Weight loss during the menopause

fletcherdebbie842
fletcherdebbie842 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello Everyone, I am just wondering if anyone has experienced the same problems I am and, if so, how they overcame them. I am 55 years old and am going through the menopause. I started my weight loss journey 5 weeks ago. I have religiously stuck to the recommended 1200kcal a day, stopped all alcohol, go cycling twice a week (burning on average 500-600kcal each time) and walk for three hours one day a week. I have also taken my measurements. So far I have not lost any inches (or part of) anywhere on my body and I have gained 5lbs. I do not suffer from any of the usual symptoms of the menopause, eg night sweats, or irritability. Has anyone else had this problem? I just don't know what to do. Any helpful advice would be most appreciated. P.S. I have approx 2 stone to lose.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Menopause in itself doesn't affect whether or not you'll lose weight. I lost 80ish pounds after menopause and I've kept it off.

    Could you open your FOOD page for us to take a look at your logging? Go to "FOOD" then Settings, scroll down and click "Public and then save it.

    Not losing weight for five weeks could be a lot of things. I think you're under-eating with all that exercise, but the most likely reason is not logging food correctly, not logging things like oils and dressings accurately, or not logging ALL your food every day.

    If you open your food diary we may be able to spot some common errors people make.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,941 Member
    Can you give us a bit more information?
    How often do you weight, and when in the day?
    Do you use a food scale for everything you eat or what kind of information do you use for your food diary?
    How much do you have to lose?
    And finally: how do you get the information for the exercise calories?
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    I too have been through menopause. I had symptoms but none were intense. Hormone imbalances can influence water retention in weird ways you do not recognize. I had only one episode of this -- gaining an unexplained 5 lb -- which lasted a month. I was tracking calories, so I knew it was not fat gain. None of the usual things (new exercise, injury, salty diet change, air travel, etc.) seemed to explain it. After a month it disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. And it only happened once.

    That said, with the limited information you have provided, it seems to me the most likely explanation is tracking inaccuracies that add up, nothing relating to menopause at all. That's good news because it is in your control!

    To answer your "how you overcame" question: patience, persistence, and careful logging.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited February 2022
    I'm 55 too :smile:

    When you say you are "going through" menopause, does that mean you are still having periods? Also, how tall are you?

    When I was younger I'd regularly gain (and then lose) a few pounds of water weight when I ovulated and premenstrually, but these months I can have crazy hormonal water weight swings up to 8 pounds.

    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • angela_boinkers
    angela_boinkers Posts: 11 Member
    I’m 47 and post-menopausal (I had early onset menopause). I find it’s a lot harder to lose weight than I used to. I have a feeling you might be overestimating the calories you burn by cycling; do you eat them all back?
  • fletcherdebbie842
    fletcherdebbie842 Posts: 3 Member
    Hello, A big thank you to everyone who posted replies to me. This is the first time that I have used the community website as normally I try to keep things to myself and sort things out. I am not sure if this is the correct way to reply so please let me know if there is an easier way.

    I will reply in the order that the comments came in.

    CMRIVERSIDE - I have made my diary public,. I must admit I have not logged entries for the past couple of weeks because I have been a bit fed up, but my meals have been the same. The dates to look at are between the 12th January and the 7th February 2022. I think that I am logging the food correctly but please feel free to take a look and point out any obvious errors. The most used dressing is olive oil as I currently live abroad. I did wonder if I was under-eating but I was following the recommendations from the myfitness pal app. Thank you once again.

    YIRARA - I weigh once a week on a Wednesday, first thing in the morning, after I have been to the toilet and before I have had anything to eat and drink. I weigh and measure all my food, including dressings, and use the myfitness app for my food diary. All my recipes I have inputted into the app to calculate the calories. I have approximately two stone to lose. I have a Samsung health app on my phone which I take with me when I go cycling and walking which calculates the calories I have burned but, only on some occasions, have I used some of these calories for my food. Thank you for your help and comments.

    AHOYM8 - I have now made my diary public, with the most consistent entries being the 12th January to the 7th February 2022 so hopefully there may be something in there which indicates where I am going wrong. Thank you for your comment and support.

