If anyone has lost the saggy menopausal belly , how did you do it ?

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I'm specifically putting menopausal belly because I know lots of people say the hormones affect the way fat is laid down.

It;s the saggy apron flappy skin and bloaty belly that stares back at me .

I;m 56 and menopausal .(2 DC but not CSection)
I don;t drink or smoke
I cannot do the high fat/low carb because it will give me extreme pain.

I;m not even contemplating HRT or surgery but I know many have found success there .

I lost a stone last year through extreme ill heath (in a month ) but this has likely crept back .

I'm not looking for a miracle , but I don;t want to just accept it and I know as I get older its more difficult , plus the diabetes risk is higher .

Any tips ? Excercise specific to my abdomen ?

TIA

I second this.

Useful thread ! I have never had a belly until this past year or so. Am 55 and have been on HRT for just over a year.

I eat well, always track what I eat. I do like wine but have cut right back as can’t fit the calories in to my allowance. I like to lift weights, run 5 k once or twice a week and try and fit in a few long walks at a brisk pace for LISS

I’m feeling pretty crappy at being unable to shift the extra layer I seem to be carrying 🥲

Lurking:place marking to come back later

I third it.

But it is shockingly expensive (where I live anyway)

49 here and been on HRT for 2 year. I've been a runner for the last 4 years.

Between sept and Nov I piled on a stone. Seemingly out of nowhere! And it's simply not shifting. I'm seriously fed up.

I read the Next Level. I am:
Eating carbs before exercising
Eating protein shortly after exercising
I'm lifting heavy twice a week
Sprint intervals once a week
Running 3 times a week. (About 20 miles a week)

But weight is NOT GOING.

My only remaining vice is wine. And I've cut down heaps. Cut down even more?! Kill me now 😩😩

LiftwithCee on youtube. Weightlifting at home, eat more protein, watch stress levels.

Tummy disappearing (slowly) at 51.

This is the most sensible thing I've read! Totally agree!

I’ve been on HRT for the past 3 months and also WW since January though I’ve not been tracking or going to meetings for the past 3 weeks.

I’ve been doing sciatica leg exercises for 20 minutes every other day plus dance workouts and I tend to go on this for a daily/weekly diet:-

breakfast 20g oats with water and 80g blueberries
lunch either half a pot of fresh soup - can be broccoli and cheddar or veggie plus 3 cheese oatcakes, some batons of cucumber and cherry tomatoes and radishes. On the days when not soup it’s oatcakes or Ryvita with low fat cottage cheese, Quorn mini eggs and salad. Plus minestrone slim a soup.

snacks are fruit usually nectarines, plums and tangerines or apple spread with peanut butter and cheese. Also pots of low sugar jelly. Also the odd square of chocolate and Pop Chips.

Dinners can be anything from cod fishcake with quarter or half jacket potato and veg (broccoli and carrots), to Turkish chicken pilau, WW broccoli and potato gnocchi with spinach, WW veggie lasagne etc.

I’ve lost a few llbs with this but it can be hard to stick to. Tummy fat definitely reducing though.

Weekends I have peanut butter and marmite on toast or have done WW scrambled eggs and mushrooms on toast.

I quite like Warburtons thins and their thin bagels and even rye bread but Nimble bread I can’t get on with so back to Vogel soya and linseed.

I've not lost my sag entirely but that's been there since last DC was born when I was 30. The extra peri belly I gained has completely gone though, so I have my 30 year old stomach back and 24" waist. I went vegan, cut calories to my recommended amount, walked briskly for 30 mins a day and have lost almost all my surplus fat, belly was the last to go, but it did eventually. I also hold in my core pretty much all the time and watch my posture. Belly busting yoga helps too I think. Oh and I have never reduced carbs. No need. It's meat and dairy that caused my belly fat.

£55 an hour for a private session with the instructor who specialises in reformer plates in my area.

Another disheartened “where did that come from” 48 year old ! I am on starter dose of HRT over 6 months , relatively active but feel this belly and bigger boobs has appeared overnight. 2021 I was 60kg, now 75 and it’s not shifting !

Got my HRT review next week, do I need to increase level? I’ll read next level ( it just arrived), get back on Caroline Girvan and IF. I did really well in covid/times with IF !

i think diet is sabotaging me. I love bread and carbs. I am registered on waitlist for Zoe starting May so willl see if that give me some extra focus and insight

This thread makes me feel less alone, thank you. It is getting me down more than I let on in real life but I need encouragement to change and support !!

