Premenopausal women

claireychn074 wrote: »

There’s some good news and some bad news. First the good news - your metabolism doesn’t actually slow down and all the traditional methods of counting calories / being dedicated to exercise still work.

But here’s the bad news (and this isn’t everyone - perimenopause varies from person to person) poor sleep, night sweats, hot flushes, irregular periods and water retention all make it harder to stick to exercise and healthy eating. We are all different but what’s helping me is treating the symptoms, so I keep biofreeze gel by the bed and use it on pulse points when I’m having a night sweat. I also keep spray water and face mist for the same reason. I keep dark chocolate in the house for when I’m craving sugar after a poor night’s sleep (I can inhale milk chocolate but don’t eat too much dark choc in one go). I bought a super cute gym top which I want to wear, and when I’m feeling sluggish I tell myself just to start the warmup. Then if I still feel bad I can give up but 99% of the time, once I’ve warmed up I just keep going.

Keep an eye on your iron levels, make sure you’re getting enough protein and veggies and minerals, as your body needs them even more during this time. Use pain relief when you need it and don’t be shy about seeing your doctor if your symptoms become unmanageable. There’s a lot which can be done, from hormonal supplements to tablets to reduce bleeding, and it is worth seeing a doctor if you can.

I sympathise as I’m in full peri and it’s throwing up all sorts of weird symptoms - so good luck!

This has absolutely nothing to do with the question but now I'm envisioning someone spraying you with water
like you were a cat when you're restless with night sweats.

OP, I was very lucky during my perimenopause days and I put that down to the exercise (which was basically just a lot of walking but YOU do weights too 😀) I got because I'd read that really helps.

Some really good advice above. I'm not peri, I'm way post menopausal. I lost weight anyway.

Good news: Your metabolism hasn't slowed down because of menopause or age. See, for example,

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34385400/

Short summary: Metabolism is pretty stable from age 20 through age 60.

In addition to what others have mentioned above, common lifestyle/habit factors can reduce our energy level, which reduces our activity (daily life stuff, not just exercise intensity), which reduces our calorie expenditure. That may look like "metabolic slowdown" but it isn't. It's activity slowdown, and we can reverse it.

On top of that, reduced activity (again, all types, not just exercise) gradually, subtly reduces our strength, cardiovascular capability, flexibility, and other aspects of fitness. That subtly lowered fitness makes movement less easy, let alone fun. When things are harder, less fun, we tend to do less of them. In this case, that means further reduced fitness, further reduced activity . . . a down-spiral. That part feeds back into the previous-paragraph stuff, because we perceive that reduced physical capability as a reduced energy level. All of this, too, is reversible.

I'll use me as an example of what I mean by "common lifestyle/habit factors" that can cause our perceived lower metabolism and reduced physical capability.

At 20, I had a job that involved a lot of movement, I was moving house more often, the low-budget social activities tended to be more active (dancing, frisbee, hiking, biking, etc.), I didn't have gas money (or even a car, at first) so there was more walking/biking involved in transportation, eventually I was setting up a new married household using a lot of sweat equity, etc. I didn't have kids but many folks also have toddlers to chase.

By age 40, my job was totally sedentary, my social activities were more like going out to restaurants and theaters or to others' homes, I had a car and drove it everywhere, I was pretty settled as to home-creating and hired folks to do some big projects I would've done myself when 20-something, etc.

That's a huge difference in daily life activity, but it happened gradually, the changes nearly unnoticed. The 40-year-old self's lifestyle burned hundreds of fewer calories daily, and it let my physical capabilities slide. I got fat. There was down-spiral: Less activity, less capability, less energy, repeat.

Now, that's just me, but I don't think that pattern is super unusual.

If we're lucky enough not to have a major disease or disability that prevents it, that pattern is also very, very reversible. Gradually improving activity level improves physical functioning and energy level. If there's body fat to lose, losing it can also improve physical functioning and energy level. Improved physical functioning and energy make further progress in that direction easier, and probably more fun, even. With a moderate effort input to reverse direction, the down-spiral reverses, and things gradually improve.

I won't belabor the details here, but in my personal case, I got more active in my 40s (even athletic, to my surprise) very gradually over a period of several years (after the full 9 yards of cancer treatment that had also put me into menopause, BTW). At 59-60, I finally lost weight, obese to normal weight. Now 66, I'm still active and at a healthy weight. I feel more energetic, and am much more physically capable, than I was at age 40. These were huge quality of life improvements, and there was no superhuman effort, massive willpower/discipline, or big time commitment involved, just gradual changes in habits, mostly in ways that were pretty fun, or at worst tolerable.

Menopause and age are not the insurmountable barriers that they're sometimes represented to be, IMO. You can make improvement in your energy and physical capability. It doesn't need to be some daunting major revolution. It can be gradual, positive evolution. The time's going to pass, either way.

In particular, the way you word your OP makes me want to say this: Many people believe that exercise needs to be intense, miserable and punitive in order to be beneficial - and must be some kind of gym-y stuff. That's 100% not true.

In fact, doing extreme exercise is not the best route to fitness, nor the best complement to a weight loss effort. Just moving more, in fun (or at least tolerable) ways, with a small challenge in the picture: That can work. As fitness improves, gradually increase activity frequency, duration, intensity, or the specific activities being done, to keep that small, manageable challenge. It's not just formal exercise: All movement matters. Gradual progress is progress. Keep chipping away, and you can surprise yourself with the results. (I did.)

Best wishes!