struggling to lose weight - peri-menopause or in the menopause?

[Scooterloo]

I've been struggling to lose weight for the first time ever in my life. Around this time after Easter i think I need to rein in my eating. I'm usually disciplined and it happens gradually.

Not this time. My weight is fluctuating, I've GAINED when assumed I'd lose it. Every week the scales say a different thing - today it looks like I'm back to my initial weight. I've been 5:2 for 6 weeks now and exercise regularly.

Chatting to somebody who is in the menopause and she was talking about weight issues when I twigged that this must be the reason. I'm 48 with irregular periods and aches and pains when I never used to have any and now this.

It is so demoralising. Anybody going through the same? Or have any ideas about what I can do?

I've managed to lose weight.

But have now plateaued again (4-5 lbs above my 2nd (lower) target), but am hoping somehow to whoosh it away before the schools break up. I'm sure that used to be connected to menstrual cycle but now, who knows?

Also, where has my bum gone? Boobs can be hoicked up with cunning scaffolding. But what about buttocks that have suddenly gone flat? (change in shape is the issue here - not change in size)

I turned 39 last month and the past month I can't lose weight. I used to be able to lose weight really quickly when I do low carb. I hope this is not yet perimenopause.

I'm 53 and peri-menopausal.I seem to have been for years!
I have also found it impossible to lose weight.I've recently read Michael Mosleys Healthy Gut and the blood sugar diet and have combined the two.I also developed Insulin Resistance when pregnant and reckon I have it now .This can cause rapid weight gain.
I've started cutting right back on carbs like rice/pasta/potatoes .I sometimes have Zero noodles or will make a tortilla with cold potatoes that have been chilled overnight to increase the resistant starch.But I try to eat salads with meat ,fish or cheese.I eat full fat butter/mayo/cheese and use olive oil/coconut oil.
I also fast in the morning by missing breakfast.Just tea,coffee and Kefir.Fermented foods,life cider vinegar,live full fat yoghurt are good.Absolutely no sweeteners bar Stevia.Sweeteners have been shown to increase sugar cravings.Dark chocolate is allowed in small quantities as are berries and nuts.Rather amazingly my stomach has very obviously shrunk in nearly two weeks of this regime.But I'm not calling it a 'diet' and I don't want to weigh myself as this has in the past kiboshed diets
It's also incidentally the way I used to eat when young

Oh blimey I thought it was just me. I've just seen a FB post from a couple of years ago where I was saying I'd lost 2 stone in 12 weeks. I've been following a near identical regime and have struggled to lose anything at all. It's had me frustrated and near tears (another bloody symptom). Plus one med I'm on causes bloating, the other weight gain.

DH has been poo-pooing my thoughts I may be peri menopausal (I'm 48 but he thinks that's too young) till I had a massive hot flush at his mum's on Monday & she told him she'd started at the same age.