Menopause

C

cl4r3

New member
Well, I tried posting this in a menopause group and got horribly shamed, was accused of judging “fat people” and told I was eating disordered.
Hoping to find a friendlier crowd here. Looks like a lot of men, so please pardon my “women only” topic.
However, if you’re married to a woman in menopause and something is working for her please chime in.
Backstory - in my twenties I hit a high of 200 lbs. I’m 5’9 which helps - but I was still fat. I come from a fat family. I’ve got 6 siblings and 5 of them are significantly overweight.

In my 30s I finally figured things out and struck a nice chord between calorie counting and exercise and have been able to maintain 140ish for nearly two decades. This involves constant monitoring of what goes into my mouth, I.e. calorie counting and exercise to burn off extra calories. I do strength training and cardio regularly. I’ve grown quite accustomed to this lifestyle and accepted it’s a permanent part of my life if I want to remain fit, active, healthy and look good. I sometimes forget that a lot of people do not care to expend the kind of energy I do on seeking out those things, and occasionally get reminded of what a “freak” I am, as I did this morning with the menopause group.
I am officially in menopause and haven’t gotten my period in 6 months. In the last two months I’ve put on 6 lbs, inexplicably. I went to my usual go-to’s - working out more/eating less, but they’re not working. I’m kind of in a panic now, wanting to head this thing off before it gets any worse. I am unwilling to accept an inevitable gain of thirty pounds - as the menopause group told me I should.
Thinking of switching up my workouts and eating cleaner. Any ladies (or men) out there wanna offer me up some tips?
Thanks guys!
 
@cl4r3 Hi! 52-year-old woman, here. Do you get annual blood work done? Have your doc check your thyroid numbers and make sure you’re in the optimal range. Getting my thyroid back on track made all the difference for me.
 
@cl4r3 Same story as you! I just turned 50. I found that I had to go back to strictly counting calories most days as my close enough eyeball that I was able to use no longer worked. I also found two days of heavy cardio is all that I need or else I get super bloated. Three days of full body weight training with the workout written by someone at the gym. That changes every 6-8 weeks. Basically I had to back off a little on the intense workouts. Counterintuitive but it is slowly working.

I don’t like the menopause group either. Great support if you are having a serious issue. There is a lot of whining and self loathing there. If you want to age the best way you can both physically and mentally it is not the place to go.
 
@atlantadad I had the same experience. Even when you try to be supportive some people that post don’t want advice (even though they position their post as a request for feedback) they want to vent or whine. I decided that I had better uses of my time and joined a cat group instead. 🤣
 
@cl4r3 My information may seem weird but having trained many menopausal women years ago, and dating many menopausal women now, before you do anything drastic and start getting depressed, like the commenter I just read said get your blood work done. Normal tests like thyroid hormones such as that..

But the first thing I would tell you to do is this weekend go out to your favorite Steakhouse get the biggest steak you can eat with the potatoes and everything you want.

Because everybody I ever trained especially people like you who are strict on their diet, have plateaued and forgotten that the body is a dynamic survival machine and it is fighting you every step of the way. Especially with a few of the changes that happened during menopause, your body is finding a way to adapt and store fat and energy under the circumstances you are providing. It is smarter than us.

That meal. That gut busting meal I want you to do, salad with your favorite dressing and wine and everything is a reset and I've seen every competitive athlete, Fitness competitor, and just like the rest of us working hard to stay in shape, person have to do this occasionally to totally malfunction your metabolism again.

Again all the blood work is important, and if you're like the rest of us humans you have fallen into a workout routine that is challenging but you like it. Meaning your body is going to get used to it. You need to change everything up for a while after you have that big meal this weekend. Switch up days, switch up body parts, go heavy on some stuff you usually went light on. On your light stuff double your reps, it's really not rocket science and there's no real way to do it other than basically you are getting outside of your comfort level work out wise, and letting your body start all over again.

And if you hit the gym and your diet back again on Monday morning you'll be fine. That meal won't destroy anything. But it will absolutely mess up your metabolisms headspace, best way I can explain it. And you might struggle a little bit with hungry issues early in the week but you'll fall back into line.
 
@cl4r3 Maybe, but you have to realize your body has also learned that routine. And without knowing your blood work, the decrease in your hormone levels have probably also put your body into panic survival mode.

Like was always effective when I was training, I literally told them to go out and go "ape shit" all weekend. You literally cannot eat enough garbage in one weekend to ruin any fitness plan you've put the work in on. But you can throw your metabolism for a loop.

