Perimenopausal and always hungry - how can I lose weight?!

[Diamondglitter]

Hi all,

I honestly don't know where to start with trying to lose weight.

I'm now aged 50 and perimenopausal. I'm 5 feet 4 inches and up until I had my first child at 32, I was around 8.5 stone. I didn't exercise, I just don't think I ate that much, I didn't really feel hungry a lot of the time.

Then my weight fluctuated when I was pregnant and after I had dc. I'm now around 10.5 stone and I feel hungry all the time! 😫

I want to lose 1.5 stone but just don't know what to do. There are so many diets and plans out there - how do you choose what's best?

At the moment I would say my meals are pretty healthy, and reasonable portion sizes, but I snack too much on crisps and chocolate.

An example day would be:

Breakfast: porridge with water, with some Greek yoghurt and berries mixed in

Lunch: 2 eggs or 1 chicken breast, or 1 can of tuna, a couple of rice cakes and salad

Dinner: something like dal and rice/ chicken casserole/ vegetarian chilli/ fish and potato wedges (all home made) with vegetables

Snacks - usually in a day I would have something like a packet of jaffa cakes and half a large bar of Cadburys chocolate. Or half a family sized packet of crisps.

Drinks - 4 cups of tea and lots of water

At the weekend I usually have 3 - 4 glasses of wine

The thing is, I spend a lot of the day feeling hungry. I don't know why. I make sure I'm eating protein and drinking a lot of water. I know I am snacking way too much, and I probably need to totally cut out the snacks.

I try to exercise around 4 times a week - gym or yoga.

I don't know whether to try to find a weight loss diet to stick to, or just cut down my portion sizes and cut down/ reduce the snacks. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

Yeah, cut out snacks, cut portion sizes, reduce carbs a bit - especially in the evenings.

That's it. There's no magic.

It's boring but that is what works.

You could try calorie counting (the NHS app is good), or maybe intermittent fasting which with your list basically means cutting out breakfast.

Gym, if you're doing weights etc, will make you hungry. Cardio, surprisingly, doesn't as much.

Oh, and yoga doesn't really use any calories. It's just toning really.

I could have written your post OP.

No helpful advice but you sound just like me

Same! I'm also craving alcohol, chocolate and cheese and I've never really cared for any of them before. I just all of a sudden really fancy a glass of wine with some cheese. Or a bar of chocolate. I'm not even hungry I just feel like I am.

Is it a mineral deficiency possibly?

I am a few years younger but definitely experiencing increased hunger in amongst various other peri symptoms. In my case im wondering if it’s due to fatigue and craving more energy through food. I might see if HRt helps in that dept but afraid it would make me gain more weight.

I’m pretty much the same. I’m also 50 and had a bmi of 21-22 all through my 30s and 40s. Now I’m topping healthy bmi and feel heavy but I just can’t lose it. My downfall is also snacks. From about 2pm to 5pm I can’t stop thinking about food and just snack. Whenever I have needed to lose a few pounds before, calorie counting has worked but now I just cannot resist the snacks. My whole body chemistry has changed and it is very frustrating.

You'll still drink the wine but reading this will cure the chocolate, crisp and jaffa cake cravings. Ultra Processed People

The hunger is a sugar crash.

Can you think of something high protien you could snack on instead of carbs?
How much water do you drink? You could keep a bowl of hard boiled eggs in the fridge and snack on those. A protien kick is much better than upf carb. It's ok to snack. You are snacking too much because your snacks aren't satisfying.

