menopausal weight

I am going through the same thing but in California. Very disheartening.

DIM - it will help.

justjules wrote: »

I am going through the same thing but in California. Very disheartening.

I am in California too! Ugh, I agree that this whole this is VERY disheartening.

I have been menopausal since I was 26. I am now 43. You all can do this. I have loss 31 pounds since January. I have 10 pounds to go. It is possible to be fit and healthy. Feeling better now than I have in years. Do not give up. You can do this.

feel free to add me anyone. I'm in the post menopausal weight gain category... its a pain!!!

Yes I understand where you are coming from. I started menopause early age 35 and now I am 55 year old in post menopause. I was during great with diet and exercise getting the weight off with a trainer. However, the some signs of menopause are like thyroid issues. Yep, I found out that have underactive thyroid. I have gain my weight back and starting to track and I am hoping to lose weight.

Define drastic measures?

I'd been in menopause for around 14 years when I committed to weight loss (early menopause at around age 45 from chemotherapy). That was age 59, starting out class 1 obese; now age 68 and still at a healthy weight (so far!).

Honestly, I think it's snot so much menopause that causes the weight gain directly. Our metabolism is pretty stable from our 20s to around 60, according to recent research; and the decline is fairly slow even after that.

I suspect the bigger deal is that for many of us, many aspects of our lifestyle just aren't as physically active as they were in our 20s, and the slowdown was so subtle and gradual that it's easy not to notice. (I know that's true for me: Job less physical, not as much walking/biking for transportation since I have a car and gas money, less physically active job and social life, not doing as many DIY home improvements or maintenance myself anymore, etc.)

On top of that, if we've done nothing to challenge our current strength regularly, we tend to gradually lose muscle mass over the years. That has two down-sides: For one, a pound of muscle burns a tiny number of calories more even at rest than a pound of fat does. Second, being less strong makes it less fun and easy to move, so we may do less movement in daily life, again gradually and maybe unnoticed, so we burn fewer calories that way.

On top of that, if there's been yo-yos in weight over the years, many methods of doing that will also reduce calorie needs.

Bottom line, we need fewer calories at any given body weight, so weight gain gets easy. Add the fact that a mere 100 excess calories per day on average will theoretically add 10 pounds in a year, and . . . well, here we are.

I had started being pretty active in my late 40s to regain strength/health after cancer treatment, so things were OK-ish on that front for me. I was also eating a lot of healthy foods . . . but way too much of them, plus more treat foods than sensible.

The main thing I did to lose weight at 59-60 was log my food, and gradually tweak my eating habits to hit my calorie goal, stay reasonably full most of the time, get decent overall nutrition on average, and dial in habits I thought I could continue long term to stay at a healthy weight long term. There's a more detailed description of that approach here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

That won't be perfect for everyone: IMO, no one method is. But it's one method to consider.

To me, that didn't seem drastic. In fact, the mechanics were so much easier than I'd ever expected, that I could kick myself for not doing it years earlier. (That's because the quality of life improvement was significant!) I'm not saying it was psychologically easy ever second: I don't think changes in habits ever are likely to be. But it was manageable.

Wishing you success: The results are worth the effort!