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?

I eat chia seeds, I eat nuts, I eat pulses, I eat loads of brocolli and cauli (easily eg 200g or more of both for dinner). Yes salad veg doesn’t have much.

I’d recommend buying adjustable dumbbells and following Caroline Girvan or Sydney Cummings online.

As in 1.5 grams of protein to 1kg of body weight.

If you're just starting out, bodyweight exercises will be fine. The key is to work close to failure, e.g., when your muscles start to shake, when your form starts to decline, and you know you're not gonna manage more than 3 more reps.

You can do this by adding weight or reps. You don't always have to go up weight; upping reps gives the same effect (although adding weight is more time-efficient if you're busy).

Facebook marketplace for cheap dumbbells, you can get adjustable ones if you're short on space.

So not a true low carb diet then, I'm talking about the keto lot really!

Most women will have a long and chequered history with dieting.
So what works in theory doesn’t on a body that has been subject to years of dieting is my guess.
I gained a lot of weight in my 30s, pregnancy then an autoimmune condition/steroids.
I then lost 5 stone but struggled to maintain in perimenopause. Before Christmas I hit obese bmi again and have really stuck to diet since. I weigh food and log everything. I’m aiming for bmi 25, no desire to be thin.
I took in board the women in late 40s need to do weights and joined gym and had pt coaching. Despite that all I did was gain weight in perimenopause.

I'm just finding it genuinely so depressing there are people who feel fat on barely 10st. I'm 5ft2 and just under 10st with 0 body insecurity.

It’s a lot easier a task to nip weight gain in the bud when you’ve gained 2kg or 5kg and address that than it is to continue on letting the small gains add up, end up very overweight, and have the daunting prospect of needing to lose 30kg. Not everyone is obsessing simply over being 2kg heavier, but knowing that if they don’t do something to combat that they’ll be 4kg heavier, then 6kg heavier and so on.

Jumping in at a random point in the thread…..and thinking that’s A LOT of protein! 😝

Keto can include low-carb vegetables: a long term maintenance keto diet can include between 50-100g of carbs per day, which is plenty for leafy and cruciferous vegetables. It’s not just eating nothing but fat and protein.

Mine is 1250.

I CrossFit train every day nearly. Hit 10-20 k steps.

On a GLP-1.

What am I doing wrong?

Still sounds like a miserable way to live 🤣

I don’t personally find it miserable, because the bloating, water retention, discomfort and lethargy I had when I ate lots of carbs was miserable. I feel much better this way.

It's really not hard to meet, just make sure each meal has a good quality protien source.

Greek yoghurt + whey protein powder or eggs for breakfast
Prawn/tuna/chicken salad for lunch
Protein shake after a workout
Chicken/turkey and veg for dinner + Greek yoghurt or Skyr and fruit for dessert

100g of protein a day isn't that much. Easy to do.

The thought of all that meat makes me want to boak

I'm the same. I reckon HRT hasn't helped as its increased my bra cup size from DD to FF (or even G in some styles). Band size has stayed the same, so it looks like 90% of the increased weight is carried on my chest now.

It is not just feeling fat - my BMI is in the overweight category,

Show me an example.

So is mine, just, but I really don't care - BMI was based on men, doesn't take into account your shape or weight distribution, and I'm Latina and happen to like a chunky thigh and a round bum.

In any case I'm not prepared to live off chicken, eggs, beans and salad, lift weights five days a week and only eat 1200 calories a day. If that's the trade off I'd rather have a BMI of 25 than one of 20.

Yep I just aim for 30 grams a meal then add in some protein based snacks.

A good protein heavy breakfast fills me up until lunch.

That's more or less what I have to do to maintain BMI 25.

So a typical day for me depends on what exercise, if any, I am doing.

Heavy days, e.g., a morning run/evening strength day, would be more carbs:

breakfast: Sardines on wholegrain seeded bread or museli with Greek yoghurt, protien powder and a banana
Lunch: Jacket potato with cottage cheese and salad
Pre-workout snack - protein shake or bar
Dinner: dry fried garlic chicken with broccoli, cauli and gravy

A rest/strength only day has fewer carbs, more/the same protein:
breakfast: ground turkey, spinach, 2 whole eggs, and 2 egg whites
lunch - prawns stir-fried in garlic with pepper and onions, and Greek yoghurt and fruit
pre-workout snack - protein shake or bar
dinner: chicken, peanut butter, garlic, red chilli pepper, soy sauce and savoy cabbage - stir-fried to make a healthy chicken satay type dish.

Hangover day: all of the food. All of it. Especially if it's food that starts with sausage and ends with roll.

I work on the 80/20 rule. If my diet and activity are good 80% of the time, I don't worry about the other 20%. I typically have drinks with friends once or twice a month and eat/drink what I fancy that evening and slob out on the sofa with my good friend Mr JustEat the next day.

Absolutely. Being thin is not the most important thing in the world, do you really want to spend the rest of your life worrying over every calorie and slice of cake? Honestly, who cares if a post menopausal woman has gained some weight. MN is an echo chamber of women who just want to be skinny above all else and it's bloody disturbing.

There is no way you can get sufficient nutrients, micro and macro, by consistently cutting calories. Much better to focus on nutrients, supporting your body through these hormonal changes and maintaining health and strong bones.

There's also plenty of evidence towards supporting hormonal health and insulin levels being much better for weight management. You won't find that on MN though as the general belief is just keep cutting calories until you lose weight (it doesn't work, you'll just have to keep cutting and cutting until you're basically starving yourself).

If I'm still weighing myself religiously post menopause then shoot me. I don't want to live like that all my life