Premenopausal- is anyone else just gaining and gaining weight?

[hooliodancer]

I started being premenopausal 3 years ago I think- that was when my periods started to go a bit weird anyway. This coincided with an extremely stressful time in my life, and also giving up nicotine replacement. Anyway, I put on 1 and a half stone and went from a size 10 to a 12. I am only 5 foot 2, so any weight gain shows.

I have lost the weight 3 times now, by doing my fitness pal. The thing is, every time I stop restricting what I eat the weight just piles back on- with even more on top.

So I am now a size 14. I have a load of size 10 and 12 clothes up in the loft. I look like a blimp.

I go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and really go for it- I do fat burn, aerobics, zumba, I practically live in the sodding gym.I injured my leg and couldn't go for 3 weeks, now most of my size14 clothes are really tight. I have been really careful with food during that time, although I eat very healthily anyway. I just can't put my size 14s in the loft too...

I just feel my body won't stop gaining weight. Is this because of the perimenopause? Has anyone else experienced this?

The thought of restricting my diet for ever is just shit. I love food and cooking is my hobby. I have been doing lots of diet recipes in the last few weeks, Jamie's Superfood etc. I just can't face my fitness pal again, as I know over Christmas it will all go on again as it did last year, even though I didn't go mad.

I'm SO pissed off, can you tell?

Bean, yes it seems we are reacting to perimenopause in the same way! In a nutshell- what worked before is not working any more. So I am going to have to eat in a way I am not really happy with, i.e. permanently restricting OR accept getting fatter and fatter.

Lizzy, I feel your pain with the crying etc. For me that goes in waves. After a period of having a period every 2 weeks and breaking things-clumsy- and weeping, my periods have become regular again and the crying and rage have stopped. For now...
I just have the fatness at the moment.

It's all just rubbish isn't it? I didn't even know what the perimenopause was until I developed the rage and the HUGE belly and googled it!

Beans- all post were for the OP!
Sorry for any confusion.

OP- I'm afraid I just eat like this as a way of life. If I don't then the weight just piles on round my waist and I'm more miserable with that than doing without some foods.

Yes, I find two ryvita (the ones with sesame seeds) are 72 cals and with a cup of pukka tea, they will give me a carb fix. When I first did 5:2 (a lot more extreme for me) I got such a carb withdrawal headache.

I like carbs too so I eat a bowl of porridge with half skimmed milk and half water if I'm desperate for carbs. If I feel like treating myself :-p I stir in a small spoon of apple sauce (about 13 cals)

abraid2 there's that to look forward to then :-p having a flat ass like my poor mum! (she is the one who pointed it out to me). I think she said derriere though.

Ryvita are indeed our friend.

I have been eating a lot of cauliflower mash and rice to replace carbs, and love both! I add low fat soft cheese and a tablespoon of chicken stock for the mash.

Lovely!

And now I know they're not going to make you lick your lips, but if you carefully construct a very low calorie supper and boil eight frozen brussel, they will fill you up! 36 calories. So sometimes I eat a small quantity of something tasty and then 'top up' with brussel sprouts. It's an exciting life

OP yoyo dieting will never work. If you lose weight too fast your body goes into starvation mode and when you start to eat normally again it extracts even more energy from the food to store as fat, this is why you are going backmup to higher weight each time. You have to find a diet/ exercise regime you can live with permanently rather than going on and off the regime.

I am also a menopausal foodie, love cooking, obsessed with food struggling with weight, but managing to keep it under control. Weighing myself every day, walking as much as possible upto 10k steps per day, (with strenous exercise I just eat more) Getting plenty of sleep and rest helps me control weight. I am staying within 3 or 4 lbs of weight the dr told me i should be. I have never counted calories calorie counting is a diet industry con but try to avoid processed rubbish and eat as much fruit and veg as possible.

So, good news:

1. You should not do the fitness pal thing again, it has failed 3 times.
2. You can still be a foodie, but cut the portion size of your main meal by a half, save the other half for another day, chuck it in the bin, or donate it to your teenage son if you have one. You will be amazed you will not get hungry because your body does not need such big portions any more.

Hope you stop fèeling so fed up soon!

Starvation mode is a myth.

