Menopausal weight gain

hi Teddy. Welcome to MFP.

Encouragement? I started at 56, post menopausal, obese, sedentary.

At 63, I have maintained at a size S/4 for five or six years.

I’m not a unicorn. It comes down to paying attention. I learnt to weigh and log my food, make better choices while still allowing occasional room for treats, and started exercising. I started simply by walking, and doing vinyasa yoga. I took up weights to improve my strength for yoga skills, liked it, started swimming laps after breaking a toe (to keep it from hitting the ground), liked it, became a pretty decent yogi with a preference for hot yoga, and even took up running, after 40+++ years.

As I lost, I guess you could say the “joy of movement” overcame me and now I love every chance it get- although evenings and some afternoons are reserved for calm, seated needlework. Concentration and exercise of the brain is just as important as the body.

You can do this. Get you a good food scale (under$20), practice weighing and logging (you’re going to be inaccurate at first- it’s a learning curve), and do something (anything) to get off your bottom.

It takes a minute to get up to speed. So many people gripe and moan about “I didn’t lose anything the first week” or two or three. Are you kidding me? Have we lost all form of patience and stick to it’veness?

Hello and welcome!

Listen to that nice Springlering62 up there: She's right.

I joined MFP at 59, class 1 obese, severely hypothyroid (medicated), and menopausal (put there by chemotherapy at age 45). I lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight in just under a year, and have been at a healthy weight (US size 6 for me) for 9+ years since. The quality of life payoff has been huge.

For me, it was so much worth the effort . . . plus simpler than I'd imagined, honestly. It wasn't psychologically easy every second, sure, but the logistics were simple, as Spring describes. Very doable, once I got serious and committed to the process.

ManOMan, though: The internet and tabloids are sure having a field day, telling us that menopause is weight loss doom . . . usually adding that we can't possibly succeed without their secret diet, exercise plan, supplement, workout equipment, or whatever the heck they're selling. That's a crock. They're here to make money, not to help. They make more money if they give us plausible but bad advice, so we fail and keep coming back for the next trendy solution.

I'll tell you the "secrets" that are the heart of any that have any scientific validity at all: Get enough protein, in a context of good overall nutrition at appropriate calories; strength train to add back lost muscle mass; increase movement in daily life as well as via intentional exercise.

Things that aren't necessary, may even be counter-productive: Eat only "superfoods", do punitively intense daily exercise (such as HIIT), take supplements for deficiencies we don't personally have, never eat a carb or a treat ever again, be miserable.

My best advice: Pick a sensibly gradual weight loss rate, because that supplies enough calories to stay full and happy most of the time, plus best supports health and energy level. Focus on "find new positive permanent habits" rather than "lose weight fast". (That's a very different mindset.) Add and gradually increase fun exercise - or at least something(s) tolerable and practical - but avoid overdoing with respect to current fitness level because that's counter-productive for either of weight loss or fitness improvement. On the exercise front, shoot for things that are a manageable challenge to current capabilities, energizing rather than exhausting for the rest of the day(s).

Short form of that advice: Make a relatively easy plan, not a go-fast plan.

Patient persistence pays off. Losing any meaningful total amount of weight isn't a quick project with an end date. Sustainability is vital. Staying at a healthy weight is a forever endeavor, but extreme measures aren't the way to go.

I'm cheering for you to succeed!