How did you combat weight gain ?

[Flossiefoo]

Feeling really miserable as I have expanded especially over the last few months ! I am probably about 2.5st overweight :-(

I am not takinh HRT, tried it and didn't help.

Few details: I'm in year 6 now and although hot flushes have lessened, I feel really hot on and off all night to the extent it wakes me up, fling my sheeps wool light duvet off, then on again. Fan on , window open ...
Painful joints, aching ... tired, Blah, blah, blah ...

But it's the weight gain that is making me feel very unhappy. I won't go shopping, nothing fits me and I'm finding exercise other than walking difficult due to Fibro, pains and stiffness :(

Would be really interested to hear how other lovely ladies have dealt with such weight gain ? Any natural options out there that really work ?

Eat regularly and often. Seems stupid advise but this is only thing that worked for me. This is how it goes:

1. Eat something within first 30 minutes of waking up. It will stabilise your sugar for the whole day. If you drink coffee then take it with your breakfast and not first thing in the morning. I would say go for a banana as your body has low sugar in the morning.
2. Eat your breakfast after 2-2.5 hours of your first meal. After that eat something every 2.5 to 3 hours. Try to eat foods that are nutrition dense rather than calorie dense. If you eat this regularly your portions will eventually become smaller but don't force it. Eating every few hours will help with insulin levels.
3. Ditch the sugar or at least reduce it. So no to cakes and biscuits. If you do want to eat cake once in a while then eat with your breakfast rather than any other time of the day.
4. Try to eat more dairy if you can tolerate it. If you are not on hrt then extra calcium will help you. So a glass of milk , slice of cheese should be your ho to snacks rather than crisp.
5. Don't punish your self. If you are really craving for something then have it but in small portion.
6. Don't have more than 2 fruits a day so for 5 a day have 2 fruits and 3 veg( carrot, cucumber etc)
7. Try to eat good amount of protein , aim for .8 times your weight. If you try to eat this much protein then your food choices will automatically become healthy. This is not a weight loss plan. Intact you are suppose to eat this much protein as part of balanced diet.
8. Don't consume any stimulant after 4 pm so no sugar, coffee/tea and alcohol. This will help you with your hot flashes and insomnia as well.

If you do all the above you will gradually loose weight but will be able to maintain it forever and you will get rid of bloating.

I have no solution, but I feel your pain.

I put on 2 and a half stone eating no more than before, and exercising as much as before- which was 4 times a week.

So depressing.

I'm the biggest I've ever been now, I look dreadful. I'm on a calorie counting diet which I'm losing about half a pound a week on. I find it so hard.

My metabolism has changed, so without exercise I only burn 1300 calories a day, so to lose anything I need to eat less than a 1000 a day!

@ahran2K your advice seems to contradict a lot of recent thinking on diet and health.
The advice is to leave long gaps between meals as far as possible. This is because if you are constantly eating, your body is constantly throwing out insulin to convert carbs to glucose and this can lead to insulin resistance ( diabetes.)

A lot of advice is along the lines of have a 12-13 hr fast between last meal at night and breakfast ( so maybe 7pm then 8am.)

Bananas are mainly carbs and sugar so not as healthy as people think.

A better breakfast would be 2 eggs.

OP- the only answer is to eat fewer calories.
For me, that means very few carbs.

Nomal day might be

Breakfast at 8-9am eggs with 1 slice toast or 30gms oats with half milk/ water as porridge or 150mls full fat greek yoghurt with berries.

Lunch- homemade soup- vegetable with some pulses like lentils in it.
Fruit but not grapes or bananas are high in sugar. Sometimes a portion of cheese, an apple, oat cakes.

Dinner (no later than 7)- grilled or baked fish, chicken breast, homemade staples like shepherds pie, a roast dinner, stir fry, loads of veg.
Fruit and maybe more yoghurt.

Note- no snacks, no cakes or biscuits, crisps, pasta, rice, etc etc daily but maybe once a week.

Also @Flossiefoo If you didn't try at least 3 types of HRT I'd suggest you try again.

Weight gain post meno is very serious in terms of health (much higher risk of breast cancer with weight than using hrt.)

HRT can take a while to get right. But if you do get it right, it will help and you will more more energised and able to exercise.

How many types and what did you try?

@JinglingHellsBells I agree it is contradictory to whatever is floating on the internet, but I had tried so many diets - high protein low carb, high fat low carb, weight watchers, slim fast and few others and I lost weight and gained back more so in the end I asked a doctor and sports nutritionist to advise me. A lot what I have written is what she told me and it is not even tailor made. It was so contradictory to everything I had done so far that I did not even follow it for weeks and thought the lady was bonkers.
But after a few weeks I thought I will try it for 2 weeks and give up if it does not work. And I am still following it , my sugar is normal , my cholesterol is down and i feel more energetic.
I am not saying you should try it or even believe me it , it is just something that has helped me so I was trying to let others know.

@ahran2k 'what's floating on the internet' is actually research written by doctors and nutritionists.

