Perimenopause weight gain

soeyung
soeyung Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Right now I'm experiencing perimenopause and it seems like I gained 10 lbs out of nowhere!! The quick belly fat gain has me frustrated. What advice for weight loss during menopause?

Answers

  • ddsb1111
    ddsb1111 Posts: 872 Member
    edited December 2023
    Honestly, it’s the same as before, maintain a consistent calorie deficit. Hormones can do weird things so I completely get the frustration. It can make you more tired, develop insomnia, become less active, increase hunger, the list goes on. I would look into adding strength training if you haven’t already. How old are you? Are you managing your perimenopause in any other ways? Wishing you the best!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,238 Member
    There's some slight suggestion in research that strength training might help reduce central fat in menopausal women, not definitive. But strength training is a functionally useful, appearance enhancing thing, so maybe do some and see?

    The other thing that happens to quite a few women is that our activity level subtly and gradually reduces as we age (daily lives just a little less frantic/active than when younger), so we start adding weight because we don't commensurately reduce calorie intake. 100 excess calories a day on average would theoretically add 10 pounds in a year. That's equivalent calories to a small-ish blop of creamy salad dressing, or less than a tablespoon of butter/oil.

    Research suggests metabolism doesn't change much, 20s to 60s. Even in 60s, the decline is slow.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8370708/

    Loss of muscle mass and down-regulated daily activity can kick in earlier.

    Happily, both of those are things we can reverse, by strength training and increasing activity, either daily life or exercise or both. Many MFP-ers share their ideas for increasing daily life activity in this thread:

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

    Best wishes!

    P.S. By the time I got around to losing weight, I'd been in menopause for around 15 years. The key thing was what the post above mine said: Getting the right number of calories for my situation. That's worked to maintain a healthy weight, too. The strength training is maybe more about keeping it off, and about overall body shape. It does burn a few calories, too, though.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,745 Member
    For me, two things made a difference. First, I got tested and discovered I had a thyroid deficiency. Very common to hit in mid to late 40s. Second, I became a lot more active. Besides that, paying attention to what you are eating and limiting the 'treats' whatever that means to you helps a lot. When I was working and eating out at lunch every day, the weight piled on. When I stopped the high fat lunches, it was much easier to control my weight.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    i didn't change weight during perimenopause or menopause. that being said, i was pretty active during that time.
  • Sett2023
    Sett2023 Posts: 158 Member
    edited December 2023
    Till now, as @zebasschick and @spiriteagle99: moreover, I lost weight (more than 10 kg, from 63.5 to around 53, in these last 10 months). And I have none of usual peri symptoms. But, me too, active and paying attention to my foods (since always, not only now).

    I'm in peri since a couple of years, I've always eaten very healthy, my only issue was that I used too many sweet things, so my glucose was highing in the last 5 years.
    So, in these last 10 months I reduced a little my sugar intake (only a little, no renounces at all, I still have my croissant and my square of dark chocolate and my two biscuits every day, and also my tiramisù every Saturday) and added in more walks, and as a consequence I lost all the above.
    Note: I don't work out, I only walk. I was having 10 k steps/day since from ten years ago, when I was discovered a congenital heart issue; then, in these last ten months, I coupled them. And these two things (less sugar/more walking) resulted in the 10 kg's loss; and, I suspect, walking is responsible also for the absence of other peri symptoms, along with my usual very healthy eating (a lot of vegetables, and all the other nutrients, in right proportions and quantities).
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,944 Member
    I'm sure I am in. No idea. But my weight works as it should: Eat too much and gain weight, and eat in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Simples.
  • ddsb1111
    ddsb1111 Posts: 872 Member
    edited December 2023
    yirara wrote: »
    I'm sure I am in. No idea. But my weight works as it should: Eat too much and gain weight, and eat in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Simples.

    Same. Weight is maintaining, don’t know for sure if I’m peri, but I’m experiencing other “stuff”. My weight is the only thing that makes any sense to me (for the first time ever actually) 🤷🏼‍♀️. CICO.

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