Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle
Loosing weight has been an uphill battle for me during menopause.
Menopause hit early and suddenly for me 6 years ago. I’ll share more of my story over on the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, in S5 E1, but for now let’s just say it pretty much hit me out of nowhere. And I didn’t like it one bit.
But one of the side effects was really tough on me. Even worse than the hot flashes. The weight gain seemed like it was out of my control.
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Why is it hard to loose weight during menopause?
It’s just a fact of aging, muscle mass diminishes and fat increases.
Losing muscle mass slows our metabolism, which means our body uses calories slower. This makes it more of a challenge than ever to maintain a healthy weight.
On top of that, your estrogen levels decrease. This makes you gain weight — even if you haven’t changed a thing about the way you eat or exercise — and makes it harder to lose weight.
6 Secrets that helped me loose weight during menopause
My tips are honestly pretty simple. I don’t have anything flashy or earth shattering to share. Nothing to buy. And no deep insight you’ve never heard before.
But I hope that sharing my secrets with you–along with the 3 things that didn’t help at all–leaves you encouraged and inspired.
Loosing weight will not happen as quickly or easily as it did in the past for you, when you were younger, but if you’re determined and keep a positive attitude, and if you’re in it for the “long haul,” you will not be disappointed.
Here are the 6 secrets I learned:
1. I needed to start enjoying food (the good stuff) if I wanted to loose weight during menopause
I added more veggies. More protein. More water.
Most importantly, I knew had to enjoy my food. I decided to let “sustainable” be my catchword. Not perfection.
I added a lot of fermented foods—
In S4 E11 of the podcast we talked about how the fermentation process creates special short-chain fatty acids, which help control our appetite.
Something else that makes your food more satisfying (which means you eat less)? Good fats.
I started taking cod liver oil (this one is top-of-the-line) and increased the amount of lard I as using in my kitchen (bonus: the vitamin D makes me happier, which means less stress–see # 3 below). Go here for more about the goodness of lard and go here for more about how to bake using lard.
If you want to loose weight, you have to cut calories. But you need to do it wisely and make sure the calories you are consuming are good for you. For me, it helped to just eat a little later in the morning (my own simplified version of intermittent fasting … more about that below) and only 1 meal of heavy calories, my other meal (switched from lunch to dinner depending on day) was a giant salad.
When had treat, made sure it was as good for me as could be, along with smoothies and protein shakes made with frozen banana, I would occationally enjoy:
2. I needed to exercise daily if I wanted to loose weight during menopause
I can’t say enough how vital daily exercise was to my weight loss. And I know I would never have succeeded if I didn’t choose an exercise that I loved.
I looked forward to my 45 minutes on the lake every day. I’d make two treks down our long driveway… one carrying my paddleboard (that alone was a nice workout), one my water bottle and paddle… and spend 45 minutes paddling to a marshy area where I could “park” and do some pilates exercises on my board, in the water.
Whatever you choose, makes sure you’ll enjoy it, and aim for at least 2.5 hours a week of moderate aerobic exercise, bare minimum.
A few things to keep in mind about whatever exercise routine you choose to help with your weight loss:
- Give yourself grace. If you miss a day… or three… or even a whole week (life happens), realize it’s okay and just start again.
- Choose “back up” exercises. I required myself to do my primary exercise 5 days a week, and I tried to take out pedal kayak or at least swim or go for a brisk walk the other 2 days.
- Never give in to a defeatist mentality. Attitude is so important. Keep reminding yourself this is for the long haul. Even without results on scale.
Even though I loved the primary exercise I chose, I still had to force myself to make time for exercise about 40% of the time… life is just so busy and exercise is always seen as an “extra,” not a “have to.” It was much easier to force myself to exercise when I loved what I was doing.
So choose some exercises you will love and get to work.
3. I needed to reduce stress if I wanted to loose weight… especially during menopause!
In menopause, estrogen levels drops and cortisol levels rise. Cortisol increases our appetite and signals our body to shift metabolism to store fat. If you’re stressed, cortisol rises even more.
But studies show that simply walking 30 minutes a day, 5x week reduces cortisol levels!
In fact, regular exercise makes you resilient to stress! (Source)
And, bonus, exercise helps you sleep better, which brings us to my fourth tip…
4. I needed to sleep better if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.
When I stayed up late to get work done, so I could have more time for hiking with a friend (or other things that were great on their own), I was sabotaging my own efforts.
5. I needed to focus on strengthening my core muscles if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.
Because our core muscles impact all the others, because they’re attached to the muscles in our hips and but and low back, which tend to cause a lot of extra pain as we get older, it’s important to keep our core muscles strong. For me, the best way I’ve found to do that is to practice pilates exercises.
The 6 overarching goals of pilates:
- Control: controlling your muscles and movements allows for you get better exercise & benefits your body more.
- Breath: You want to make sure you’re creating enough oxygen-rich blood to help the body function during each movement… deep, full breaths, breathing through the nose on the inhale and through the mouth on the exhale.
- Concentrating: Keep your mind on each movement to ensure you are performing the proper form.
- Flow: Create a flow, from one movement to the next which builds your workout that challenges the body.
- Centering: This is a core-strengthening and conditioning program. By ensuring your core is strong you protect the spine and give more power to complete each movement.
- Precision: By being precise you can prevent injury. Precision also leads to repetition and certain movements becoming second nature. Allowing you to focus on balance through your form.
6. I needed to enjoy a hobby if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.
Spending time on a hobby you love decreases cortisol levels more than conventional occupational therapy! (SOURCE)
3 things that didn’t help me loose weight during menopause?
1. Intermittent fasting didn’t help me loose weight during menopause.
Intermittent Fasting didn’t work for me.
Starving myself didn’t work.—I loaded up on whatever I wanted in my eating window.
Good wholesome food gives you energy and supports a healthy metabolism which is necessary to burn fat.
And it’s more enjoyable! (I really hated cramming all my calories into a tiny window of hours every day.)
Plus we need calories. Or our body starts working with less. So, yes, we need calories. We just need to make them good calories.
Ate all the fruit and veggies I wanted. Whenever I wanted. Frozen grapes were one of my favorite treats all summer, in the evenings. Now, in the winter, I’m snacking on fermented blueberries and dilly beans many evenings.
2. Loosing sleep so I “had more time to exercise” didn’t help me loose weight during menopause.
3. Trying to stubbornly stick with things that weren’t working–for years–only increased my stress.
Final thoughts on loosing weight during menopause?
In the end, remember, if you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness. Let me say that again…
If you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.
Life doesn’t get better by chance. It gets better by change. And, like I said in the beginning, these tips are simple ideas. They’re not rocket science, but they are doable. You can make the changes to improve your life. You can.
Talk to me!
If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig with insights or posts you share about weight loss @souly.rested.
I’d love to hear about your favorite tips or insights into loosing weight, at any stage of life. Please leave a comment below.
And remember, It’s easy to forget how blessed we are to live this life. So enjoy the simple, everyday efforts. It’s not easy, but it’s a good life.
Other Articles & Resources You’ll Love:
The Top 5 Healthy Drinks You Should be Drinking
8 Real Food Things You can Make Better Yourself
8 things wanna-be homesteaders need to know
You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. I Cor. 6:20
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Thanks for this. It is not easy. I feel the weight creeping up on me and as a person who has suffered with anorexia in my younger years, there are so many layers to this. Thank you for always being real.
Lora- Our Sweet Life Off Grid Farm
Thank you Lora for bringing up a very important point that should always be part of the conversation when we talk about weight loss… the problem of food disorders. I’m excited that I already have a guest lined up for this season who is going to address this very topic.