Menopause and weight gain

Me1Vass · April 2023

Hi. I have just turned 60 and I am feeling pretty down about my weight and lack of motivation.
I was always a consistent weight all my life but now I seem to be steadily gaining weight and am always tired and in motivated.
I am on HRT for my menopause.
Is there anyone out there having similar issues?
I’ve just joined MFP and hope to find inspiration and motivation here to help me get back to myself again.

spiriteagle99 · April 2023

Have you had your thyroid checked? You are at the age when hypothyroidism shows itself.

If there are no health issues, then discipline may have to take the place of motivation, at least until being more active becomes a habit. FWIW, I am 66 and am maintaining a 55 lb. loss. I walk a couple of miles a day and run 5 days a week. There are days I don't necessarily feel like exercise, but I do it because I love the way I feel afterwards. It also gives me freedom to eat more without gaining.

dlittlegen · April 2023

I am almost 60, have thyroid issues which leaves me pretty sluggish. I was always a small person, but age, thyroid, early menopause and a desk job are catching up to me. I am newish on this site. Good luck.

yirara · April 2023

There's no reason to feel sluggish while being hypothyroid. Go to your gp, demand better treatment. I know many will only look at TSH, say it's still within range and ignore how you feel. But you need to advocate for yourself here, because feeling normal and energetic is possible.

kshama2001 · April 2023

I've had fatigue off and on for decades, mostly due to anemia. But fatigue is also an issue when I get into a pattern of not eating right for me, which for me is high carb and fat and inadequate protein and fiber, and not exercising regularly.

I know that it is very difficult to exercise when one is tired, but I do what I can. I focus on exercise that I enjoy, but I'm often unmotivated, and have to force myself to start. I also give myself permission to stop if I need to. I'm getting over a cold and thought my Sunday 60 minute Tai Chi class might be too much for me, but wanted to give it a shot. I warned the teacher I might not make the full class. I did stop after 30 minutes, but am glad I did that 30 minutes.

I have a whole range of lower intensity activity I can do when I'm just not up for more. For example, I walk the cat - he averages about 1 mph. It's better than nothing, and we both enjoy the fresh air.

I am a veteran and have access to yoga, Tai chi, etc., on Om Practice: https://app.ompractice.com/veteransaffairs
When I'm not up for more vigorous yoga, there's chair yoga, gentle yoga, and restorative yoga. These don't burn a lot of calories, but are great for my mental health and back, and help with a positive upward spiral of activity.

I like to get cardio outside, but when the summer heat traps me indoors I get creative and look for projects such as cleaning a closet, decluttering the attic, painting, etc.

kshama2001 · April 2023

ps: I am 56, female.

springlering62 · April 2023

There was a super annoying diabetes commercial that used to trumpet “A body in motion stays in motion”.

Irritating in a commercial format, but so true in real life.

As we age, we fall prey to the whole golden years, you’ve earned a rest, oh it’s just menopause, yada yada. We slow down our movement, but not what we eat, and as a result our weight goes up.

If you’ll commit to something as simple as a walk every evening, you may find, as did I, that you want to add more and more movement.

People our age are on the cusp. We can either commit to better or continued good health, or become our parents, complete with barcolounger, iced tea or soda by our side, giant snack bowl, remote in hand, waddling painful walk, and a “weekly planner” with slots for all our meds.

I know that sounds harsh, but I saw it happen to my parents and that was what very literally got my *kitten* in gear. The day they got matching “lift” chairs was the day I knew they’d given up, and watched their slow, painful decline.

It’s up to you what side of the fence you want to come down on.

vivmom2014 · April 2023

I just turned 60. That's freaking me out a bit more than what I weigh, but I decided years ago to commit fully to exercise. Some find her way too chirpy, but Leslie Sansone's walking workout DVDs did the trick for me. She got me back into exercise after a shoulder injury. And it's not just cardio -- she's got workouts for floor (body weight) exercises, dumb bells, resistance bands, etc.

If you can find something -- anything -- physical that you enjoy and will even look forward to, it can very much have a cascading effect. A workout day will often find me taking a long evening walk with my husband. It just starts to feel too good not to MOVE.

The calories -- well, yeah, they matter too. If you're trying to lose weight, give yourself a reasonable calorie goal and remember you've got plenty of time. Aging is bad enough -- forget adding a crazy low calorie goal to it!

AnnPT77 · April 2023

Me1Vass wrote: »

Hi. I have just turned 60 and I am feeling pretty down about my weight and lack of motivation.
I was always a consistent weight all my life but now I seem to be steadily gaining weight and am always tired and in motivated.
I am on HRT for my menopause.
Is there anyone out there having similar issues?
I’ve just joined MFP and hope to find inspiration and motivation here to help me get back to myself again.

I'm 100% behind what others above have said (speaking as a 67 y/o woman who lost 50-some pounds at 59-60 after previous decades of overweight/obesity . . . when I'd been in menopause for 20-some years already, and was severely hypothyroid besides).

The motivation question is personal. I'm sorry to say it, but I think that's 100% in your court. There are a lot of posts around here saying "I need an accountability buddy to motivate me" but I'm very, very skeptical that that works. I think it just creates someone else to blame when things head South, TBH. Making change in our own individual lives is inherently a solo sport, IMO. Others can help, but we're the center.

I didn't lose weight for years'n'years, even though I knew I should. That was on me. Even then, I knew that if I wasn't willing to put in the work to get to an outcome, I was making a decision to stay stuck where I was.

"Wanting" and even "trying" aren't enough. When I just did those, I knew I wasn't serious. It takes committing, and meaning it. Once I decided to take responsibility and genuinely commit to it, it was simpler than I expected, and much more beneficial. Now I wonder why I was such an idiot for so long, frankly. (But I was lots more overweight than you are now, sounds like.)

