Middle age spread - aaargh!

[Whattodowithit]

Does anyone have any ideas for exercises to shift it? I am 54, have had 3 children so have that roll of post pregnancy skin that never seemed to go, am certainly peri-menopausal and have noticed over the past year the roll(s) of fat around my middle are getting bigger and bigger . I eat well and am lucky not to have a sweet tooth - salad is my favourite meal which I eat almost daily. I can't abide processed food and cook from scratch. I (fast) swim 40 lengths 4 times a week, I have dogs that need walking daily and I dance once a week, so I don't think 'not enough physical activity' or 'bad diet' is the problem. I would dance more but am slightly incapacitated at the moment because I currently have plantar fasciitis . I have never set foot inside a gym and don't intend to start now... I have tried to look on t'internet for 'at home' exercises, but most of the sites seem to be to do with toning up your abs rather than the middle wobble below... Do any of you kind people have any recommendations, please?

Middle aged spread is not inevitable if you work at it!

My mum is an excellent role model- now 86 she is still a size 12 and has been all her life except for sometimes taking a 14 in tops as she has a large bust! Her weight has always been in the 8.5st range and if it ever crept over 9st she did something about it. She's never driven, so would walk everywhere including a 3 mile trip to local shops, carrying shopping etc.

It's certainly harder to lose weight post meno which is why it's a really good idea to tackle it before then.

thats very good to hear Missbopeep:o

I guess alot depends on how lucky you are with your health, some people have problems which make it difficult to exercise.
It can also be tricky if you have a stressfull busy life!

Yes but there is usually some form of exercise which can be done- swimming, stationary bike at home, DVD in the lounge, chair weights for people who are really immobile, and let's face it, most illness is actually caused by lack of exercise- 40% of cancers are preventable as they are attributed to lifestyle.

There is a biological reason - fat cells produce oestrogen so our bodies try to lay down fat so we can replace the oestrogen we lose in menopause and this protects our bones.
Another one who curbs her appetite, runs loads but yet it makes so much less impact then it would have done just a couple of years ago.

Also have also exercised at quite a high level since my 20s so difficult to see that there is much muscle loss to account for this.

Googlenut that makes sense about the estrogen!
When you say you run loads how much are we talking in terms of hours/miles per week, and do you do any resistance exercise?

I'm hoping that if I keep up with weight training 2-3 x per week along with some cardio I should be able to keep the middle aged spread at bay.

Then again when you say that even exercising at a high level makes less difference than it used to I'm starting to wonder if I'm just kidding myself
:(

I'm not overweight at all, most would describe me as slim. But just resentful that I can't get away with things anymore. Have crept up 3
lbs for no reason and it used to be if I ate lightly it would drop off but not anymore

Run about 20 miles a week but don't work upper body -' might start that soon

20 miles is a fair bit of running! I guess any more than that and there's the possibility of over use injuries from too much running
gosh it's a minefield

On a good week I walk about 12-15 miles and that's at a fast pace ( that's without counting walks around town etc.)

I agree about the pounds creeping up google. It's taken me a huge amount of effort to lose 3lbs lately and I know that as soon as I deviate from my strict regime it will go back on.

In my 20s and 30s I could lose that in a week. But I am also less active generally- desk job, and no school walk etc.

I swim half a mile five times a week (fast) and last year lost nearly 3 stone, but it took me eight months (I am nearly 53). I have heard that at menopause the metabolic rates slows down so you actually have to cut calories to stay the same.

Exercise alone rarely shifts much weight.

half a mile fast swimming is about, what, 15 minutes (30 lengths @ 30 seconds per length) and done 5 times a week not a huge amount of exercise so 3 stones is a pretty good result:o

I'm the same age as OP. The only way I can get anywhere near controlling my weight is by doing myfitness pal and sticking to it rigidly. I walk loads, do Zumba, Pilates and Yoga but it is n't enough. So there's no booze, no snacking and a lifetime of calorie counting for me. And after all that, I'm still a struggling size 12!
I

I think we all have to take on board that our metabolism changes in middle age and cutting back on food is the only way.

