The Menopause and Hormones

Have you hit the menopause or know someone who has and is struggling to lose weight no matter what they do?… Maybe something for your mums 🙂

My mum had always been fairly lean and tiny. But when she hit menopause she started gaining weight. She thought she was in luck because her son was a trainer and fat loss nutritionist.

She told me my heads spinning, I’m trying to work out all the time, eating no carbs, carb loading, not eating meat, shakes, etc.

I changed her diet by having her eat smarter, especially less carbs and instead more fat and protein. I had her start weight training. I even got her on several herbs to help with hormone balance.

This still didn’t help!! She said I’m trying everything.

Then one day I happened to stop by her house in the morning. We sat and had coffee and talked. I watched as she ate an entire melon. Another day at dinner I watched her eat a salad that was basically 5 avocados with a few lettuce greens sprinkled over it.

So I asked her, “mum, tell me what you have been eating? Is this typical?” She said, “yes, I eat very little carbs. I eat mostly “paleo” like you told me. Plenty of fat, vegetables, fruit and protein.

I said, “What do you eat most do you think?” She said, “fruit.”

“What about exercise?” I said. She replied that she was working out almost every day, workouts that are 30 minutes but pretty intense.

The problem then dawned on me. I made some adjustments and she started losing weight fairly quickly.

Do you know the issue? Two words: cortisol and insulin.

IF YOU READ MY POSTS YOU WILL KNOW ALL ABOUT THESE!!!!

Here is the thing to know. In order to lose weight you need two things. First you need to lower calories. Second, you need to balance hormones (MY FAVOURITE WORD). Only problem with that is the menopausal metabolism is by very definition an imbalanced hormone state compared to what it was in a females younger years.

Insulin is a fat storing and muscle-building hormone. Even if you achieve a calorie deficit, if you have too much insulin around you may lose weight, but that weight will be far less likely to be fat.

Cortisol is a stress hormone and it along with insulin causes fat storage around the middle. Even if you achieve calorie reduction, like insulin, it makes it more likely you burn muscle along with fat.

And if you don’t succeed in lowering calories, both hormones almost assure those calories will store as fat and especially around the middle. If you are menopausal you know what I mean.

So here is the deal. Estrogen is a hormone that works against insulin and cortisol. Progesterone has little impact on insulin but does fight against cortisol. These two hormones are the reason women have an easier time staying leaner when they are young and have that hourglass shape that makes the female physique so beautiful.

So at menopause, when these two hormones go away, the female metabolism 1) slows down 2) is more carb sensitive (due to insulin) 3) is more stress reactive.

So my mum ran into problems because of the following reasons: 1) She was eating too much fat making it difficult for her to achieve calorie deficits 2) Eating two much fruit increasing her insulin levels 3) working out too often and too hard throwing off her cortisol levels.

Ironically, in a younger woman these changes would have worked beautifully. Trading protein, fat, fruits and veggies for starchy carbs would have likely led to both calorie reduction and hormone balance along with fat loss.

For my mother we had to get very specific. We made these changes:

1) Fat is fine, but focus on protein over fat. It is more satiating and has less calories
2) Fruits are ok on occasion, but eat more vegetables then fruit and save fruit for an occasional dessert treat
3) Don’t exercise too intensely or too often. Limit the hardcore exercise to 3-4 times per week and focus on relaxing walking, restorative yoga, tai chi or other relaxing activities instead.

That was the fix. Do you understand why she and other menopausal women were having an issue? Can you see how the changes we implemented worked better to control calories and the hormone changes? Not too complicated right?

By the way, you may be interested to know that younger women undergoing stress have the same issues. First their stress hormones go up (cortisol). Then if the stress persists progesterone drops. If it continues, estrogen falls next. And along with this insulin issues begin to surface and fat gain occurs right around the middle just like in menopause