Menopause weight

"Cardio won't work well at this age" ??

Um...what in the world?

Cardio is probably more important now than ever. Do you not care about your general cardiovascular system, like your heart?

Menopause weight gain is more about bad previous habits. I lost 80ishpounds post menopause and have kept it off for over 15 years doing mostly light to moderate exercise. Strength training is also important, but for different reasons.

Log food, study your FOOD diary, get some type of exercise that you like and will do. Repeat on a consistent basis, adjust food intake to a number that allows you to get through a day with energy and still lose weight. I'd say set myfitnesspal to "Lose 1 pound per week." Learn to log food and do that for a month. Then adjust if you aren't losing one pound per week.

It's about calories in being less than calories out. Full stop.

Nicolawinstanley1 wrote: »

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

I have good news and bad news, all in one: Recent research suggests our metabolism is quite stable from our 20s though our 60s.

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

The implication is that the things that work are pretty similar for everyone, menopausal or not. Weight loss is about getting our calorie intake below the number of calories we burn just being alive, through daily life stuff like job and home chores, plus through intentional exercise.

What does tend to be true, perhaps especially for women, is that as we age we gradually and subtly lose muscle mass. That means that we burn slightly fewer calories at rest, but more importantly it makes moving less easy and less fun, so we move less.

On top of that, for most of us, our lives become less active as we age: Less physical job, less physical hobbies, no longer doing the bunches of yard/remodeling work we DIY-ed when first making a nice home, no longer chasing toddlers all day, maybe hiring folks to do services we used to have to do ourselves, maybe driving everywhere instead of biking/bussing/walking, maybe a social life with less clubbing/dancing/frisbee (or whatever) but more dinner parties and theaters. It adds up.

Your doctor's smart to recommend strength training to counter the loss of muscle mass. However, if he really told you not to do cardio at all, that's bad health advice. Besides, cardio generally burns more calories per time period than strength training. Best idea: Do some of each.

In addition, another thing you can consider is intentionally increasing daily life (non-exercise) movement. Various MFP-ers share their ideas about that here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

As a bonus, work on getting overall good nutrition, especially but not exclusively adequate protein. (Too many women go with all salads/veggies for weight loss, not enough protein. That tends to foster more muscle loss.) Good nutrition is important for best odds of continuing good health.

I found that when I decided to lose weight and really meant it, committed to it, it was reasonably achievable. At age 59-60, I went from just over the line into class 1 obese to a healthy weight (loss of about 1/3 of my body weight), and of course I was menopausal at the time. I didn't adopt some restrictive named diet, just ate foods I like in calorie-appropriate portions, proportions, and frequencies. I stayed physically active, in manageable and enjoyable (or at least tolerable/practical) ways. That was 7+ years ago, and I've stayed at a healthy weight since the same way. It can work.

Cranky opinion: There are a lot of influencers and marketers in the blogosphere trumpeting the idea that menopause is so special that we need their secret ($$$) diets, exercise programs, supplements, etc. If we figure out we can do it on our own in basic common sense ways, they're SOL.

You can do this. It will take persistence and patience . . . because it takes that from anyone of any age or stage with a meaningful amount of weight to lose.

Best wishes for success!