and some times i went months not losing at all. But ive kept going to the classes continually challenging myself with higher weights and i hurt like hell all the time because of arthritis but im at least in good physical shape otherwise. Sorry this is so long but the one thing ive noticed hormonaly, ive never had them checked by the way, is kinda weird ,i never had much libido and since ive almost transitioned as far as menopause ive had a much stronger one. So i wish id had my hormones checked back in my 20-30s to compare. Its like maybe more hormones were always unbalanced and now there not. Ive had sporadic periods this year and have no real annoying symptons and ive used nothing hormone wise at all. My stomach is fairly flat my thighs are still my worse feature just like theyve always been, my waist is larger not as hourglass shaped but mostly ive lost in my hips more so i think that makes it appear that way, i love my arms for the first time ever. So im just gonna keep doing what im doing and maybe by the time im 55 ill get the last 5 lbs off.

Yeah, the increase in libido is likely due to the testosterone surge that you get from weight lifting. They now know that post-menopausal women are helped by the administration of a tiny bit of testosterone for the purpose of increasing libido (which plummets at the menopause).