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Menopause & weight gain
Replies
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It’s not that anyone’s ganging up on you. We’re pulling for you.
But, we’ve been around long enough we’ve seen this so many times.
A new board member, complaining about a stall or plateau, when in reality they’ve averaged about 1.75 pounds a week eating what sounds like not enough to support them nutritionally. There is this magnified social expectation that they should be able to lose it fast!!!!
The boards are crowded with “I’m back!” posts by people who’ve done this lose fast/regain more cycle on repeat, and never really learn anything, while insisting that their way or their diet is the only way/best way and that they know what they’re doing, because they’ve done it before.
Instead of bickering over semantics, read the meat of what people have posted, trying to share help and experience with you.
Don’t be mad. I totally get it Hell, I was the prickliest obese woman you probably ever met. But I listened and absorbed and learned, , and have been in maintenance here almost as long as most the other long term members posting here to help.
We don’t want to gang up ON you, we want you to JOIN the gang of sucessful loser/maintainers.
My credentials? Started at 56, am 62 now. In maintenance for over four years. Mr Spring joined me here on MFP two or three years ago.
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springlering62 wrote: »It’s not that anyone’s ganging up on you. We’re pulling for you.
But, we’ve been around long enough we’ve seen this so many times.
A new board member, complaining about a stall or plateau, when in reality they’ve averaged about 1.75 pounds a week eating what sounds like not enough to support them nutritionally. There is this magnified social expectation that they should be able to lose it fast!!!!
The boards are crowded with “I’m back!” posts by people who’ve done this lose fast/regain more cycle on repeat, and never really learn anything, while insisting that their way or their diet is the only way/best way and that they know what they’re doing, because they’ve done it before.
Instead of bickering over semantics, read the meat of what people have posted, trying to share help and experience with you.
Don’t be mad. I totally get it Hell, I was the prickliest obese woman you probably ever met. But I listened and absorbed and learned, , and have been in maintenance here almost as long as most the other long term members posting here to help.
We don’t want to gang up ON you, we want you to JOIN the gang of sucessful loser/maintainers.
My credentials? Started at 56, am 62 now. In maintenance for over four years. Mr Spring joined me here on MFP two or three years ago.
Thank you for the reply.
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please stick around. The folks on these boards are super supportive. I never would have made and kept goal without these peeps. I’ve vented on them, whined at them, dumped pity parties throughout, and because everyone here has the exact same experience, they pulled
Thank you for the reply.
me through the weeds.
If you take the time time to find, read and follow threads that interest or inform you, you will learn so much about weight loss, weight gain, nutrition, myths, techniques, alternative foods, exercise. Its really like a mini-university- if you take advantage of it.
I think it’s interesting that my female GP never once talked to me about hormones being an issue for me. Maybe that’s why it makes me wild when I hear women falling back on “it’s my hormones fault!” I guess it was pretty obvious that it boiled down to over eating and under moving. I’m also really glad I made the decision to lose weight before the new miracle drugs burst on the scene. I got a lot of satisfaction from “I did this on my own” instead of relying on a (sorry, my own perception) chemical crutch.
It just feels like the general medical profession, and public perception is dismissive of post menopausal women. Oh they’re old, it’s their time to wither and fade. NO IT’S NOT. I’m still here, and you can take your ancient beliefs - many of which date from Roman medical practices and beliefs- and stuff them.
Good grief, we’ve revolutionized the concept of sex and gender, and our ability to even talk about it, in the past decade or two. When are we going to rethink and update a lot of beliefs about older women without shame, superstition and embarrassment?
Sorry, I’m on my bandwagon a lot lately because I want to slap some folks upside the head so they can turn things around like I did. Weight loss and the subsequent health gain has made me a new me and I want that for everyone. . 😇
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Just to clarify: you may have had stalls, but you didn't plateau. A plateau is at least a month where your weight stays the same (without any changes to your routine). Considering your very fast loss (15lbs in 2 months), I doubt you were anywhere near a plateau
The scale does 'random' things (weight is more than just bodyfat, also fluctuations in water-weight and food waste in your system) and weight-loss isn't linear - perfectly normal to not lose weight every day or even every week.