You need to do the following:

• reduce refined carbohydrates and sugars
• eat complex carbs and increase protein such as chicken, fish, eggs, tofu and lentils
• do 20 minute HIIT workouts 3-4 times a week

And this is the big one...

• WEIGHTs. You need to do body resistance training. Get a set of dumbells and a kettlebell and use youtube videos. There are tonnes. In 40s and 50s you need to change your body composition not just do cardio. You need to build and rebuild that muscle.

I found this useful recently and realised I need to work on my posture a lot.

Also make sure you look after your pelvic floor. Try looking up yoga for deep core and pelvic floor.

I think this is very hard but accepting that it is biologically harder now and will be slower to work than in the past has helped me avoid the recriminations. Cutting down or cutting out sugar is my goal but I have a wild sweet tooth so I’m struggling with it.

This is such a useful thread! The YouTube link suggestions look very promising.

Really useful information and suggestions here. Marking my place.

I think possibly a poor posture makes belly size look bigger.
Stretch out front of upper chest, some cobra type yoga exercises. If you stand straighter you will look slimmer. We spend so much time looking down!

Following

Am watching this thread. Thank you for the suggestions and info.

Next Level is a great book.

If you are lifting weights and building muscle, the scale might not move. How are your clothes fitting? If they are looser, then that's a great sign.

Personally, I would drop the sprint intervals and increase the lifting to three times a week. I would also ditch the running for something LISS. Why? Some exercise like sprinting, spinning and other similar traditional cardio raise cortisol levels which make it harder to lose weight. I know this from my own experience, and once I stuck to LISS and weight lifting, the weight started to come off.

However, there was another factor -

You mention you are on HRT. Are you perimenopausal or post-menopausal? If it's the former, then your hormones are still in flux, and more than possible your HRT dosage is not correct. If your hormones aren't balanced, you won't lose weight, no matter how/when you train and if you're eating in a calorie deficit and tracking macros. Wine can also have a detrimental effect on HRT, so it really is in your best interest to stop drinking, if only while you train and lose this weight.

Good luck, you will get there in the end, it's just a matter of figuring out what will work for you.

If I’m strict so what I generally do now is I halve carbs - so eg quarter small potato and palm sized portion of rice and pasta. I make lasagna with WW lentil lasagna sheets and also have WW lentil penne but I still do have eg the Rana gnocchi but 80g and with a 80g portion of sautéed mushrooms and spinach. I also have cheese oatcakes but 3 each or Ryvita. Anything you put on eg pasta like Parmesan cheese you can have but weigh it.

You can have chocolate but get the best you can have - I liked Deliciously Ella chocolate with nuts, some low sugar chocolate from Holland and Barrett and Doisy and Daim chocolate. But only one or two squares a time.

Also a big water container but with low sugar orange squash as I don’t like to drink water all day, I do have water though and green/herbal tea. You often mistake hunger for thirst.

Bread is vogel soya and linseed and strictly kept for weekend.

This works better for me than cutting out carbs. Plus 15-20 mins walking until you’re slightly out of breath every day or every other day.

Pop chips are a nice treat from crisps. Also the Snack Company sweet Thai chilli rice cakes.

Following. TY for the v. useful posts

Place marking here if I may?

I work out religiously, heavy weights (e.g. 40K on RDL), got a pt, the works. I do an hour of weights and then 30 mins hiit three times a week. At 56 that will NOT shift my thick middle (I persist for mental and general health benefits). That is down to diet and mother nature is against me. If I try to cut down I get really hungry. You can't build muscle and lose weight at the same time. Ask a body builder, they alternate 'cutting' and 'building'. I am a sucker for the over 50s muscle group on Facebook and the like so I know it can be done but if you aren't genetically predisposed to stay slim, you have ask 'is it worth it?'. For some people, it is, and they look great but I cba to weigh everything I put in my mouth and prep food for the week etc. I still cook for and eat with the family, including teenage girls. I don't want them to absorb the message that their looks are the most important thing about them (it's too late for me but the rational bit of my brain knows a thick middle is not the end of the world). I don't want to discourage anyone from working out or lifting weights but it may not deliver the waistline you are yearning for (but you will feel better).