50 getting a podgy belly - anyone avoided?

Ha ha ok

How’s it going Op?

I have to agree with you. I absolutely love a drink but these days I feel even a couple of drinks the next day, and it really messes up my already rubbish sleep. So depressing as a drink (or many) is one of lifes great joys.

I hope you update in 6-12 months, OP.
my understanding is that hormones change where body deposit the fat, hence pot bellies like guys get. Because hormones are becoming more like guy hormones.

Some MNers say that HRT is a miracle cure that sorts everything and nobody gets fat on it or ever has any problems with it.

Yes i do think we can’t always fight the body/fat deposit changes as we reach menopause. The way we deposit fat changes. We can absolutely eat well, exercise, sleep well etc.

I’m not interested in cutting out bread and food groups or eating toddler amount of calories but i eat a diet full of nutrition and i do exercise,get outside, etc. I drink small amounts of alcohol like once/twice a month or so. Little more on holiday. It really doesn’t agree with me anymore.

You do some really great things but drinking that much alcohol is obviously going to be a problem. Not just your weight but your health too. The more research done on alcohol the more we know it’s shit for us and our health.

Mine did

Just seen your update OP.
Good for you having a plan.

Obviously the alcohol and I gave up in lockdown so easy for me to say.
I've widened my waist line post menopause despite doing weights daily and walking at least 15 miles a week for work and a physical job.
I've gone from a size 10 to 12 as my waist is bigger despite weighing the same.
I do eat bread and cheeses though.😄
Sometimes home cooked from scratch is more nutritious but not less calories.

Look, I'm not trying to be a dick, but you're not fasting are you? You're consuming more calories in sugar and carb filled beer and wine than you are in food. Fasting is good for you in moderation, but you need to actually fast, not swap nutrient dense food for nutrient empty and harmful alcohol! Fasting means your digestive system isn't processing ANY calories for a prolonged period, not that you swap solid calories for liquid. I love drinking too - love a cold beer on a hot day but it's got to be within reason. Your response to being told that you're consuming too many calories in alcohol is to suggest eating less food and going on appetite suppressants. How does that not appear disordered to you?

She's consuming 900+ calories from alcohol daily and reducing her food to one meal a day and her takeaway from this thread is to keep drinking the same and eat less food or take appetite suppressing medication. How is this a red herring?

Since drinking feeds the wrong hormones you can hardly say is a red herring

it might still be hard but there are not many (any?) people with a good belly and that much booze - how do you tell a drinker ? By the tummy and nose

My BMI is 18.7. And I can crunch and plank 'til the cows come home. Doesn't stop my belly being annoyingly podgy since menopause. It annoys me all the time. Just not enough to totally give up biscuits.

I have about one small glass of wine a month. I'm still battling post 50 belly a bit. I'm very fit and active too.

Fewer crisps seems to be my solution, which is a huge pain as I love my sensory post stressy day crunching. Corn or kale crisps seem to be better than potato crisps though.

One of the most unfair things about being a woman is that the time when life gets most stressful - feeling rubbish, juggling work, kids and elderly parents, trying to maintain a relationship - is when you most need a drink but it’s also the worst thing for you 🙄

I think the drinking is a red herring. It's mostly age and hormones. It comes to a point where what we have always done, or not done, to keep slim ceasing to work. Cutting down won't hurt, obviously, but your tummy won't magically disappear because of that.

I hardly drink since last year. In fact had nk alcohol the whole of last year. I can't eat one meal a day because I have kids 4 and 6 and do not want to introduce them to dieting or disordered eating. But it feels like at 47 my options are only eating chia seeds or ozempic/mounjaro. Am not loving my increasingly jingly body. Although honestly working from home full time for years means I snack a lot (I have managed to stop biscuits and chocolate but sadly replaced these with a fuck ton of nuts) and I don't exercise. Will add exercises and see I can drastically reduce lunch as kids are often away then. Currently lunch is often a fishcake or bits of left over dinner. I hardly eat bread because it takes really really great bread to convince me (since I was a kid). It sucks

alternate the wine with water? Make spritzers? It will help to reduce it

She barely eats. One meal a day she said - this is highly disordered

You can't get injections for goodness sake. You don't want comment on your drinking but you're consuming more than half your daily calories in alcohol only. It's surprising that you aren't malnourished. You proudly talk about avoiding UPFs and eating one meal a day- of course because if you ate properly you'd be obese with that level of alcohol consumption. You can't 'get away with it' now because you're menopausal, but far more concerning is what that alcohol is doing to your liver and heart. If you want to live a lot longer and be healthy you need to knock that right on the head. Not saying no booze at all but to heal and recover from that level of alcohol abuse you need to go teetotal for a good few months and then cut down to one/2 nights a week max.

I will leave your thread in that case but genuinely, if you think continuing to drink 40 units of alcohol a week and Ozempic-ing the podge away is the answer, you might want to check in with the GP first.

Very very small portions. Intermittent fasting which basically in my case means don’t eat dinner
and I don’t drink alcohol