Women Going Through Menopause: Here’s How to Lose Weight

by

Menopause is a big point of change in a woman’s life. There is a significant physical, emotional, and mental shift during this time of life. The hormonal changes are significant and most women struggle losing weight with menopause. That’s completely normal, though not always desirable. 

Your estrogen levels drop, your metabolism slows down, and your muscles aren’t repairing as quickly. When you start to gain weight, the temptation is to push yourself harder to combat it. Especially after a hormonal change, that can cause more weight gain instead of weight loss. Here’s what to do instead.

Don’t Ask “Why am I not Losing Weight?” 

Instead ask, how can I get healthy? Your focus needs to change from just trying to lose weight to trying to heal your body and be healthy. Obsessing over losing weight causes you to push harder in the gym and create steeper calorie deficits. In truth, that will only cause your body to hold onto fat more stubbornly. 

Women who have had hormone changes and deal with chronic stress are likely to plateau during weight loss with diet and exercise. What you want to do is focus on healing your body from inflammation and hormone imbalances. This will help your systems relax enough to let go of the fat it has been clinging to. 

What You’re Eating Matters for Losing Weight

How much you are eating isn’t an important factor in weight loss. You’ve heard it all before that you need to eat less and exercise more in order to get rid of the fat. It might work at first but it won’t work long-term and will cause more weight gain in the future. 

Cutting calories makes your body feel like you are starving. It goes into survival mode and holds onto fats for emergency energy stores. It will do what it can to ensure you gain the weight back, plus some extra for next time there isn’t enough food supplied. 

There are three characteristics in foods you need to focus on. 

  1. Anti-inflammatory foods
  2. Lower glycemic foods
  3. Nutrient-dense foods

These will work on healing your body so it can relax and let go of fat. When you take care of what you are eating, it will generally take care of how much you are eating. You won’t have to worry about portion sizes or counting calories because you won’t be as hungry. 

Don’t Exercise for Losing Weight After 40

It may sound strange, but don’t exercise for weight loss. It will backfire, especially for women over 40. If you are overweight and have had hormone changes, your brain won’t necessarily differentiate between exercise and running for your life. It will store up extra fat to provide emergency energy stores instead of letting it go. 

Exercise is great for your heart and your mental health, so it shouldn’t necessarily be ignored. It just isn’t a tool for weight loss as you get older. Ease back on the exercise instead of killing yourself in the gym for an hour every day. Weight loss is all about nutrition. It is essential to focus on the content of the foods you eat instead of calories and exercise. 

Lose Weight Despite Menopause with Metabolism Reboot

If you have tried diet after diet and still feel like you aren’t making progress, contact us today to learn how Metabolism Reboot can help you make a real change. Learn about sustainable weight loss without extreme dieting or exercise with Metabolism Reboot. We teach you how to reboot your metabolism to promote permanent weight loss. Schedule a call to learn how to rebalance your hormones and reduce inflammation.