I've had to go to fat fighters since being peri-menopausal. It's depressing really but I guess in time I'll get used to it.

I love the idea that you googled rage and huge tummy and got peri menopause!

It's rubbish, a weeble on stilts does sum it up...

Bean, yeah, flat arse to look forward to, sigh! Lucky us.

I agree with Fast about portion size.eg DH has porridge every day but he has a full bowlful. I have less than half a bowl. If we have fish and chips- a rare treat- I cut the batter off the fish and have maybe 6 chips. If I make a fish pie then he has 2/3rds and I have a 1/3rd, he has 2-3 homemade fishcakes and I have one, but pile on the veg. I don't feel deprived. I don't get it right all the time but small long term changes do help. I never eat to feel 'stuffed'.

Calorie counting is not a con

Its science.

Yes I agree there is science behind calorie counting, so perhaps overstated it by saying its a con, but IMO is overrated.

I think rather than counting calories it is better to avoid 'empty' calories. I.e. avoid high calorie foods with no nutritional value: fry up for breakfast is better for you than a massive bowl of frosties with the same number of calories; any breakfast is better than no breakfast at all.

Get a good nights sleep , which I am rubbush at, and you can more easily lose weight probably becase its easier to resist temptation when you are not tired.

Reduce portion size and carry on eating same stuff as before, you will lose weight, you dont need to count calories, just look at the volume.

Snack on fruit rather than manufactured snacks. In general, eat real food rather than over-processed food, which is good news for those of us who like cooking. Look up Mike Pollan, ' Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' There would be no diet industry if there was not a food industry whose profits rely on selling us more and more food we dont need.

All of that is good advice, but a word of caution about fruit. There was an interesting programme on TV a while back asking people to rate the cals in plates of food. Most people though the bowl of fruit salad had fewer calories than the plate with a rasher of bacon,egg and a tomato. Wrong! The fruit salad was a large bowlful and the sugar in the grapes, bananas etc meant it was high calorie. Also, our bodies don't differentiate between fructose and refined carbs from processed cereals. Snacking on a small amount of fruit is fine, but so is a small amount of protein such as plain Greek yoghurt or a small 3cm cube of hard cheese. And give up all the low fat nonsense- another scam by the food industry who add sugar to almost everything (yoghurts, soups, ready meals) to disguise lack of flavour , cheap ingredients, and also feed sugar addiction.

All this talk about weight gain at menopause - which definitely happens - but no-one has mentioned thyroid function which can also play up at this time and lead to weight gain. OP sounds like you need a blood test to look at thyroid function. Btw this itself is fraught with problems because the medical profession has a reference range above which they consider you have a thyroid problem which they will treat. However many women have problems with thyroid function while within the healthy range - and will experience symptoms - the most notable of which are weight gain, feeling cold and fatigue especially after exercise.

Re the diet thing - I agree calorie counting is not necessary, and also that you defo have to get used to eating less food permanently when post-menopausal ( depending on the thyroid thing of course). I eat way less than I used to all the time. I'm permanently on a low fat diet not religiously though as I eat oily fish, olive oil, avocados and coconut milk and do enjoy fish and chips once in a while (and eat most of it!). Of course you need to restrict fats to restrict calorie intake! Just eat less of them and stick to "good" fats.

I am trying to lose a few pounds at the mo' (I'm also short) - and have lost 3 pounds by almost eliminating carbs (that is - classic carb rich food like wheat, cereals, pasta spuds etc) - but I don't go hungry! I eat more protein and loads and loads of veg, and beans - and have reduced fruit. No processed foods either.

If you do all of this most of the time, at least you can forget about it from time to time and have treats, wine, meals out etc without worrying - that's what I do! So I am on a permanent diet but I enjoy other food ( and chocolate sometimes!) as well!