My daily intake includes something like this- breakfast-
1 or 2 eggs boiled, scrambled or poached and 1 slice toast. sometimes a rasher of bacon and mushrooms instead of the toast.
Lunch- bowl of home made soup, or a salad with tuna, prawns, cold chicken, or sardines. Piece of fruit.

Snack if hungry a couple of oatcakes or a tiny cube of cheese.

Dinner is a piece of fish or chicken with mixed vegs, or a salad, another piece of fruit, and once or twice a week we might have risotto or pasta.

I'm intolerant to dairy and gluten so have to use substitutes for those.

If I add anything onto the above such as a piece of cake, a couple of biscuits daily, then I can put on 2lbs in a week.
I keep carbs to one portion a day, so if I have bread for breakfast then I don't have pasta that day etc etc.

arhg, MN crashed on me.
calorie reduction for sure. You're lucky, my spread started at age 38!

i dunno, i think it's just declining levels of activity and the cumulative effects of the western diet leads to increasing insulin resistance.
Missbopeep, you said yourself that you could drop fat quicker when younger, but that you were more active then, with respect the walking you do is not alot of exercise, i easily walk 15 plus miles a week on top of weight training swimming & running.

If it was inevitable then women in all cultures would get especially fatter after menopause...do they?

You must exercise pretty excessively mercury. A recent survey showed that almost half of all adults don't walk for a continuous 30 minutes in a month. How do you fit in 15 miles a week walking plus everything else?

My 12-15 miles a week is way more than most people ( my age) do anyway, ( unless they have a dog then they might) and I also do a workout at home for resistance training- lunges, squats etc.

When I worked in my 20s and 30s my job involved a lot of movement, as did my lifestyle when I had small kids at home. Now my work is desk bound so it's different.

I could equally argue that most people are excessively sedentary, certainly I exercise more than the average person but I think it's widely accepted that average actively levels are not enough to promote good health.

That 12-15 miles per week is less than most people your age just illustrates my point that most people become increasingly sedentary as they get older..thats why they get fat

i admit im lucky, self employed & quite alot of free time but i think modern life channesl most people into a lifestyle thats see's them getting increasingly fat as they get older.

In order to counteract this you have to swim against the tide of what 'most people' do, and swimming against the tide is not a popular or easy option

I think you sound a bit patronising- sorry. I don't disagree with what you say but I think your own regime is very unusual because if you walk 15 miles a week- that would be 5 hrs- and swim, run and use the gym, you must be exercising for 2-3 hrs a day. Not many people can do that or have the luxury of doing that if they also work and look after a home.

my 'regime' is unnusual thats exactly the point i have been trying to make!
Not getting fat requres a level of exercise which most regard as excessive...ie excessive relative to what convention dictates

and 15 miles @ 4mph is less that 5 hours!
Any walking much slower doesnt really count as exercise

and 15 miles @ 4mph is less that 5 hours!
Any walking much slower doesnt really count as exercise

Walking at over 3mls per hour is beneficial. I don't know where you found the info saying walking at 4mph is the only walking that 'counts'. If you have a link showing that then please post it.

Anything that raises the heart rate is beneficial and for some people who are not fit, 3mph is fine and better than nothing.

You are being a tad picky! Ok- your 15 miles @ 4mph is almost 4 hrs.
You must still be doing over 2 hrs a day if you are being honest about all the exercise you fit in- and my point is that most people can't afford to do that.

The 'government' recommendation is 30 mins 5 x a week. Though many scientists dispute that and would rather see 1hr x 5 times a week.

But gardening ( digging, mowing the lawn), walking briskly, jogging, cycling, dancing, and other sports all count.

.... all of which demonstrates that it can't possibly be exercise that will magically make us slim. You have to do so much exercise to burn off significant amounts of calories.

For example, my last 25 minute run burnt off just over 300 calories. I run at most 3 times a week, which would be 900 calories. Not many calories lost in a week, yet that is hard exercise. (Plus, of course, exercise can often make you hungry, so you eat more ... )