Can anyone speak to Menopause and Metabolism AND how that af

Well I highly doubt that the sight creators are peri-menopausal so they can only site the same things that you can find on a google search. BUT, I was 44 1/2 when I started my journey, in January of last year, turned 45 in August, so will obviously be 46 this August, and am more than likely peri-menopausal. (was actually just discussing this with my Gyno, yesterday) Anyway if you take a look at my ticker yo will see that I have lost just over 101 pounds! Did I do anything special, or other than what this sight promotes? No, I did what this sight promotes! I have logged on every single day for 348 days, logged EVERYTHING I ate/drank, exercised 3-5 days per week, in the beginning, for 15-20 minutes as that was all that I could manage, increased as I would gain more stamina, to the point that I work out EVERY single day now. I do 30 minutes in the morning, four days per week, and then some sort of class for 45 minutes those evenings, and on the other three days an hour in the mornings. So it can be done, you just have to do it.

I'm peri-menopausal but also take anti-depressants which also contribute to weight-gain.

Part of the problem with aging is the loss of muscle mass which negatively affects metabolism. Part of the reason why as we get older weight-lifting is so good (well it is at any time).

I have just got back on the bandwagon, but it is taking a lot more effort than it did before, and I have to be very strict with myself.

GG

Great feedback from everyone! Friend me if you like so we can support each other through this journey.

Menopause is God's great gift to women! Embrace your power. I have been more successful in losing weight post-menopause than I was before. I am more patient now and don't give up so quickly. I have more life experience so can separate the silly weight loss advice from that which might be fruitful. I no longer expect to be able to do the difficult exercises perfectly on the first few go-arounds and realize that I will get better and I will get stronger. I have more self-discipline to change my diet and complete my exercise routines.

I suggest strength training as an important component of the regimen after menopause. I wish I had started 5 years ago.

Think about this, once you're through the pause your life is no longer ruled by estrogen. That is the most freeing thing. I can now tell authentic anger from time of month anger. The fear of pregnancy is gone. The fear of "what will they think?" can be gone if you'll allow it. I'm not a Red Hat Society member, but I think they have some good ideas about just rolling with it.

I think of this time as my time to shine, to find what brings me pleasure and purpose and not to worry about the "kids" so much anymore-they're adults now. I think my best years are still ahead of me!

The standard formulas for estimating calorie needs do take age and gender into consideration, so the formulas used to determine calorie needs on here should be taking into account the changes in a womans body as she ages. So, I would trust the calorie recommendations from MFP for that.

As for training, LIFT HEAVY!!!!!!!!! The reason calorie needs go down as we age is majorly related to muscle mass. Without heavy weight training, we lose about a pound of muscle per year every year after 30 years old. A pound of muscle burns about 35 to 50 calories per day at rest. At age 50, that's 20 pounds of muscle, or 700 to 1000 calories a day that we aren't burning anymore. Heavy weight training can not only decrease the amount of muscle lost, but you can actually build muscle over time and literally reverse that loss of calorie burn. In addition, heavy weight training promotes extra testosterone production in the body. Yes, ladies, we make testosterone too, just not as much as the guys do. Adding that natural boost of testosterone will promote growth hormone responses in the pituitary gland. Growth hormone decreases glucose utilization, decreases glycogen synthesis, increases utilization of fatty acids, and increases fat breakdown. So, heavy weight training will help increase the hormone levels that will help you burn more fat during your cardio workouts.

Thank you so much for this thread!! I am grateful to have found some other menopausers to connect with here. I am 50 and have been trying very unsuccessfully to lose weight for at least the past 5 years. I have done nothing but lose a few pounds and then regain at least 10 more each time!! But I am committed to doing this right now. It does seem so much more necessary to be very strict and careful with counting everything that is eaten, drinking lots of water, etc than I had to when I was younger. I am working on the exercise thing too--I was in great shape, doing heavy weight training, until about 5 years ago. I developed some terrible couch potato tendencies and a chronic pain problem in my neck/mid-back that now really hampers my exercise efforts. But I am working with a personal trainer and a physical therapist, and slowly progressing. It really seems like the muscle mass loss makes a huge difference, and I am also working with my gynecologist on hormone issues. She has me on a supplement regimen with includes testosterone and DHEA (my bloodwork showed that I had almost non-existent levels of both these hormones--which explained my complete lack of energy and loss of muscle mass!).
Anyway, it would be great to keep this support thread going--I love the wisdom and support I am reading thusfar!!
Nancy

I agree with RMinVA. My last cycle was in July 2007 and in order to loose weight I have to make sure everything I eat is nutritionally sound, WATCH THE SODIUM and drink lots and lots of water.

Me too. I am 54 and lost 53 pounds about 3 years ago just as my periods were stopping and then due to me not being diligent and not exercising as I had been about 18 pounds came right back on. I had gotten down to 152 and looked great but never made my goal of 135. I am trying it again. But I have banished ALL junk from my diet, (Dr. Oz type diet). I need to be healthy and fit! I won't give up this time. I refuse to let life get in the way of me reaching my goals.

