50 getting a podgy belly - anyone avoided?

[Fuckfacetime]

So I do loads of good stuff.

Regular cardio & weights - everyday
walk loads
low carb - no bread or cakes
sleep and drink loads of water
no UPFs, one meal a day cooked from scratch
low stress life

BUT I am still developing a squashy tummy. This is an issue as I am 5 foot tall and my trousers are getting too tight! If you knew the pain of trousers shopping when short with a big arse you'd be worried too. Usually I am a size 10. Been stable for about 10 years. I do drink too much, but I like drinking and don't want to cut back. It's my only bad habit.

Is it age? Is it laziness? Can I stop it? Help !!!!!

Our body shape definitely changes as we age. I’m a life long yo yo dieter and I’ve looked at pictures of myself when much fatter but much younger and my figure was far more hourglass. Clearly defined much smaller waist, flatter stomach and weight carried on my boobs and hips. I’m now size 10/12 in my mid 40s. Struggle to shift belly weight, my waist has widened and my boobs are proportionally smaller. It’s unfortunate but it is what it is.

Cutting down on alcohol helped me with weight loss, along with intermittent fasting 16:8.

However, I had an obese BMI, unlike you.

I guess that it’s pointless to eschew bread but drink 40 units. I’m genuinely not meaning to sound spiteful because I know how hard it is at perimenopause (I’m 3 years your senior).

I think that unless you’re obese with associated health risks when arguably there’s a real need/responsibility to lose weight, you need to decide whether or not you alter your lifestyle to fit into your pre-peri clothes. Only you can make that choice.

The belly weight is alcohol not menopause
well done on being honest with yourself on that - it’s hard

Yeah so I used to drink more and be a lot thinner. So if it’s the booze it’s my body holding on to the fat.

my ribs and hips have got bigger I think …… I think it is my age.

but the plan is the same
tdee
cur down on booze (I do dry Jan)
more exercise
less non booze calories
give in a buy a 12 !

sigh…..

but then next year it will be a 14. Need to stop it now

What helped? Portion size, limiting snacking, no alcohol or no more than 2 units per week, sleep, and ensuring I was eating enough ie don’t starve to lose weight. General good habits?

When I was late 20’s I’d have one bottle of wine a week, I gave up and lost half a stone in weeks. I’m now 47, had a traumatic few weeks drank most nights a glass of wine and put 9lbs on.

So Monday night was my last drink and we’ll see what I weigh after a month off.

When you said you drink too much I wasn’t expecting harmful levels given everything else you do. 40 units is a lot. That’s the equivalent of a litre bottle of whisky a week. Your jeans being too tight is the least of your worries. Cirrhosis is a bigger concern!

Yes @AlphaApple but a litre of whisky a week doesn’t seem that much really.

I do dry Jan and do lose weight then. But my drinking hasn’t increased in the last ten years but waistline has, esp in the last six months, at the same time my periods kinda stopped.

Maybe I should edit my op

50 and drinks fucktonne. Anyone else who has managed to avoid the podge….:

You don’t think a bottle of whisky a week is that much? Blimey.

Where did you learn to normalise such heavy drinking?

Um can we go back to the tummy ?! This is not alcohol support area

From all I've read about peri and menopause it's all about reducing calories because your body just doesn't need as much anymore. So wherever you're getting them you possibly need to cut calories. Maybe track everything very very closely for a week and see if your estimation is accurate.

Am I reading this right? An extra 1000 calories a day?! How are you a size 10 in the first place OP 😂

Hi i am probably the same as you, the weight is going on my belly and it looks bloated.
I exercise lots and do eat healthy meals mainly.
I love wine and wont stop drinking, the sun sure does make me want to drink more.
Sadly i do think its the wine, I could be thinner and miserable without drinking, so I put up with a bit of podge

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

Well I am an hourglass figure so big boobs and bum and I do a LOT of exercise, and low carb.

yeah I think I was getting away with it, but now at 50 I won’t.

so what we are saying is

At 50 Normal food or any booze = podge

jesus maybe I will try the injections !!! How do you get them with a bmi of 24

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.