to find menopausal weight management mentally exhausting and restrictive?

So you exercise basically 3 hours a day?

There is not just one norm of 3 balanced meals a day. Plenty of people eat only one or two meals a day.

Bodies change with age. The needs of young children are very different to those of menopausal women. I have to eat differently to my teens.

I do an hour of cardio every day and walk c.10-15km on top of that. I do strength training for 20 mins typically three days a week plus a couple of planks a day, although know it should be more on the strength side for long term muscle and bone health. I feel very cooped up if I can't manage this so it's not like I am forcing myself to exercise but I think it becomes a self perpetuating thing once you get into it.

1300 calories a day is not tolerable. Maybe it would help to add more fibre?

How much exercise do you do each day and how much time does it take? I think you said you run at least 9 miles a day it that true and how long does it take?

I exercise a lot compared to most working women I know (although some of the non-working ones might do more as they have more time) but I am slowly regaining the weight I lost on an average of 1300 cals (carefully tracked) a day.

I do around 7 hours of dedicated exercise a week (a run or a circuit or weightlifting every day). How much more do I need to do to achieve your promise of eating what I like?

You don't think it's helpful to point out that women don't automatically turn into balls of butter at 44?

I'd be despairing if I were 35 and reading this nonsense.

I remember as a kid all these ultra boring mums forever on diets (and commenting on my primary school lunches as was acceptable for some reason in the 80s). That is a choice and a bad one.

Amazing!

Listen everybody - just exercise more then no more menopausal weight troubles. @CurdinHenry has found the magic cure!!!!

What are you getting from being on this thread? Since you're clearly not remotely interested trying to be helpful.

You definitely shouldn't tell them that because it isn't true.

I’m honestly unsure. I’ve gone from a dress size 6-8 to a 14. So much bigger, overweight for my height but not obese. I really don’t want to teach my girls that as females they shouldn’t eat 3 balanced meals a day. Or let them in to the depressing news that over 44-ish they need to drastically reduce that down to 2 small portioned meals

Is it better to be overweight for fear they will copy you if you lose weight?

Amazing!

Listen everybody - just exercise more then no more menopausal weight troubles. @CurdinHenry has found the magic cure!!!!

I recognize this that this is an attempt to be helpful but surely this is bordering on disordered eating?
-you never eat breakfast save for a tea and coffee
-you rarely eat lunch, merely picking at snacks until your evening meal
-your evening meal - your only actual meal of the day is a small portion. You then eat no real food until you begin grazing at noon the next day.

In terms of exercise you do weights and Pilates 3 days a week and run 5-10k twice a week. So that’s an average of 5 days exercising in addition to usual dog walks, so ‘rarely doing formal exercise’ on the other days is rather superfluous.

I dont mean to be personally critical, this clearly works for you and you are happy with it, however, this is absolutely not realistic for most women I know. I would go insane with feelings of hunger doing this.
In addition, I have teenage daughters and worry how modeling such a large amount of ‘not eating’ would affect them. (It’s also incredibly difficult to plan, purchase and prepare hearty meals for the whole family and watch them eat whilst I don’t.)

Great tip!

In addition, I have teenage daughters and worry how modeling such a large amount of ‘not eating’ would affect them. (It’s also incredibly difficult to plan, purchase and prepare hearty meals for the whole family and watch them eat whilst I don’t.)

How is this managed? If I eat similar to teenage DC I will pile the weight on. Or if I choose to eat the same as them then it means barely having anything all day so I can eat with them and model healthy eating.

Their bodies are vastly different to mine. My meals need to be a lot smaller because I am menopausal.

A lot of people here are saying “get bloods done” and “get your thyroid tested”. How do you do that?

My GP surgery don’t just do blood tests because you ask for it, and even if they do them for some other reason they don’t treat or advise unless things are seriously abnormal. The last time I had blood tests done was nearly 10 years ago and it was when I was severely anaemic. I was given an iron supplement and the tests were never repeated. I have no idea if the iron worked to this day.

Are you all suggesting that we can afford private blood tests? Because I definitely can’t afford that.

In addition, I have teenage daughters and worry how modeling such a large amount of ‘not eating’ would affect them. (It’s also incredibly difficult to plan, purchase and prepare hearty meals for the whole family and watch them eat whilst I don’t.)

How is this managed? If I eat similar to teenage DC I will pile the weight on. Or if I choose to eat the same as them then it means barely having anything all day so I can eat with them and model healthy eating.

Their bodies are vastly different to mine. My meals need to be a lot smaller because I am menopausal.

I'm through menopause (on HRT), my bmi is 20 and I still have a waist, my cholesterol, blood pressure and hbA1c are always good, and I've never counted a calorie. I'm sure some of how we gain or don't gain is genetic, but - I know this will sound counterintuitive and goes against the current orthodoxy - I wonder if some of you would do better to deprive yourselves less but eat more frequently? If maybe some of the starving does end up messing up peoples' metabolisms?

We have dinner on the later side (usually around 8) and I tend to not eat again until 11 or 12 the next day, although I have a tea with milk and a coffee with creatine and full fat milk and splash of cream, so I'm not actually fasting. I rarely have a real lunch, although I make a lot of homemade soup and will often have a small bowl of that, but otherwise kind of snack on olives, nuts, cheese, leftovers from dinner, chicken, cooked chickpeas, full fat greek yoghurt, fruit, vegetables, rye crackers, hard boiled eggs, bran flakes, roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds, etc. I do eat carbs but try to be mindful of too many empty ones. And then for dinner I have what the rest of the family is eating, including pasta, rice, spelt, barley, and potatoes, but I'm not starving so it's not a problem to have a small portion. I almost always have something sweet at some point and I will have a glass of wine or a cocktail on the weekend or if we're out during the week.

I do exercise, but probably a lot less than some of you. I do a combination of weights and pilates 3 days a week and most weeks run 5-10k twice. The other days I'm good about getting in my steps, walking the dog, but rarely do any formal exercise.

I completely get not wanting to be very overweight for both health and vanity, but life's too short to be miserable over food. If you're really struggling, maybe try eating small amounts more often?