The stuff you write is fine - eating the right types of food- but the part that is wrong according to current research is eating every 2-3 hours. (I think you've got a mistake in your second point- ' Eat your breakfast after 2-2.5 hours of your first meal .)

The best thing for health and weight is NOT to 'graze' and constantly eat every couple of hours, but to have reasonable 4-5 gaps between meals.

@JinglingHellsBells I know its research and so is eating every 2.5-3 hrs the only difference is one advising to eat leaving long gaps is for people with leptin resistance and frequent meals is for insulin resistant people. Both categories are overweight and it is difficult to differentiate between the two.
Leptin resistant people are usually who eat a lot but do not have satiety and on the other hand insulin resistant are mostly those who eat less and not enough calories and still gain weight. Harmonal imbalance makes you more insulin resistant than leptin resistant.
Since recent research has been more based on leptin therefore you see more and more theories in log gaps in meals. That is thing with nutrition advise it changes so fast first fat was bad , then sugar was bad now fat is good. It is for this reason I went to a doctor who explained me all this. Still don't what's 100% right, I guess whatever works for you.

This is interesting, to listen to, also trying something similar to ahran2k, after trying various things...what led me to this point is having a genetic tendency to not dealing with much fat in the diet (APOE4 gene) apart from the eating a meal before breakfast (I just tend to have a high protein low fat yoghurt about 9-10am after the school run)

Trying to have at least 15-20g protein while miniming sat fats, and also reducing white carbs / sugar, so high GI, high protein and low fat (with a little fats like nuts, and avocado.

But as i said this is specific to my genes, just interested to see someone else found it helpful. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks (not bars / choc snacks but things like an apple, or a handful of nuts. Also a bit of intermittent fasting (either 9am-5pm or 10-6- 16:8 fasting).

To the OP I find aqua aerobics good as it is in the water so you don't get too hot and sweaty so helps with the hot flushes. It is also meant to be a good exercise for fibro.

I agree that info keeps changing.

For the OP though it's worth realising that post meno and indeed in middle age our calories requirement falls so it's no good eating what you did at 20 or 30 and expecting to stay the same weight.

Most of us simply need less food (smaller portions too) and should avoid refined carbs / sugar and live off loads of veg, some fruit, oily fish, lean meat, nuts and seeds and full fat dairy in small amounts, and a small amount of wholegrains.

The general "move more, eat less" is as true for the menopause as everything else. You just have to make yourself do it, however much you don't want to walk a bit further or however much you fancy another slice of cake.

Getting used to smaller portions etc is far better than following the latest sleb diet plan where they claim you can pile your plate high.

Yep, Jingling, that is very true. But SO depressing...

I have been buying Mindful Chef recipe boxes. They are really good, and really helping me to cut out carbs.

I LOVE food, love cooking, love steak and chips, roast potatoes, chocolate steamed pudding, scones with cream and jam, roast beef, cauliflower cheese...

i am with @Kazzyhoward, it;s all about Eat Less Move More, no way around it.

We (including DH in this) are both 50ish, and making more of an effort to be active...longer walks, working up to C25K on a cross trainer and treadmill. Also eating less...no particular diet but just smaller portions, no eating between meals (scowls at dh and his just the one packet of biscuits) and it is working...slowly, but it is. I was a wobbly 16-18 (small 20) and new jeans are a 14 with a little room in a year

If you are still suffering with hot flushes and insomnia go back to the GP....there's all sorts of options. I struggled on for a couple of years with horrendous flooding periods, sorted those with a new Mirena but the aching bones and flushes were still dreadful...waited that out for another two years and it just wasn't improving so I went back to GP and have Oestrogel....honestly I feel like a NEW WOMAN...

sleeping through the night is no longer a myth and a dream, every night...right though, not even getting up to pee!!
My ankles no longer make me want to chop my feet off
I can lie still for more than ten minutes without every bone in my body singing in pain

and that's just two pumps daily of the gel rubbed in, only side effect was some occasional spotting for 3 months, but no more ...been on it since last autumn and am really just angry with myself that I did not go in sooner.

How is it depressing @Movinghouseatlast? Surely it's far more depressing to see your body shape change, feel fat and be at risk from diseases associated with fatness?

seriously, it's only depressing if you think healthy food in unappetising, or if you can never eat the food you love.

I eat most of the things on your 'love' list but only in very small amounts and not every day. So like roast potatoes would be 1 potato not 5 or 6. Puddings will be the size of a ramekin, not a soup or cereal bowl.

You can still enjoy lovely healthy food that doesn't pile on the pounds.

Make yourself some lovely soup with loads of veg, blend it, add a small spoon of cream and it's every bit as nice as a pasty and chips or sandwiches :)

I try to go as long as I can before I eat, which means waiting until I'm properly hungry. I try not to eat after 9pm. I try to stick to around 800 to 1,000 calories. I've still put a stone on though since meno.

Low carb. Don't snack.

It's a bugger though as all I really want to do is stuff my face with carby junk all day long.