Menopause and Weight Loss

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sd1016
sd1016 Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 57 years old and using your app to lose weight. I am supposed to consume 1200 calories per day, but alot of the time, don't. I walk, but don't exercise. I have noticed, that if I don't walk everyday, I don't lose. If I am not consuming the full amount of calories and walking 5 times a week, why am I still not losing? I know menopause slows down my metabolism, but can't believe that much! Please help!

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  • Cobweb200
    Cobweb200 Posts: 49
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    Hi,

    I am 55 and what is deemed as peri menospausal.

    I am not an expert but I understand that if you do not eat your required calories your body can go into starvation mode and thus "hang on" to any fat stores it has. I suggest you eat your allocated calories and continue the exercise. It certainly works for me and I have PCOS. In fact I have upped MFP allocation of 1200 a day to 1300 a day but make sure I burn about 250 a day in additional exercise and it is working healthily for me so far.
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
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    I am menopausal and I am losing weight. One of the things that I have realised very quickly is that I tend to under estimate my portion size when I am loggng my food on MyFitnessPal.

    Eating too much salt leads to water retention and your weight takes longer to move. How long have you been watching your food intake? You might want to measure your waist, hips, arms and legs. Some people have said that they lost inches but not so much weight.

    You might want to try the 5:2 diet for a couple of weeks to get things going. Just google it, it is very simple and it costs you no money.

    Best of luck,
    Stef.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I am 57 years old and using your app to lose weight. I am supposed to consume 1200 calories per day, but alot of the time, don't. I walk, but don't exercise. I have noticed, that if I don't walk everyday, I don't lose. If I am not consuming the full amount of calories and walking 5 times a week, why am I still not losing? I know menopause slows down my metabolism, but can't believe that much! Please help!

    Menopause does slow metabolism a little, regardless of what you do. But most of the reduced metabolism is self-inflicted. Menopause is the time when women begin to lose both muscle and bone density at a higher rate. If you want to save your metabolism, you need to counter act that with proper diet - protein, calcium, vitamin D among other nutrients - are very important for muscle and bone health.

    And you need to do weight bearing (strength or resistance) exercises. Resistance bands, weights, body weight exercises, plyometrics.

    Eating too few calories and being sedentary are two of the worst things you can do at this stage.

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