I know what plateaus are and I have experienced it. Whenever your weight STALLS it’s a plateau. You have to make adjustments. If you’ve been losing the weight regularly then suddenly it stops, it’s a plateau. I also know that what’s on the scale is not just body fat. Remember, you’re not talking to a younger person. I’ve done this for years. Studied about the subject too.
Hi there and welcome.
A stall for a day or a week is not a plateau. It's most likely water weight or poop weight weirdness. An actual plateau is only present if nothing happens in a month, or a full menstrual cycle if it applies.
Yup. The difference being that a stall of a few days or weeks often requires no action, just patience. A plateau of a month or more is likely to be a sign that something needs to change.
*fondly remembers her year long plateau*
I was eating so well back then. Even in a deficit.
We've all been there. Hey, I was in a deficit, and I was actually gaining weight. I heard that very dense rye bread and cottage cheese are great for weightloss. So I ate them. Next to my usual stuff, and a bag of crisps.2 -
springlering62 wrote: »please stick around. The folks on these boards are super supportive.
...
Maybe that’s why it makes me wild when I hear women falling back on “it’s my hormones fault!” I guess it was pretty obvious that it boiled down to over eating and under moving.
As someone coming into "that age" I think there's often an "acknowledgement" gap between the end reason (intake vs output) and the hormone issues.
Hormones do cause bloat issues, and some people struggle to tell the difference, and I get it, especially when it's sudden and affects how your clothes fit/you look!
The hormones have a ton of other effects that can, in both small and large ways, affect that CICO. Plenty of women on HRT who notice MAJOR improvements in joint pain reduction, right now I'm experiencing healing at a rate I haven't seen in the past several years, and then there's fatigue and energy levels, sleep issues, and the dozens of other symptoms.
Those are all things that can make someone move a little (or a lot) less, fidget less, sit down more/sooner, workout a little less intensely, etc - the list goes on and on. Fatigue and energy makes one crave a quick pick me up food source, which is typically going to be something sugary/carby and low on actual nutrition. Add in the exhaustion and willpower and the ability to make a better choice suffers.
It boils down to CICO, but addressing or at least acknowledging how hormones can make that process a LOT more difficult than it otherwise can be I think does a disservice to women in general. Is it JUST the hormones - no, it still boils down to CICO, but the hormones can really affect a lot of other things that indirectly result in weight gains.
Obviously not every woman goes through the same process, some hardly notice a difference, many like me land somewhere in the middle, and some have pretty extreme issues.
I think it's good to look at it holistically but also acknowledge reality - the weight gain is a result of CICO, BUT, the hormones can indirectly affect that "O" portion in particular!4 -
HoneyBadger302 wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »please stick around. The folks on these boards are super supportive.
...
Maybe that’s why it makes me wild when I hear women falling back on “it’s my hormones fault!” I guess it was pretty obvious that it boiled down to over eating and under moving.
As someone coming into "that age" I think there's often an "acknowledgement" gap between the end reason (intake vs output) and the hormone issues.
Hormones do cause bloat issues, and some people struggle to tell the difference, and I get it, especially when it's sudden and affects how your clothes fit/you look!
The hormones have a ton of other effects that can, in both small and large ways, affect that CICO. Plenty of women on HRT who notice MAJOR improvements in joint pain reduction, right now I'm experiencing healing at a rate I haven't seen in the past several years, and then there's fatigue and energy levels, sleep issues, and the dozens of other symptoms.
Those are all things that can make someone move a little (or a lot) less, fidget less, sit down more/sooner, workout a little less intensely, etc - the list goes on and on. Fatigue and energy makes one crave a quick pick me up food source, which is typically going to be something sugary/carby and low on actual nutrition. Add in the exhaustion and willpower and the ability to make a better choice suffers.
