Best way to lose weight? It refuses to go anywhere!

[BustyBarbara]

Hi, I am 50 and in peri menopause and I have put on 10 pounds and it will not budge! I am also more hungry then usual. I have eaten heathily for the last 2 weeks and normally I would drop 5lbs easily - but nothing is shifting, I might even have put on some weight. Is this normal? What works to shift it? I'm not suitable to HRT for medical reasons.

Cutting calories hugely and ditching alcohol, sugar & bread.
At 5ft 9 I only lost weight by sticking strictly to 1,500 calories or less.

I’m quite a bit older than you. No HRT - it doesn’t agree with me. Like you I struggled to lose weight. What I found works for me low carbs (I don’t cut out carbs completely) and walk 8,000 steps a day. I don’t lose weight on 1500 calories but I lose 1-2 lbs a week on 1200 calories.

Thank you, both. I don't eat bread anyway as I am a celiac and don't have much sugar but I do have a couple of treats a week. It all sounds very boring, but I hate not fitting into 80% of my trousers - my baggy jeans have become skin tight! Oh to be 20 again.

I am exactly the same. I can't take HRT and I too am absolutely starving all the time. I never used to eat breakfast but I've just started in the last 6 months.

I'm trying to just eat healthy foods rather than filling up on snacks but it's hard. I'm 50 and still have regular periods.

It's around 3-4 kg!

I’m also coeliac, diagnosed at 44, absolutely unable to lose any weight since, unsure whether it’s a cause of coeliac or menopause! I can eat really healthily, exercise and nothing.

Work out how many calories you need: https://tdeecalculator.net/
Work out what size deficit you can live with.
Weigh and measure your food till you get a feel for the right portion sizes to fit into your calorie allowance.

Weight loss is as simple as calories in < calories out. Obviously for general health you'd want to use your calories for healthy foods, but it's the numbers that dictate weight.

Just remember your calories required can drop a few hundred once you hit menopause so you need less to stay stable never mind lose

More if you don't do any weight exercises as you lose muscle fast too

Being tired doesn't help , eating anything with sugar or fast carbs can make you wake up more ar night , making you tired, making you eat less well

I do 1200 calories a day to lose weight and it absolutely works. It's hard though - and you have to be absolutely honest with yourself (or with my fitness pal!) about what you're eating and drinking.

I've lost half a stone in three weeks eating between 1200 and 1500 a day.

I do exercise a lot though and I'm on HRT.

My stomach is quite hard though, normally at this weight I get a sort of hollow feeling between my hips but I have a definite firm mound.

But the rest of me looks great!

It's depressing isn't it?

I used to be able to eat bloody anything and was always around 8st 10, never exercised either!

No I hover at around 9st 1/2 and no matter how hard I try it doesn't budge.
I appreciate I'm small but my body looks & feels very different as I'm very small framed.

Yep my stomach is like this! I hate it 😩

Yes, no matter how much weight I have put on before my stomach has always stayed flat - not anymore, it has become slightly dome like and hard.

I'm going to have to watch what I eat, arent I? So dull as I eat quite healthily anyway. Although I have just let myself have 2 GF cakes today as a final hurrah.

Thnk you everyone - glad it's not just me that's struggling.

I think it takes a 'reset' in your 50s and 60s @BustyBarbara I'm pretty much gluten-free.

I am far less active now than in my 20s and 30s. I do exercise daily ( 6K walk but it only uses about 200 cals) but I'm not charging around a large building like I was in my 20s at work plus playing squash and running 3 x a week, , I'm not doing the 'school walk' as I was in my 30s, and my work is desk-based.

I don't count calories, but I have to keep carbs to one portion a day (or 2 at the most) and that's usually 1 slice of gluten free toast, or a couple of oat cakes. I don't eat any refined carbs other than the occasional fish finger (gluten free).

Like you, if I overeat and under-exercise for a month, I can easily put on 2 kgs and that's the difference between jeans fitting nicely and being very tight.

My 'treats' now are 1 sq of 75% dark choc a day, and almond butter ( from the jar!)

Same position- the only method I have found works (for me) is 2 meals a day. Something like overnight oats with fruit for breakfast & a healthy lunch. Maybe a small snack around 4/5 and that is it. Hardly touch booze.

Exercise 4/5 times a week.

Get a fitbit or similar. It’s important to be honest about how much exercise is (not) getting done.

It’s also good motivation for doing exercise if it means still being able to eat cheese.

According to my Fitbit I've done 18k steps today (including a 5k run) and 220 of their active minutes and I've still only burned 1900 calories. It's so unfair! (64yo shortarse)

I also had to chuck out 80% of my trousers , had a depressing afternoon trying things on but got rid of most of them. But I've upped my exercise and have dropped 4 pounds - started jogging again as well as 2/3 gym classes per week. It only takes one relaxed weekend to put it on again tho!

Same here. Almost 50 and want to look nice in a party dress! I have an active job and do lots of exercise but really can eat little these days to stay the same! A few weekends of over indulging and my clothes all too tight!

I lost weight a couple of years ago with very strict logging on My Fitness Pal but it has crept back on again.

I'm back on it now and being more strict but rounded tummy still there! Also have coeliac so don't eat much carbs and am trying to avoid UPF.

Agree completely with PP that adequate sleep is vital. If I'm tired I reach for UPF snacks for a pick me up and they are calorie dense and awful for me.

You've all been really helpful, depressing but helpful! And yes, I had a GF pizza last week and it was like all my healthy eating for 7 days meant nothing - I was straight back to super tight trousers again.
I will download My Fitness Pal and do more exercise - which I have lost motivation for because of peri menopause. it is a vicious circle...