Also re exercise remember that muscles burn more calories at rest than fat so make sure all your exercise includes some sort of resistance training, body conditioning etc to develop muscles so that you can eat more without weight gain and also look in better shape

Oh yes the waist size thing - that doesn't hold for post-menopausal women. You can be well within normal BMI ie not overweight and still have a waist that size (ie 31.5!) Mine is that size and I do not look at all fat (I have a medium size frame) but my hips are 36, boobs 36, thighs slim - just can't shift all the tyre and despite exercise - it is due to the fat redistribution at menopause hence the flat bum mentioned upthread!!

calorie counting is necessary for many people. It's a myth put out there that if you just eat healthily, watch your portions and exercise then it'll all be fine. But most people aren't so precisely in tune with their exact calorie requirements that they can get it exactly right by guessing, or using their own hunger as a guide. If I do that, I am bigger than I want to be. Calorie counting is indeed very necessary, even when making very healthy food choices.

Last night I was looking at Tess Daly- same age as me- and wondering where her huge belly is? Where is Liz Hurley's? I was getting quite annoyed!

I agree about calorie counting. I am just going to have to do it forever it seems. I certainly don't think I yo-yo diet. I just meant I have recently restricted my calories to 1500 per day, lost weight, then as soon as I return to normal eating, i.e. eating to maintain rather than lose, I instantly regain the weight plus more whilst eating healthily and exercising. I never eat processed food, I make everything. I never fry anything. I dont drink fruit juice or fizzy drinks. I hardly eat fruit really since the dentist scared me off!

I wonder what the evolutionary reason for all this is? And my point about Tess Daly has a serious part too. This clearly doesn't happen to everyone, so there must be something genetic in it too.

Waist size postmenopause
Is there any evidence that it doesn't apply?

I'd have thought the contrary. Fat redistribution postmenopause is a fact- though women on HRT may avoid this. But that doesn't mean that a thicker waist is acceptable or that risks don't apply- far from it!

Fat laid down around the waist is often the tip of the iceberg with the amount of unseen visceral fat around the internal organs increasing correspondingly. I'd have thought that trying to maintain a low-ish waist measurement was especially important postmenopause . women's risk of CVD increases to equal men's, postmenopause, partly due to lack of oestrogen, but also and the increase in abdo fat. Diabetes is also linked to this.

hoolio
I know you do lots of exercise but aerobic exercise rarely shifts weight unless it's combined with less food- because we end up hungrier. Have you added in some muscle building exercise so that your muscles will burn up calories even when you are sitting down? Have you got an app or similar to track the amount of calories you burn when exercising? I know I got a surprise when I worked out how many calories my 3-mile hike over steep hills burned- it was only about 250! Ok, if I kept to my usual way of eating that would eventually result in some weight loss if I walked that far daily, but I don't have to eat much extra to negate those 250s cals.

Re Liz Hurley- she's often explained how little she eats to maintain her size. She does cut down hugely before any publicity shots (according to the interviews she has given) and goes on a really low calories diet for a week or so. And Tess does have a tummy at times- there was speculation not that long ago that she was pregnant! Spanx is their friend.

Liz Hurley has admitted to counting out nine peanuts though. I think she is open about the fact that she eats very little! I bet TD is the same. They might be fairly blessed, with a relatively high metabolism, but when vernon posted the pic of TD in her bikini in their garden with the hose, she was like a 25 year old. Not a ripple on her belly.

This is an interesting read about visceral / internal adipose fat and menopause

[[http://www.myhealthywaist.org/the-concept-of-cmr/intra-abdominal-adipose-tissue-the-culprit/causes-and-correlates-of-intra-abdominal-obesity/influence-of-menopause/page/2/print.html Intra abdominal fat CVD and menopause]]

Obviously there is a mix of research, but here it shows that visceral fat in postmenopausal women can increase by 57% compared to pre-menopausal women. There is also some evidence here that HRT may prevent this.

I know I should do more weights at the gym. I do a class every week which uses weights, but I agree that's probably not enough.

Good old Tess in the garden with her hose... that made me laugh!

I totally agree that under active thyroid should be ruled out in people who are gaining weight like this before blaming it on the menopause.

I think my metabolism has gotten faster since menopause, I'm 8st and I eat around 2800 cals per day...I'm sure that's a fair bit more than I ate at the same weight when I was in my 20's & 30's
no hrt and I've not got any thicker around the middle

my understanding is that, with reduced estrogen any fat that you do gain is much more likely to be stored intra abominably

wow, that's a lot suzanne, lucky you

I feel energised after a workout, and not cold, so I guess I don't have an underactive thyroid. can't blame that