The MIddle Age bloody Spread! What can we do?

[soupdragon321]

Just been looking through a thread about flat stomachs (ah, how I long for mine - from when I was a about 14!). Anyhoo. I'm coming up the the big 50 next year and have been on HRT for about 18 months. Never had much of a waist (typical apple), but now it's thickened even more and it's depressing me. Have tried lots of things but nothing shifting it, to the point I'm in half a mind just to give up and let nature take its course! I guess I'm asking if anyone else has this? I'm not prepared to spend 80% of my life trying to get rid of 10% of my weight - just seems like a ridiculous amount of effort for very little gain! Rant over!

Exercise more and eat less. As someone who never put weight on until my mid 40's no matter what I ate it's a struggle.

Jillian Michaels was discussing this on her You Tube channel a few months ago.

I am 49 and also an apple. No longer have a defined waist but have managed to keep the middle aged spread somewhat in check by reducing carbs, IF and cutting out alcohol and sugar. ( Aware this may sound completely joyless to some). Not on HRT. Exercise helps me very little but I have lost about a stone doing this.

Yep, I second reducing carbs. Take out the packets of e.g. rice in your cupboard and compare the carbs - they all list out of 100g so you can compare like for like. Some are 25g per 100g, some are 75g per 100g. So the first, you can have three times as much.

Actually I cut out wheat a couple of years ago. Thought I'd give it a couple of days and I'm still at it (have the occasional croissant, that's all). But have cut out bread (apart from old varieties), biscuits, pies, pasta (pea/lentil pasta instead), pizza, cakes - all the crap. Have 90% choc instead. So basically, all the fat plus sugar combo that you don't get in nature. I now wake up with a flat stomach. Eat a lot of raw veg, which does bloat my stomach while I'm digesting, but wake up with it flat :)

I’m older than you and used to be an hourglass. Unfortunately changes in body shape, particularly losing your waist, are hormonal and there’s nothing to be done about it. I weigh exactly the same as I did pre menopause but my body shape is entirely different. I have a friend who’s a size 8 and her waist has gone too.

Sorry.

I meant the choc as a treat - not in place of the pasta

#Blossomtoes - that's jut not true. Diet plays a huge part. Don't give up! Also, hula hoop helps waist too - I do it in front of the telly.

I think it’s been proved that the fat around the middle isn’t obligatory as we age. What happens is the fat that accumulates is stored around the middle more because of hormone changes. The key is to lose the fat in the first place.

The first thing I would do in your position is go low carb. Try and keep sugar as low as possible.

@annacondom

#Blossomtoes - that's jut not true. Diet plays a huge part. Don't give up! Also, hula hoop helps waist too - I do it in front of the telly.

It is true. I appreciate you don’t want to hear it but it just is. I stopped worrying about it a long time ago and changed the way I dress to the apple I now am from the hourglass I was when I still had oestrogen.

@annacondom

#Blossomtoes - that's jut not true. Diet plays a huge part. Don't give up! Also, hula hoop helps waist too - I do it in front of the telly.

Was about to say the same thing! I've been extraordinarily lazy over the past few months - but normally my weighted hula hoop is the very best thing for a toned middle. (And I only started using it in middle age.)

I am a typical pear shape, so always had a small, defined waist but larger thighs. As I have advanced through my 40s, I have found that the midriff fat is definitely reduced when I reduce my sugar intake. Also exercises specially for the core/obliques help - little and often is more effective than infrequent longer sessions.

Placemarking in solidarity with the middle age spread community.

Pilates (lower abs and obliques for starters) might help. Possibly low carb also, as others have already mentioned.

You probably son’t need to go low carb straight away. Firstly just remove processed stuff (ie things made from flour or non-wholegrains) from your diet like white pasta and breads and cakes. If you eat wholemeal pasta / bread then reduce the quantities you eat to no more than 3 servings per week. Don’t start prescripting fresh fruit and veg until you have already done that.

I personally feel less bloated and fit when I start my morning with something with protein - eg 3 scrambled eggs with a mountain of veg. Then lunch is usually just a bowl of frozen mixed veg that’s been heated up with a little seasoning.

I eat a bowl of oatmeal daily with berries on top.Of course, is not as tasty as toast with butter. But I have got used to it and that horrible bloated feeling has gone. Plus I dont look like a python who has swallowed Mowgli any more. I don't eat raw veg bcos I dont like salad..But I do eat a lot of cooked veg.

Don’t drink alcohol & eat a diet of unprocessed food.

If it wasn't for the link between fat round our middles and disease, I would say simply to dress accordingly.
I think we should have huge daily warnings come through to our phones from the age of 40 to lose weight before menopause because it can feel like fighting a losing battle otherwise

@Fluffycloudland77

Don’t drink alcohol & eat a diet of unprocessed food.

Yep. And don’t eat sugar. I do all of that and yet my waist is still awol but I suspect I’m older than most of you. My waist was present and correct until after I was 60.

@annacondom

I meant the choc as a treat - not in place of the pasta

Oh so THAT is where i’ve been going wrong...

I try and go for a balance of eating healthily, keeping active, wearing clothes that offer a bit of structure to counteract the sagginess and um... decent underwear. Like Blossom I found weird things began happening to my body from around 60+, and I'm now torn between wanting a long and healthy and stylish old age while not wishing to spend my twilight years avoiding fecking carbs.

This year I've lost 3 stone and am now a healthy weight, I'm 64 and determined to be my best self before I retire. I've always had a very straight up and down figure with not much of a waist definition but now I do have a waist. I believe the reason for this is that I have been going to several pilates classes each week and all the core work and twisting involved has paid dividends. My diet has restricted carbs, though I do need some to feel OK, but I have 100% given up alcohol and sugary things, and feel much better for it.

Wait up - does HRT contribute to middle aged spread?
Haven't started... but was keeping it in my mental back pocket as a means to smooth the ride to menopause.

I'm now torn between wanting a long and healthy and stylish old age while not wishing to spend my twilight years avoiding fecking carbs.

A waist isn’t necessary to be stylish! My mum lived to be 97 and hers disappeared at about the same age as mine did.

20km a week, 3X 1 min plank every morning and some pilates. Aged 45

That gives me hope, @traumatisednoodle, though I don't think I can exercise that much. My mom is 76, eats a lot of carbs and is very slim. I seem to remember that she had a tummy during menopause, but lost it after she was done with it.

It's a total of maybe 3 hours a week. I try to do 2 runs before work (30mins) and a longer one at the weekend (10k, an hour and a bit) then morning exercises are literally 5 mins before my shower. Oh I also recently started doing 30 squats while the bean to cup machine does it's stuff (another 2 mins).