    KSHAMA 2001 - I have not had a period now for 11 months. I am 5.5 feet tall. I have made my diary public now. I have been a little bit fed up with loading entries recently so the diary is at its fullest from the 12th January to 7th February 2022, although I have kept my meals fairly consistent. Thank you for your help and comments.

    ANGELABOINKERS - I am currently using an app on my mobile phone which shows the calories burnt, the distance, the altitude etc. There have been a couple of occasions where I may eat some of them back but, on the whole, I do not eat them all back. Thank you for your help and comments.

    ANNPT77 - I think I have logged all my food and drink but I have now made my diary public for people to have a look at and advise me. My main entries are from the 12th January to the 7th February 2022. Thank you for the link to the article. I will have a good read of that. As mentioned in my comments above, I am using an app on my phone which calculates the distance travelled, calories burned, altitude. However, more often than not, I do not use the calories from the exercise. I had to put in my age and gender so hopefully it takes this into account when calculating the results. Thank you for your positive vibes.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    OP, I don't have a specific comment about your logging. Generally, though, 5 weeks is not a long time for weight loss. For a personal comparison, I maintain in a 5 lb range. When my weight creeps up to the top of the range (creep is always up, never down), it takes 10 weeks to lose it. 10 weeks of patient and persistent logging to the best of my ability every single day. It is not a smooth loss with satisfaction on the scale every time I weigh. My weight bounces around, and it can be frustrating some days. But in the end, the math always works.

    It sounds like you have things under control and have a good attitude. Just be patient and keep at it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    Nothing jumped out at me about your logging, except to wonder in a couple of cases if you'd added any oil that you'd used in cooking, if there was some. If it were me, I'd want more protein, but that affects satiation/nutrition, not weight management directly.

    If you've only been at this for 5 weeks, I'd suggest sticking with it for another few weeks. The first weeks of weight loss can be weird from a scale standpoint, and water weight around the time of menopause onset can be weird, too. If your exercise is new or increased when you started calorie counting, that can affect water weight significantly, too. If what you eat (food choices) changed at the same time, that's another potential scale-distorting factor. If you've lost a few pounds of fat, but a thin layer from lots of body area, areas we don't usually measure, or mostly internal-to-body-cavity visceral fat (the most important type to lose for health!), it may not show up in inch measurements. Bodies are weird.

    I'd expect that you'd lose fat at your current (low!) calorie intake, but you don't have a massive amount to lose in the big picture. (I lost a bit over twice that much, and I'm at the lower end compared to a lot of people here, who lose 100+ pounds!) Fat loss at a sensibly moderate rate can play peek-a-boo on the scale for a surprisingly long time with water weight and digestive contents on their way to becoming waste.

    Since it sounds like you may be getting looser with food logging - which is not any kind sin, BTW; can be fine - a thing to pay attention to is portion creep, maybe even just in subtle things like oil, dressings, beverages, sweeteners that don't seem like much, but can add up.

    Can you hang on for another 3-4 weeks, maybe? Is this routine being do-able for you now? If not, what are the challenges (besides a dispiriting lack of scale/inch progress)? I think we'd all like to help, if we can.

    Wishing you a route to success with your goals!
  • fletcherdebbie842
    fletcherdebbie842 Posts: 3 Member
    AHOYM8 - Thank you for your helpful comments. You are right in that weight goes on very easy but takes ages to lose it. Thank you, I will continue to try as I have a lot of nice clothes that I really want to be able to get back into.

    ANNPT77 - Thank you for your helpful comments. The exercise is new but the sorts of food I eat is not, although I have obviously been weighing and measuring all my foods. For me now, the most challenging is the fact that we are having alot of visitors soon so will need to be mindful of portion size.

    I will continue to try and hopefully this will reflect in my clothing.
  • Lisa_allenn
    Lisa_allenn Posts: 11 Member
    Losing weight during and after menopause may seem difficult. However, there are several steps you can take to make weight loss easier during this time.
    Low carb diets are excellent for weight loss and are also able to help reduce abdominal fat.
    The Mediterranean diet is best known for improving health and reducing heart disease risk, studies show it may also help you lose weight.
    Vegan and vegetarian diets have also shown promise for weight loss
    exercise may be more important than ever during and after menopause. It can improve mood, promote a healthy weight, and protect your muscles and bones.
  • Bridgie3
    Bridgie3 Posts: 139 Member
    edited February 2022
    Has this exercise plan happened recently? I can gain 3 kg just from upsetting my muscles, every autumn I'd go out on the orchard and work 8 hr days climbing ladders, pruning, thinning, dealing with irrigation. I'd stay the same weight despite very high activity levels. At the end of the winter season when I stopped the physical labour, I'd pee for days, and lose half a stone.