There's one thing I think others haven't made explicit: As we age, we lose muscle mass, unless we do something to counter that. That means we burn slightly fewer calories at rest every day, but more importantly it makes movement less easy, and less fun, so maybe we do less moving, burning fewer calories by sitting/resting more. In addition, the sitting/resting more accelerates the loss of muscle specifically and physical functioning generally (flexibility, balance, cardiovascular capacity, etc.).

That's a path to those Barcaloungers Spring mentioned, and maybe an earlier ticket to the assisted living facility. (I don't know about you, but I don't wanna go . . . at least not any sooner than I must.)

Even without the gradually, subtly reduced movement, just the loss of muscle mass while eating exactly the same foods in the same amounts means we'll gradually gain weight.

Gaining 10 pounds in a year requires only a 100 calorie daily calorie surplus. That's like a daily half-serving of peanut butter, maybe 7 walnut halves, a teeny tiny cookie, maybe a half hour or so walk . . . . Not all of those things, just one of them, or any combination of a fraction of any of them that adds up to around 100 calories. It's small, but it adds up.

We need to reverse the cycle, in order to change the outcome.

Some amount of strength-challenging exercise is part of the optimal recipe for reversing gradual weight up-creep with aging. Weight lifting is ideal, the most time-efficient and effective. But anything that is a manageable challenge to current strength is a plus.

There's also a myth that weight lifting means some mighty struggle lifting massive weights. It's not that. It's lifting things that are a little heavy for us as an individual, heavy enough to be a manageable challenge, and doing that enough times to accumulate a little muscle fatigue, then repeating the challenge regularly. High reps with soup cans can be a good start.

There's also a myth - common among women, perhaps especially women our age - that strength training will make us bulky and vein-y and so forth. Likely it never will, and it certainly won't happen overnight, or without serious long-term super-hard work. Women who look that way worked very hard for a long time to get there. We can do that, too, if we want to . . . but we don't have to, and it won't "just happen".

This is a situation you can turn around. I'm wishing you well in finding that commitment in yourself. The results are worth it.

cmriverside · April 2023

Absolutely what Ann, vivmom, and springlering said.

I also lost weight in menopause. 80ish pounds of weight.

Here's what I did:

Log food. Every day. Learn from the FOOD diary. I studied it like it was gonna save my life, and it did.
Step on a body weight scale regularly and record it. There's a "Reports" section that will graph it out over time. Go to "Check in" to post the weight.
Exercise. Most days (minimum five out of seven) I walk for 90 minutes on hills. I have resistance bands I use for some upper body and core exercises. Some days I do other stuff like paddleboarding, kayaking, hiking, deep cleaning the house, etc.

That's it. Easy, not simple.

You can do the same. I lost my 80 pounds in 2007-08. I went from 220 to 140ish, with a five pound range. I'm still in the healthy weight range. It's not something that just happens, though. I do have to be mindful and make (generally) good decisions.

I'd suggest reading all the "Most Helpful" threads at the top(s) of the different forum categories. Read the forums. Learn nutrition and make healthier substitutions.

kshama2001 · April 2023

springlering62 wrote: »

There was a super annoying diabetes commercial that used to trumpet “A body in motion stays in motion”.

Irritating in a commercial format, but so true in real life.

As we age, we fall prey to the whole golden years, you’ve earned a rest, oh it’s just menopause, yada yada. We slow down our movement, but not what we eat, and as a result our weight goes up.

If you’ll commit to something as simple as a walk every evening, you may find, as did I, that you want to add more and more movement.

People our age are on the cusp. We can either commit to better or continued good health, or become our parents, complete with barcolounger, iced tea or soda by our side, giant snack bowl, remote in hand, waddling painful walk, and a “weekly planner” with slots for all our meds.

I know that sounds harsh, but I saw it happen to my parents and that was what very literally got my *kitten* in gear. The day they got matching “lift” chairs was the day I knew they’d given up, and watched their slow, painful decline.

It’s up to you what side of the fence you want to come down on.

Yep, this is what happened to my partner's parents. However, I blame well meaning but misinformed medical professionals who utterly failed to convey the concept of "use it or lose it." Those lift chairs and other lifestyle measures sure did them a disservice.

lilgenee · April 2023

Inspirational ladies. I needed to read these. I had a shoulder surgery last April and had a procedure last Sept that put me into menopause. Before these surgeries I had been in PT for a year trying to avoid surgery but ended up losing muscle, and even more after the shoulder surgery. Though I watched what I ate and stayed as active as I could, with limitations the surgery and PT put in place. Before all of this I was muscular, fit and extremely active. I was released in Feb from PT, I worked hard to be released early, and have been weight training, walking almost everyday, storms are a no go. I’ve started on the cardio machines at the gym. If I have time and equipment is available. I just feel I’m struggling to lose the weight I’ve gained. I know it takes time. I’ve started meal prepping so food is ready when needed/hungry. I’m planning on checking lab work at my women’s health. But you all made me feel better with you success. I also agree it’s best to find a routine that works for you. Workout partners sound great but they do let you down and if not self motivated you won’t go either.

Doubled722 · April 2023

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Have you had your thyroid checked? You are at the age when hypothyroidism shows itself.

If there are no health issues, then discipline may have to take the place of motivation, at least until being more active becomes a habit. FWIW, I am 66 and am maintaining a 55 lb. loss. I walk a couple of miles a day and run 5 days a week. There are days I don't necessarily feel like exercise, but I do it because I love the way I feel afterwards. It also gives me freedom to eat more without gaining.

Menopause and weight gain

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