to be fed up with how little I can eat now I’m menopausal?

Set point theory is interesting, but pretty new and not fully understood yet, from what I've read. The current research seems to suggest that your set point does change, but it takes time. So, if you lose a stone, your body goes into panic mode and starts upping the hunger cues and lowering energy release however if you stick at it, eat enough protien and healthy fats (and in general - calorie wise) your body will, after X number of weeks think oh, actually, we're not starving to death, this is fine, and will step back on the grehlin production.

My problem is time and availability. I run because I can run with the dog and I have no gyms near me and no time to get to them. So I am just doing the exercise that is easy for me to fit in. I do know that I ought to be doing more weights, but I would have to do them at home.

I’ve no idea if this is scientifically correct or not but I’m beginning to think - speaking very generally - that once we have put weight on once, we have basically had it, and we are thereafter destined to eat virtually nothing or put on weight, because your set point has then been changed forever more, or whatever it is called, and the body always tries to return to it.

Added to that is the female body’s natural inclination to add a bit of padding post menopause and we are doomed!

We have to be realistic though. Very few women remain the same shape they were in in their twenties, in to their late fifties and sixties. However, the few women I know who have stayed virtually the same shape have remained that way since their teens and have never put weight on ever throughout their entire lives.

That’s far too much cardio. You’d be better off switching most of that for strength/weight training.

Muscle helps us burn more energy and be able to eat more calories without gaining weight.

I’ve had to switch my exercise from running and some weights. To mainly heavy weights and lots of walking.

We are losing muscle mass at this age and need to work hard to replace it. But this in turn will increase our metabolism.

Running 5 times a week and a Spin class 6 times a week will be putting you body under a lot of stress at a time when our stress and cortisol levels are higher anyway. And this also leads to weight gain.

This is it, and it's living every day just being less healthy as well that I don't want, if it can be avoided. Seeing my mum take metformin and having to worry about whether she was going to have diarrhoea whenever she went out, not doing things because her stomach was off, always monitoring blood sugar and jabbing herself, I really don't want that, and she wasn't huge at all, just in the overweight category as I was previously. She was slimmer than me at 50 as well, at BMI 28/29 before I lost weight I could have had type two diabetes in my 50s or had a heart attack.

I hear you. I'm mid-late 40s and eating like I usually do my weight is gradually creeping up... It's also all going around my middle. It's depressing.

I hear you, I worked out I gain weight on just 1400 calories, I basically have given up, life is too short to eat like a rabbit, too many super healthy people I know are seriously ill /already died in their 50’s so my attitude is I’m enjoying life, one beer and delicious meal at a time

This is it, a PP said that nobody ever died wishing they were thinner - well if they were dying several years earlier than would otherwise have been the case because they became so overweight, I think they might.

For me, I don't want heart disease or diabetes, or a heart attack, or achy joints because I'm two stone overweight, or higher risk of cancer or fatty liver disease. It's not about just being a bit plump or vanity, it was harder just to live every day when I was heavier. I'm not trying to be skinny, I'm trying to be fit and strong and just about normal BMI, right at the top end!

Same here. My weight is steady and my BMI is 21, but to keep it there I can only eat one dull, low carb meal a day. I run five miles five times a week, do a 45 minute spin class six days a week and three x 30 minute Pilates a week. I cannot do any more exercise! And I can't eat any less food! I'm nearly always hungry and every few months I fold completely and just fall face down in cake.

I'm in the middle of a lot of family weddings at which I have to appear slim, fit and smart. Once the last one is over I can foresee the discipline flying out of the window as a load of Bounty bars fly in the other way.

I never had to worry about my weight ever, just wasn’t one of my problems. But now post menopause I’m like you, to maintain my weight it’s protein and salads twice a day. I don’t even bother with snacks as that’s trouble.. so miserable. I keep asking myself if anyone’s ever said on their deathbed “I wish I’d been thinner?” I don’t think so!

Think I’ll try this. Thanks!

I'm on medication for both having no ovaries any more, and underactive thyroid. All at the correct levels, apparently.

Still only able to maintain a healthy weight and not end up writhing in gut agony on a ridiculously low calorie intake. DP is constantly amazed how little it actually is. My adult DS once deadpanned: 'Mum can't eat that; it's got food in it'.