You're likely to get a lot of really scientific explanations and good ideas from posting here but I'm kind of old school. And if you look at my pictures I'm not doing too bad for a 51-year-old dude who is a diabetic and has an ascending aortic aneurysm.

Basically whatever rhythm you're in your body will get used to it. And while I've seen menopause actually be a good thing for a lot of women who are training, likely because your hormones have been all over the place 18 months to 3 years before this in preparation, the rules have changed a little bit. And you got to shake it up.

But above all else. Keep your head in the game. You are not going to get obese and lose everything you've worked for. I promise. Even if you didn't change a thing that's not going to happen so don't let even the slightest bit of depression set in.

If you were my client. I would tell you to go out this weekend and eat all the hot wings and beer and steak and wine and just do it all whatever you want.

And Monday morning back at the grind. But start out like I said before nothing really specific, change heavy to light and double the Reps and change light to heavy and cut the Reps in half. Skip cardio one day only cardio another day, basically get out of your routine even in your own head. Because it really doesn't matter.. as long as you keep confusing your body.
 
@cl4r3 55f here. First congrats on your health & fitness level now. It takes a lot of time and effort but it pays off. I also refuse to just “accept” that weight gain is inevitable although I don’t have a lot of advice to give. Great suggestion to check with your doc first. Beyond that, for me I’ve just had to put in more effort overall. I watch what I consume more closely and have upped my cardio output. I train religiously (2 days on, 1 off weights). My off days are always active so instead of weights I might do 2+ hours of hiking or golf 18 holes walking.

As I said, no real advice but wanted to send encouragement your way. Keep up the great work and don’t stop. There are lots of women like us and older who manage to maintain a healthy weight and fitness level. It is possible!
 
@esper
受”体重增加是不可避免的，尽管我没有太多建议可以提供。最好先咨询您的文档。除此之外，对我来说，我只需要在整体上付出更多的努力。我更仔细地观察自己摄入的食物，并提高了我的心肺输出量。我虔诚地训练（2 天，1 天）。我的休息日总是很活跃，所以我可能会进行 2 小时以上的徒步旅行或打 18 洞高尔夫球，而不是举重。

正如我所说，没有真正的建
Click to expand...

Great advice, as you said, and one I had to add. It will be better if you hire a private nutritionist
 
@cl4r3 Almost 60…I have been working out for 35+ years. I felt like I could have written your story. I, too, have been told I’m a freak. Don’t care what others think and I have found that most women want to complain about menopause. But, as we age, the lack of estrogen really messes with the other hormones in our system, increases ghrelin and decreases leptin. We continue to do what we’ve always done and eat the way we always have…but our resilient bodies say, no way! I don’t need all that food, so I will add a few pounds. The best way to move past this is to start weighing and measuring your food and tracking your calorie expenditure and protein. Ramp up the strength training, too. It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to be something you have to really try hard at. It sucks.
 
@cl4r3 58(f) here. Get thee to a progressive female clinical pharmacist, gyn, or endocrinologist who follows current trends and latest research to check your estradiol/progesterone/testosterone balance, and your T3 and T4 (both thyroid) levels. Women’s metabolism changes drastically in response to aging ovaries. There is nothing natural about menopause, except that evolution hasn’t caught up with our increased longevity. Fat stores estrogen and it makes estrogen. If you are not getting enough from your ovaries or from supplementation, then your body will do what it has to do to put on fat to offset these drops. It’s no longer simple CICO. If you hadn’t been so fastidious in the past about keeping fit and eating for your particular body, sure, I’d question whether maybe you were accidentally eating more or expending less calories, but that doesn’t sound right to me, given what you said. It’s hormones, and you probably want to get on HRT sooner rather than later for all its protective effects on women’s bodies, including but not limited to staving off pounds.
 
@cl4r3 Same story as you! I just turned 50. I found that I had to go back to strictly counting calories most days as my close enough eyeball that I was able to use no longer worked. I also found two days of heavy cardio is all that I need or else I get super bloated. Three days of full body weight training with the workout written by someone at the gym. That changes every 6-8 weeks. Basically I had to back off a little on the intense workouts. Lots of walking with the hubs. Counterintuitive but it is slowly working.

I don’t like the menopause group either. Great support if you are having a serious issue. There is a lot of whining and self loathing there. If you want to age the best way you can both physically and mentally it is not the place to go.
 
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