It boils down to CICO, but addressing or at least acknowledging how hormones can make that process a LOT more difficult than it otherwise can be I think does a disservice to women in general. Is it JUST the hormones - no, it still boils down to CICO, but the hormones can really affect a lot of other things that indirectly result in weight gains.
Obviously not every woman goes through the same process, some hardly notice a difference, many like me land somewhere in the middle, and some have pretty extreme issues.
I think it's good to look at it holistically but also acknowledge reality - the weight gain is a result of CICO, BUT, the hormones can indirectly affect that "O" portion in particular!
I absolutely agree with all of this.
What concerns me is that it seems so often posts focus on the menopause itself and - other than the HRT option - we can't change that. It's intractable. (That fact is what makes it so powerful as a marketing tool: We can't change menopause, so we need the marketers' "secret".)
It's a mindset shift from thinking menopause is the problem, to focusing on the things that we can do to remediate menopause's side effects and symptoms, on top of all the classic things everyone needs to do to lose weight and improve fitness.
In my view "menopause makes it hard" (while true) is disempowering. Working around, over, through or otherwise past the challenges it creates is essential, if progress is to be made. To me, it's more empowering to pick that apart, see the effects of not just menopause but also aging, maybe history of destructive repeat yo-yo dieting, and whatever all else . . . and then to identify the tools that we actually have and can use to reach our goals despite menopause.1 -
In my view "menopause makes it hard" (while true) is disempowering. Working around, over, through or otherwise past the challenges it creates is essential, if progress is to be made. To me, it's more empowering to pick that apart, see the effects of not just menopause but also aging, maybe history of destructive repeat yo-yo dieting, and whatever all else . . . and then to identify the tools that we actually have and can use to reach our goals despite menopause.
Hello, this is my first post here and not sure if I’ve been able to capture what you said (I feel sure there must have been an easier route but who knows what that is?!) but this is exactly why I came here- because I’ve been feeling so defeated -have put on 15lb since the start of the year, and yo-yoed between ‘Of course I can do this’ (until it’s quickly clear I’m not) and ‘What is the point, I’m old and need to resign myself to just getting fatter’. A chance conversation with a friend who has lost weight post-menopausal has inspired me today and I’m so grateful to have found this forum.
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Sunny24380 wrote: »In my view "menopause makes it hard" (while true) is disempowering. Working around, over, through or otherwise past the challenges it creates is essential, if progress is to be made. To me, it's more empowering to pick that apart, see the effects of not just menopause but also aging, maybe history of destructive repeat yo-yo dieting, and whatever all else . . . and then to identify the tools that we actually have and can use to reach our goals despite menopause.
Hello, this is my first post here and not sure if I’ve been able to capture what you said (I feel sure there must have been an easier route but who knows what that is?!) but this is exactly why I came here- because I’ve been feeling so defeated -have put on 15lb since the start of the year, and yo-yoed between ‘Of course I can do this’ (until it’s quickly clear I’m not) and ‘What is the point, I’m old and need to resign myself to just getting fatter’. A chance conversation with a friend who has lost weight post-menopausal has inspired me today and I’m so grateful to have found this forum.
You did fine.
If you want to include a post in your post in order to reply to it, click on "quote" underneath the post you want to copy. If you want to reply to only part of it, either bold it (like I did above) or edit the quoted text to delete parts you aren't replying to (optional).
To bold, highlight the text you want to be in bold, then go up to the top of your post-in-process. Up there, find the large "B" to the left just above the post-creating box, and click on it. That will put "tags" around the thing you highlighted. They will be "b" at the start of what you want to bold, and "/b" at the end of what you want to bold, but without the quote marks and inside square brackets.
To edit a post you've quoted, you can go in the text that was copied when you hit that "quote" option, end edited just the way you edit your own section. Just be sure to keep the square-bracketed "quote" at the front of what you're quoting, and the square-bracketed "/quote" at the end. Type your reply above or below the quoted piece.
Obviously, it's not nice to edit a quote to misrepresent what someone said previously, or take it out of context in a way that would misrepresent what they meant . . . but I'm sure you'd know that.
