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

[menno]

Since hitting menopause my metabolism seems to have just given up. I have to live on salads and protein twice a day to keep my weight stable.

I do weight training 3–4 times a week and exercise regularly. I guess that helps otherwise I would gain weight.

Last week I went out for a birthday dinner and also had afternoon tea and cake and I’ve put on 2kg. Now I have to go straight back to being super strict, like fish/meat and vegetables every night just to shift it again.

Pre-menopause I could eat more without watching everything. If I did gain, it would drop easily. Now it is hard work.

DH and teen DC put away huge amounts of food and I have to watch everything I am eating.

AIBU to find this really depressing and restrictive?

Also research saying those that eat breakfast tend not to overeat later in the day

The opposite is true for me. Once I eat breakfast it seems to awaken the hunger beast in me and I feel hungry within 2 hours of eating it. If I just have a cup of tea or two, I can easily go until 2pm before I feel hungry enough to eat lunch.

I have to get everything I need in two meals due to intermittent fasting and no snacking between meals.

When my weight gets stuck. then a longer fast of 24-40 hours get things moving but that is hard.

Yeah everyone is different. I’d faint if I didn’t eat in the morning. But I’m walking the dog and have an active job.

I'm the same. Today is a fast day. I try to do one long fast a week and I can only manage it because nothing passes my lips other than black tea and water.

I really think some of you might just need to accept that maybe you're not meant to be a size 8-10 any more, and that's OK.

It is not about that for me. I can still fit into 8-10 clothes but it is much harder to do so because of menopause and bodily changes. I want to come out of the overweight category for my health.

I don't want to be heavy again. I didn't like the way I was treated when I was bigger.

Same - eating in the morning opens the floodgates. Much easier never to eat breakfast.

I think unless you’ve struggled with weight it’s hard to comprehend just how hard it is.
Summer 24 I gained a stone in 2 months just by taking eye off ball. So no gym, no daily weighing. I was quite stressed. I wasn’t eating junk or massively overeating just not calorie counting and logging everything on nutracheck. I don’t really drink. I went from bmi 26 to 28? So if I’m not focusing it’s so easy to go into obese.
The cals various PTs and online TDEE say are to lose are what I’ve found to be for
maintaining.
I’m a size 14 aiming again for a healthy bmi. Never been thin at my lowest I was bmi 23.

OK for you maybe but I wish to maintain the size I've been all my adult life and that is more important to me than eating empty calories.

If it also means no more avocado for breakfast then it's a sacrifice I will make.

I have also discovered that having breakfast makes me more hungry sooner. Odd isn't it? I guess it wakes up the digestive tract.

When you were "bigger" you were just under 10st, I very much doubt that anyone would have even considered that remotely "fat" and treated you differently accordingly.

I was 10st 7 which was obese for my height. Yes I did get treated differently and worse because of my weight.

Feeling this... Can I chuck into the mix the absolute bloody infuriation that I have a testosterone fuelled 14 year old at home who eats everything under the sun to try to 'max his calories' because he can't put weight on and also managed to get absolutely RIPPED with big muscle definition in TWO MONTHS of weight lifting. Meanwhile I'm surviving on 3 peas a day and been lifting heavy weights for 3 years and don't look any different except my belly is bigger....

Life is not fair.... 😭

The only way I’ve managed with this is to go low carb.

Pasta, rice and wheat bread no more.

I buy low carb bread.

I bought low carb bread too but had to stop eating as it still made me gain weight. So back to barely any carbs.

I have managed to add muscle - but it requires a lot of protein. And food. And heavy lifting and an acceptance you need to add some fat (can lose it later). I’m still way stronger than my 16 year old, eg I can deadlift 120kg he can manage around 80kg.

I'm not undernourishing myself! Just complaining about how little I can eat these days.

Not everyone likes workouts or even exercise. Luckily I like sport and being active and according to my watch I average 80 intensity minutes a day without even thinking about it.

I eat a salad or soup for lunch and a relatively low carb evening meal plus my daily four squares of dark chocolate! That's miniscule compared to how much I used to be able to eat and although I wouldn't say I'm hungry often, it would be lovely to eat with the gay abandon of a few years ago.

Yes I found the same too. Eat breakfast (especially porridge) and be ravenous by 11am. Don't eat breakfast and am quite happy until around 1pm, often as late as 4 or 5pm. By which time I decide it's a "one meal a day" day 😂

I hesitate at going out for dinner now because either I can barely eat anything or I will have to cut back a lot the next day or two to offset it.

Ooh really, how long did it take for the weight to come off?

@loveawineloveacrisp a few years from memory. They all seem to struggle to keep weight on now as appetites have shrunk