MENOPAUSE COMMUNITY

midlifemomster wrote: »

Hi, I’m 56 and have been in menopause for a few years. Peri- menopause was far worse with a big list of weird, painful, sweaty things going on. I’ve put on maybe 15 pounds over the past three years which may not sound like a lot but it’s mostly around my middle- which was never a problem area for me in the past. My body doesn’t feel like the same body anymore.
I just dealt with early stage breast cancer and will likely be on a form of hormone therapy as part of my recovery so I’m hoping that it doesn’t result in more weight gain.
Anyway I’m back to tracking my calories again ( was successful with MFP a few years ago) and trying to increase my activity now that I feel like I’ve been given a second chance after a successful lumpectomy. I’d love to read other people’s menopausal weight loss tips and tricks!

I don't have any particular menopause tips beyond things I typed earlier in the thread (although chemotherapy put me in menopause 22 years ago), but to the bolded, FWIW:

I took Tamoxifen for 2.5 years, then Arimidex for 5 years, because of having had advanced hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. I assume you'd be on one of those, or a similar one. I've read that they can result in weight gain, but it was not an effect that I experienced. I went up and down a little (before losing weight for real about 7 years ago), but I was pretty close to weight stable on those drugs. I'm hopeful that that could be true for you, too. (ETA: If you're here to lose weight, then I'm hopeful that that can happen for you, actually! I'm trying to say that I didn't see that the drugs in themselves caused weight gain for me. Some of the mechanisms that cause weight gain from a drug regimen are effectively checkmated when one is calorie counting, anyway.)

I've seen some limited research suggesting that strength training can help reduce central fat (in a context of the right calorie balance, of course), but I don't really consider that definitive. Can't hurt, though, and it obviously has other benefits, especially among aging women.

If you're put on an aromatase inhibitor (like Arimidex), those can have a negative effect on bone quality so increase osteoporosis risk. Strength training is one potential counter to bone loss, for anyone, including those on such drugs.

Regular exercise generally (strength and cardiovascular) seems to have risk-reduction effects for certain types of breast cancer, also. For those who've not had breast cancer, exercise also reduces risk of getting breast cancer, as does being at a healthy body weight.