You can also type the square-bracket tags into posts yourself for various purposes, if you want to, after you figure it out.0 -
Sunny24380 wrote: »In my view "menopause makes it hard" (while true) is disempowering. Working around, over, through or otherwise past the challenges it creates is essential, if progress is to be made. To me, it's more empowering to pick that apart, see the effects of not just menopause but also aging, maybe history of destructive repeat yo-yo dieting, and whatever all else . . . and then to identify the tools that we actually have and can use to reach our goals despite menopause.
Hello, this is my first post here and not sure if I’ve been able to capture what you said (I feel sure there must have been an easier route but who knows what that is?!) but this is exactly why I came here- because I’ve been feeling so defeated -have put on 15lb since the start of the year, and yo-yoed between ‘Of course I can do this’ (until it’s quickly clear I’m not) and ‘What is the point, I’m old and need to resign myself to just getting fatter’. A chance conversation with a friend who has lost weight post-menopausal has inspired me today and I’m so grateful to have found this forum.
Welcome to the Anti-Defeat Gang, and hope you stick around!
I lost mine after faffing (fatting?!) around overweight and obese for 25+ years. The difference in agility, mobility, attitude, gumption…..life changing.
I’m really aware of it right now. We are traveling with a woman we’ve travelled with several times before. Several members of the group are repeat guests like us. It struck me at dinner last night that instead of sitting back and crossing my arms, silently, like “fat me” did, I was engaged and had a great time.
I’m sure they’re puzzled who this thinner talkative person is. I even had to show one a photo of me with them six years ago to prove it, lol.2 -
I had been at Lifetime for YEARS on WW and then struggled a lot after menopause. I switched to counting calories and realized that I had to be very strict about my calorie count, AND that my daily intake was reduced. Basically, even though I exercise 5x a week, my metabolism had really changed. Watching calories and getting in calorie deficit helped me lose the 7 lbs I gained but I have to be VERY careful. I also added a lot more protein. I shoot for 90-100 g of protein per day. That helps a lot with feeling satiated. I eat nutrient dense meals and little processed food, if I can help it. Until I tore my labrum in my hip I also was going for 10k steps per day in addition to morning workouts.1
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HoneyBadger302 wrote: »I'm in peri, and I won't lie, that shitake hit me like a freight train, and bloating and weight came right along with it all.
The weight (not the bloating), however, I see as more of a side effect of the peri BS. My list of symptoms was rather extensive, and while from the outside looking in you'd probably just say I wasn't "dedicated" enough, reality was I didn't have it in me to do what was needed to maintain my weight, unless I was willing to let my job/career/business and pets suffer, but something had to give.
I started with a supplement, which helped, and then just over a month ago finally started HRT, and this week I've been able to start back to my AM workouts - and that's while recovering from a crash I had at this last weekend's races!
There would have been no WAY I'd be doing that a month ago....fatigue and exhaustion (and as I found out some brain fog too) were killing me - sleep patterns were all off - and willpower was non-existent.
Things are improving, and I'm glad I'm able to utilize what is out there!
I'm confident that the sleep and fatigue improvements, allowing me to get my workouts in, and having a lot more "willpower" and my "I'm full" receptors seeming to work again will result in getting the weight back in line.
^^^ So much this...
I have lost most of what I gained from Covid and perimenopause colliding. I will say that I tried to keep my activity level, but the symptoms were many and fierce. The disrupted sleep alone, cost me many good workouts. I finally had enough and started HRT and I am back on track. I was walking up the six flights to my apartment yesterday after a great workout, and I thought, "I have my life back." It takes more than watching what we eat. It takes tracking. It takes movement which should wear us out sometimes, and provide resistance as well. Sometimes, it needs to be stretching/yoga.
But don't give up. Keep working at it. Tighten up your logging. Keep moving. And make sure you get sleep. I realized that once I got my rest, my whole world changed for the better.
Hugs to you.4
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