In a way, it doesn't really matter. I vividly remember Dr. Phil about 15 years ago saying something like: " It doesn't matter if you have a slow metabolism and you don't get to eat as much as everyone else does. The point is it IS YOUR metabolism and YOU WILL have to learn to deal with it if you want to lose weight." So I will promise myself to forge ahead. It will be a long and lonely roll, but I won't give up this time.

I've lost about 6 pounds in 5 1/2 weeks. I weight lift 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells, walk the dog once or twice a day for 30 minutes or so each, and ride my bike 40 minutes in place of a walk on the weekends. Nothing crazy, but something I can maintain hopefully for ever as I age. I am not interested in playing games with myself and trying to kill myself to lose more faster. I have to concentrate on how I plan to live like this for the rest of my life.

I went into peri-menopause three years ago at 45. I've been the same size since high school - mostly because I'm too cheap to go out and buy bigger clothes just because I've gotten lazy. However, once the hot flashes started, my old workout and diet regime stopped working. I was seriously low on sleep because I'd wake up nightly with the sweats and that added to the weight increase as well.. Then three things helped me turn it around:

1. A friend told me about a natural supplement created by an Oby-Gyn and a Medical Herbalist - both women - called EstroLogic. She told me that it helped her with the hot flashes and since I was desperate for a good night's sleep, I gave it a try. It didn't stop the hot flashes but it did curb the night sweats - I was getting sleep again!! I took it steady up until last fall when the flashes and my cycles started tapering off. I dont' that it will work for everyone, but for me, it was a godsend!

2. I read an article that echoed exactly what Tanya said earlier in this thread - it's not that our metabolisms are slowing down - we've lost muscle! The article that I read stated that you will lose up to 5% of your muscle per year after the ago of 30, unless you do something about it. Muscle requires more calories to maintain, thus the more muscle you have the better your metabolism hums along. I started lifting heavy weights again and regained lost muscle and strength (oh, and firmed up that horrid underarm that tends to 'flap' as we get older!).

3. My ex-husband died very suddenly of a heart attack, which really threw me - my daughter now had only one parent and I needed to make sure I would be here for her and since her father was adopted, we don't know if there might possibly be a genetic issue that she needs to worry about - so I started reading up on nutrition and we both adopted clean eating and maintain it 90-95% of the time (I love ice cream - it's my one vice - I just don't have it very often any more).

I'm still the same size as high school and as long as I keep up the strength training and keep the diet clean, maintaining that size has been pretty easy. I'm also loving how strong and fit I feel - I'm working on coming out on the other side of all this in a better shape than I started!

Bumping for this great thread!!

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.

Wow, Enigmatica! Everything you described is what I am dealing with right now. I have fibroids in my uterus and so forth. I really need to look into this! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Shelle - just google estrogenic and there's a ton of info on it. Another thing I had to drop for awhile was soy beans and soy products. I had been drinking soy milk for about 2 years - loved it - and found it solved some problems I had with cow's milk. Well lo and behold, soy is another estrogenic... I just could NOT win for awhile there, LOL!

Since I've recently swung to the other extreme (now low on estrogen) I'm adding a bit of soy back into my diet and so far have had no ill effects at all. I'm still staying away from the plastic though. The more I learned about it the more it concerned me.

Good luck to you!

As a fellow menopauser (is that a word?), I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts. One common thread that I kept reading only worded in completely different ways is that everyone who posted is upbeat and "knows" they can achieve their personal goals. Girls, a few extra pounds below our belts isn't the only thing that we all have in common. We have life experiences and perservance. At our age, we don't expect a "quick fix." We hold the wisdom to know that sometimes those things that are really important to us might take a lot of hard work and patience to achieve.

My metabolism may be lagging it's behind, but "I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR," I am determined to not diet, but make a lifetime commitment to eating healthier, I mean at 51 I can only hope that I'm only halfway through the race of life. I can count on one hand the foods I don't like (which is part of the reason I'm in the shape I'm in), but now I'm looking at the glass half full in that regard, because that means I like all kinds of HEALTHY food and absolutely love to experiment in the kitchen and on top of that I have hubby who wants to lose a few pounds and will try anything I cook.

I did go to the doctor when my weight really started piling on and had my thyroid checked because the doctor said that a good percentage of women peri and postmenopausal will become hypothyroid and not even know it, but my levels were normal along with my cholesterol, HDL and LDL. I do take a calcium/vitamin D supplement, fish oil and vitamin E. I have to be truthful with myself though, this weight gain probably had little to do in my personal case with my weight gain. After weighing and measuring my food, I was eating wayyyy too big a portions and paying no attention to calorie intake. We moved to a new town about a year ago away from everyone and everything we knew and I work from home and sit on my patoot all day long and eating had become a vice of comfort for me. Now my vice is concentrating on being a better, healthier me!!!!

Good luck on your journey to all!

“You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” ~Les Brown

“Nothing will work unless you do.” ~Maya Angelou

“Living a healthy lifestyle will only deprive you of poor health, lethargy, and fat.” ~Jill Johnson

bump it