Menopause weight

Hi
I'm currently battling menopause weight gain. Any tips and trucks to try n shift it??
I'm in calorie deficit, currently trying strength exercises as the doc said to do this as cardio won't work well at my age x

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  • Posts: 1 Member
    Good morning! I too am I menopause mom and started a little over 3 years ago. I work in the medical field and therefore ridiculously active. I go to the gym anywhere from 3-6 days per week and do anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes of cardio and have yet to lose any weight. I too spoke with my physician and he said the same thing. It will not help with losing weight but should still be done for heart healthy reasons. My weight is stable at 190 lbs and have since decided to tone what I have until I’m done going through menopause. I have increased my protein intake and decreased my fat and carbs and am now seeing weight distribution, meaning by arms, thighs, and butt are slimmer but more muscular.
  • Posts: 1,304 Member
    It's important as we age to work on keeping our muscle strength 'up'. Strength training is simply using your muscles to keep them active and can be done with weight bands and simple moves. Anything that is weight-bearing will help keep those muscles from wasting away. Once we hit menopause, we may begin to notice that our once firm and taught flesh starts to feel spongy and soft ... that's not always a sign of added fat under the skin, it's also a sign of flabby muscles that need to be toned.
  • Posts: 262 Member
    I wonder if what your doctor meant is that cardio ALONE won’t do much for weight loss?

    Cardio does indeed burn calories, no matter your age. If you burn 250 calories per day, plus reduce calories by 250 per day, exercise and calorie reduction are equally contributing to a 1 pound loss per week. That’s a basic example, but it’s true.

    If you aren’t losing weight, the most likely reason is that you’re not creating a deficit. The advice above to get really tight with your food log to figure out as close as possible what you are eating to maintain your current weight is spot on.

    I’m 51, down 23 pounds since Thanksgiving. Slow and steady, all done by walking more and eating less. I keep a spreadsheet with calculations that show me that I maintain at 2000 calories without walking (my only form of exercise) or 2350 with walking. Your numbers might be different. But figure out what that magic number is and you won’t have to wonder.
  • Posts: 3,749 Member
    I lost 55 lbs. in my mid to late 50s and have kept it off for the past 10 years, primarily through exercise. I walk a few miles every day and run 5 days a week. I lost the weight through creating a deficit and being fairly consistent over a period of many months.

    If you aren't losing weight, you aren't in a deficit. You may need to tighten up your logging, be more careful in choosing which entries in the data base you use, or be careful about weekend splurges that undo a week's worth of restriction.

    I did have issues with underactive thyroid in my late 40s, which made the weight hard to shift, but once I was on medication that stopped being an issue. Ask your doctor to check thryoid function and also whether the medications you are on cause weight gain. A few do.
  • Posts: 28,052 Member
    Hi
    I'm currently battling menopause weight gain. Any tips and trucks to try n shift it??
    I'm in calorie deficit, currently trying strength exercises as the doc said to do this as cardio won't work well at my age x

    Your doctor was unclear. At our ages, strength training is important for bone health (but optimally would have been started prior to menopause.) Cardio is important for cardiovascular health.

    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. In the app, go to Settings > Diary Setting > Diary Sharing > and check Public. Desktop: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • Posts: 173 Member
    Well I’m 57 and cardio absolutely works. I took up running and lost 70 pounds. Of course I log all my food to keep track.

    My main motivation besides health was I want to be able to move as I get older.

    Consistency and showing up for yourself are key.
  • Posts: 80 Member
    edited July 2023
    I'm in perimenopause and currently trying to get down to the bottom of my maintenance range by using a very small deficit. I don't have trouble actually losing the weight, but tracking it is much harder than it was before peri started because water weight gain seems fairly random (as do menstrual symptoms) instead of being predictably cyclical. With the tiny deficit I'm running, fat loss can be masked for a LONG time by the random water weight gains, so I just have to keep going on faith. I think this would be less of a problem at a higher deficit (which I don't want, since I'm close to where I want to end up at this point). Luckily I've got loads of previous experience (from my first weight loss period, then losing weight after a pregnancy, and previous journeys down to the bottom of maintenance range) to have that faith, but I think could be frustrating and confusing if I didn't.

    ETA: Beginning a new strength program also increases water weight, which exacerbates the tracking problem. I've just changed what I'm doing, am sore from the change in routine, and clearly holding onto some additional water. This isn't to dissuade you from running a deficit while focusing on strength, just giving some perspective on why it can be hard to see the changes that are actually happening in fat loss, but masked by temporary (though sometimes longer than we would prefer) water retention. (Also, I agree with everyone above that cardio still burns calories during this time.)
  • Posts: 34,617 Member
    knotmel wrote: »
    I'm in perimenopause and currently trying to get down to the bottom of my maintenance range by using a very small deficit. I don't have trouble actually losing the weight, but tracking it is much harder than it was before peri started because water weight gain seems fairly random (as do menstrual symptoms) instead of being predictably cyclical. With the tiny deficit I'm running, fat loss can be masked for a LONG time by the random water weight gains, so I just have to keep going on faith. I think this would be less of a problem at a higher deficit (which I don't want, since I'm close to where I want to end up at this point). Luckily I've got loads of previous experience (from my first weight loss period, then losing weight after a pregnancy, and previous journeys down to the bottom of maintenance range) to have that faith, but I think could be frustrating and confusing if I didn't.

    ETA: Beginning a new strength program also increases water weight, which exacerbates the tracking problem. I've just changed what I'm doing, am sore from the change in routine, and clearly holding onto some additional water. This isn't to dissuade you from running a deficit while focusing on strength, just giving some perspective on why it can be hard to see the changes that are actually happening in fat loss, but masked by temporary (though sometimes longer than we would prefer) water retention. (Also, I agree with everyone above that cardio still burns calories during this time.)

    QFT - the less-predictable water weight in menopause, the long (long!) time water retention shifts can mask fat loss with a small deficit, the usefulness of time-tested logging practices in this scenario, and the water weight gain from new/increased strength exercise.

    The only thing I'd add is that new cardio can also increase water retention. IMO there isn't a one-to-one correlation between sore muscles and water retention. But as a generality, I think anything that can cause sore muscles can also trigger water retention, even if they're not always in lockstep. I've certainly had sore muscles or a jump in water retention or both simultaneously from increased volume of cardio.

    Random rant: I hate the term "cardio". It encompasses too many different things to talk about sensibly as if they were all one thing. Specifically relevant in this case, some forms of so-called "cardiio" create more muscular challenge than others. Where there's muscular challenge, there can be strength/muscle mass increase (slowly), or water retention increase (quickly). Types of cardio that are not a challenge for more-fit people can be a major challenge for very not-fit people. Appropriately-dosed progressive challenge creates fitness progress.

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