    :)
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,605 Member
    Lisa_allenn wrote: »
    Losing weight during and after menopause may seem difficult. However, there are several steps you can take to make weight loss easier during this time.
    Low carb diets are excellent for weight loss and are also able to help reduce abdominal fat.
    The Mediterranean diet is best known for improving health and reducing heart disease risk, studies show it may also help you lose weight.
    Vegan and vegetarian diets have also shown promise for weight loss
    exercise may be more important than ever during and after menopause. It can improve mood, promote a healthy weight, and protect your muscles and bones.
    You don’t need low carb at all. You just need to eat fewer calories than you expend (I’m menopausal and petite and I lost weight). I eat over 200g of carbs each day because it suits me, helps me exercise and I like carbs 🤷‍♂️ There’s a great thread on here about NEAT - have a look for it and look at some of the ideas. As we get older we tend to move less (not running around after kids, using the car more) and some daily movement can give you some extra valuable calories. Sleep is also a vital factor in maintaining the body’s systems and that can be badly affected by menopause. It’s not easy but it can be done!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    Lisa_allenn wrote: »
    Losing weight during and after menopause may seem difficult. However, there are several steps you can take to make weight loss easier during this time.
    Low carb diets are excellent for weight loss and are also able to help reduce abdominal fat.
    The Mediterranean diet is best known for improving health and reducing heart disease risk, studies show it may also help you lose weight.
    Vegan and vegetarian diets have also shown promise for weight loss
    exercise may be more important than ever during and after menopause. It can improve mood, promote a healthy weight, and protect your muscles and bones.
    You don’t need low carb at all. You just need to eat fewer calories than you expend (I’m menopausal and petite and I lost weight). I eat over 200g of carbs each day because it suits me, helps me exercise and I like carbs 🤷‍♂️ There’s a great thread on here about NEAT - have a look for it and look at some of the ideas. As we get older we tend to move less (not running around after kids, using the car more) and some daily movement can give you some extra valuable calories. Sleep is also a vital factor in maintaining the body’s systems and that can be badly affected by menopause. It’s not easy but it can be done!

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

    That "moving less in daily life as we age" thing? Not universal, but true for many people. My lifestyle had a lot more movement in it when I was 20 vs. 66 (more physical job, recreation activities more active vs. things like dinner parties or theater, more walk/bike in my daily transportation than now, etc.)

    There's a similar statistical trend to slowly change in body composition, too, unless we do things to counter it: Higher fat to lean ratio. That inherently makes us burn a tiny number of calories fewer, but also gradually, subtly makes movement harder and less fun, so we do less of it as time goes by.
  • Bridgie3
    Bridgie3 Posts: 139 Member
    Just to pop this in there just in case, but as we age we run the risk of becoming more and more insulin resistant. If one doesn't operate optimally, which many do of course, then one's on a pathway from normal through prediabetic through to diabetes.

    This is why keto is so popular with older people - it's popular with people who are insulin resistant and as we age, those of us prone to it become more and more so. It doesn't sit still.

    So maybe go to the doctor and do a full blood work up. Identify what your liver is up to, what your kidneys are doing, what your pancreas is on about, how your haemoglobin is getting on. If you are on that slippery insulin resistance slope, and I hope you're not, then that is definitely a wall in the pathway to slenderness.

    I am not in ketosis myself: seems too hard, but I have lowered my carbohydrates and done things like only eat berries, not fruit, snack on sardines, not toast. I am type 2 diabetic now, I fit all the statistics by becoming diabetic 5 yrs after being diagnosed prediabetic, but I watch my sugars now and am working my way back down to what normal bloods would be like. Learning to reduce my carb/sugar addiction has opened a door for me into understanding my energy needs, and in greatly reducing headaches and nausea. But that's me as a diabetic. You may be undiagnosed insulin resistant, or you may well be perfectly fine in that regard. Only the blood tests will tell you and people only tend to get sugar tested in the blood every few years unless they request it at their checkup.

    :) All the best!

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