Any suggestions from fellow post menopausal women

I too am a post M woman. I few things, if you have not been particularly active, you have lost muscle. I have found it takes about a month to gain muscle, muscle weighs more, but is smaller.

The other thing is vitamins, for me I am supplementing Vitamin A & C. I have relatively good eating habits, but suspect I have a decreased absorption(Al’s malabsorption) Since I have upped my A/C my skin is notably improved and I am loosing, it’s in jumps and spurts, but the scale is budging!

Hello! I am in the same boat. I feel like I am working the way I once lost weight to just maintain my weight gain. Going to try looking at my vitamin intake, but I am also looking for some results.

That's good advice from @klimptt, that 3 weeks isn't long enough.

And sadly - believe me I am very, very sad about this - women our age don't add much muscle in 3 weeks even under ideal conditions, and "while cutting calories" is not an example of ideal conditions. Quite the contrary.

I'm post-menopausal, have been since chemotherapy brought on menopause early, when I was in my mid-40s. I'm now 67. Back in 2015-16, at age 59-60, I used MFP to lose 50+ pounds in just under a year, from class 1 obese to a healthy weight. My weight has been in a healthy range for nearly 7 years ever since, same jeans size (US 6 at 5'5", weight 130-point-something pounds this morning) - that, after around 30 years previously of overweight/obesity.

Weight loss can happen for women in menopause, my experience suggests. There are quite a few menopausal women here who've been successful, in fact.

Three weeks really isn't long enough to get a good reading of average weekly weight loss for anyone, menopausal female or otherwise. When we add new exercise, that confuses things even more, because anyone's body tends to hang onto some extra water weight while it's doing muscle repair. That water weight can mask fat loss on the bodyweight scale.

(Note: Lots of things other than new exercise can temporarily add water weight. Bodies can be up to 60%+ water, and fluctuating water levels are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. Therefore, we want to understand its possible effects, but not try to game it or defeat it. Our bodies know what they're doing, and we should let them. No diuretics, please, unless prescribed by a doctor for an actual health condition!)

The water weight doesn't keep increasing and increasing, so if fat loss is happening, it will eventually peek out from behind the clouds. I'd suggest at least 4-6 weeks for those of us who don't have monthly cycles anymore. Even then, if the first couple of weeks look atypical, disregard those and go two more weeks.

Yes, patience is an annoying thing to need.

Nutrition is an important and useful thing, be it getting enough protein/fats or the right mix of vitamins, minerals, probiotics and other beneficial phytochemicals and what-not. But nutrition is mostly about health, energy level, body composition (including relative ability to slowly gain muscle), satiation, maybe even mood or other important things.

But it's calories that matter directly for weight loss.

At most, nutrition has an indirect effect on body weight. If we get sub-par nutrition, it can cause fatigue, so we do less, rest more, burn fewer calories than normal. If we get sub-par nutrition, it can trigger cravings or spike appetite, making it hard to stick with a calorie goal. The direct effect on weight is still via calories. (This is a little oversimplified, leaving out some issues of TEF, absorption, etc. . . . but those things also have their effects on body weight via calories, it's just that calories in or out might be somewhat different than what we log . . . usually by only small numbers that aren't arithmetically meaningful in the big picture).

So, what should a menopausal woman do?

This is just my opinion, but I think the best options are:

* Set a reasonable calorie goal, using MFP's or a TDEE calculator's estimate as a starting point. Don't try to lose faster than 0.5-1% of current body weight weekly, with a bias toward the lower end of that range unless dangerously obese.

* Try to get overall good nutrition on average: Enough protein, some healthy fats, plenty of varied, colorful veggies and fruits.

* Get some exercise, not something punitively intense, just something that's a mild challenge to current fitness level, and that fits into life while leaving enough time and energy for job, family, home chores, and anything else important to you. Ideally, the exercise activity will be something fun, at worst at least something tolerable.

* Include some kind of strength exercise. There a a bunch of reasons: Strength is useful in daily life, muscle mass tends to decline with age if we don't challenge it to the detriment of quality of life, there are some studies that suggest strength exercise is helpful for fat loss (vs. losing other tissue) in menopausal women particularly, strong muscles help create strong bones, and more.

* Try to inject a little more non-exercise movement into daily life intentionally. Most of us are more sedentary or placid as we age, subtly. That's part of why older people burn fewer calories. We can reverse some of that. Ideas from many MFPers are in this thread: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

* Be patient and persistent.

It's not necessary - maybe not even practical/achievable - to change all of that at once. Start somewhere that seems manageable, expand from there when there's time and emotional energy to add other changes. Over time, it'll add up.

Also optional, IMO: Tricksy named diets with lots of restrictions and rules about which foods are good/bad, etc. Just try to get overall good nutrition on average, eating foods you find tasty, practical, affordable. That'll be fine.

My personal view is that it's good to think of experimenting with both eating and activity to find and groove in strategies that we will be able to treat as routine habits permanently, to reach a healthy weight and stay there for the rest of our lives, almost on autopilot when the rest of life gets challenging . . . because it will.

Best wishes!