I think it's a woefully underinvestigated area of women's health.

Like many on here, I've had every scan under the sun, and been shunted between GP, Gastroenterology, Gynaeocology, Gastro, GP, Gynae, Gastro, GP, Hepatology, GP, and now I'm stuck on about 800-900 calories a day feeling shite.

I feel your pain, my weight just creeps up and up unless I monitor every mouthful of food. I eventually got fed up of feeling like a complete fatso and started WLI last summer. Have lost 40lbs and feel so much better. Am on my last pen and terrified it will start to go back on but am planning to up my exercise considerably and stick to 2 meals a day - brunch and dinner. Wish me luck…..

The only thing I would add to this is that we do get more insulin resistant post menopause and so you’ll do better if a lower proportion of the diet comes from carbs esp faster acting ones like grains / sugar etc

I am on HRT and I’ve had all sorts of blood tests for thyroid, liver, kidney etc, everything shows up fine.
I don’t know how to manage it, if I stick to my calories and lose weight, I am so hungry all the time. That’s following a high protein, low UPF diet. It is so depressing. I hate feeling hungry all the time. But it a choice I have to make - be permanently hungry or be permanently unhappy with my weight and how I look.

Not healthy to recommend eating less than a toddler. We need more calories than that to survive let alone fuel exercise or any movement. You have probably been under eating for so long you have messed up your metabolism.

A bit of fruit for your lunch is not healthy or recommended neither is1 slice of toast for breakfast.

But I like treats and just can’t live a life where I don’t get to eat anything nice 😢 Life is already so stressful and difficult

I get it. I’ve hit a new phase where I’m just piling on the weight now and I really dislike how I look and feel.

Same! Life's too short to be miserable. I expect my appetite will decrease naturally with age anyway, as seems to happen with most people. I do already have the odd evening where I think I'm just not hungry so I'll skip dinner on those nights.

I'm not obese and I don't eat loads so am just not willing to deprive myself completely. I already gave up quite heavy drinking and smoking! I imagine that's done a lot more good for me than saying no to a piece of cake.

I doubt the 2kg is from tea and cake but I agree with the rest. Although for me the shift happened much earlier. In my early 20s I put away a tonne of food, did moderate exercise and had a six pack. 20 years later….yikes!

I am 50 and have lost two stone on mounjaro and am determined not to put it back on. I basically have to stick to 1200-1500 calories most days, using Nutracheck, though am trying different things like 24 hour fast once a week- tricky when I do a lot of exercise. I eat low(ish) carb, high protein and fibre and tend to stick to similar meals as it's easier. I'm not taking any mounjaro now.

I go to circuits or run Thursday/Friday, I swim on a Saturday, do gardening or gym on Sunday, yoga and run on Monday, gym on Tuesday, and also try and do 10k steps a day, but at the same time my jobs is sedentary so I'm sat down for 35+ hours a week at work whatever I do.

I had lost two and a half stone at one point, but no more was coming off even on 15mg. Now I'm on nothing at all and my weight seems to have settled half a stone over my lightest, and I'm BMI 25, and quite toned, 5'7" and a size ten.

The thing is this much effort to just stay the same is quite normal for me, as I was doing the same with slightly more calories to try to lose weight at two stone heavier than I am now, for 15+ years. Before taking mounjaro I was normal BMI briefly in 2008 before getting pregnant with DD2. Before having kids, and in my late 20s I was BMI 20. I was heavier in my teens and the weight I am now at 16, which doesn't sound too bad at 50.

I've been counting calories and have it set to loose 0.5lb a week, I have found that if I hit my goals it does come off, but its really hard to hit the goal. My goal is 1565 and its so easy to go over by 200-250 calories and then thats the deficit gone, there is no way I could drop it to try and loose 1lb a week (or the 2lb a week I used to do in my 20s and 30s!).

I got a new job and stopped walking 40 mins a day and put on 10lb in 5 months, those steps were keeping me in deficit and becoming more sedentary put me over. They say you can't outrun a bad diet, and I do agree with this, but I used to be able to loose weight just by focusing on diet and nowadays I have to get my steps in too or it just isn't enough.