People on here will tell you all sorts of shit, but calorie counting is the best way. You don’t need to cut out any foods or eat restricted diet

Download the Cronometer app and work out your calorie and protein target. Then log foods to stay within that

I cut out breakfast unless I'm out for it or on holiday. Then aim for four days without alcohol or crisps and stay around 1000 cals so thats salad for lunch (with carbs and protein), fruit after work snack and a healthy but proper dinner so tew/soup, curries or stir fry all with bread/rice and naan/ noodles but small portions and the frying fat measured. Weekends unless I'm out I try to keep the meal pattern the same (veg heavy balanced meals no breakfast), but allow crisps and wine. Sounds pretty crap writing it down but I've lost a stone ina couple of months and I've made zero changes to my social life and enjoying my weekends. Im still hungry but no more so when I was bigger. I do Monday Thursday and the key is having a nice filling dinner to look forward to keep you in track, and keep busy during your weak moments - i clean or walk my dog. Hope this help you

1,000 calories a day is not sustainable

look at the fitness chef for more realistic advice

or Ben carpenter; James smith; rh fitness;

Focus on satiety. Some foods are more filling than others. Beware of increasing volume (lots of salad) but not increasing protein and fibre.

I highly recommend a cook book called ‘filling meals’. I joined a gym in January and go on average 3 times a week and switched to using the filling meals book. I’ve lost two stones so far. I’m 56 and in the throes of menopause. I’m rarely hungry now and I was a real snacker before that.

Make your main meals more filling/ nutritious and you won't want to snack so much! Add more fibre.

Your snacks are probably packing in an extra 700+ cals a day, so cut those out but up your meals. Make your porridge with semi-skimmed milk, add a few seeds for more fibre. At lunch - are you really just having a plain chicken breast and a few rice cakes? That sounds a bit miserable! You can make a delicious salad with some pre-cooked lentils, chicken, roasted veg, etc, for around 400cals that'll give you 30g protein and 10g fibre. Try to wean yourself onto really dark chocolate. A square is ~60cals and will hit the chocolate craving after a meal. Frozen berries and a bowl of 0% greek yog is another good one for stopping post-dinner jaffa cake temptations.

It is harder as you get older, but for me, aiming for decent amount of protein and fibre tends to work. And you do just have to be disciplined, unfortunately. There's no magic way around it. It's bloody hard, but I just have to make really strict rules for myself otherwise I'm all like 'oh a few nuts and a glass of wine won't make much difference...'

Dominique Ludwig and Emma Bardwell are quite good to follow on Insta.

@BiteSizeByzantine yes it's very strange, I never cared about crisps before but the last couple of years I've been craving them! (I've always loved chocolate unfortunately! 🙈)

@itstoolateforsnacks I feel more tired too since being in peri, yes I think fatigue must be playing a part in feeling hungry and trying to get more energy.

I try to stay off snacks in the morning, but after I have lunch I am constantly craving them too. And I don't remember wanting snacks at all when I was younger!

I think the other thing is, if I ever was hungry before, I could have a glass of water or cup of tea and then I'd stop feeling hungry, whereas now it's not the case!

Now if I go for too long without eating anything I feel like I'm going to get a headache. I really relate to what you say about feeling like your whole body chemistry has changed

The only time I successfully lost a couple of stone was when I religiously used the nutricheck app to track calories (you start to resent how many calories are in biscuits) and massively upped protein.

I found I just couldn’t have big bars of chocolate in the house. I now have a little pot of nuts and a couple of squares of dark chocolate rather than lots of chocolate but it took a while to get used to.

What is it you like about crisps? I’m wondering whether switching to baked, veg crisps or something like roasted chickpeas might help.

@watchingthishtread that's a good point about the sugar crash. Thanks for the book recommendation, I will have a look!

I'm 50 and with pre-diabetes am losing weight. Got back to "normal" BMI and aiming to lose another 6lb from where I am now.

Bigger meals with healthy fats, protein, veg, then cut out or massively reduce the snacks. Calories counting works for me: I recommend MyFitnessPal.

But are you actually too heavy? Are you aiming to be a bit too light? If you're in the middle of healthy BMI you might just want to aim to stay there.

Well done on your weight loss! I think I might try to cut out breakfast, and then have a healthy lunch and dinner, and stop the biscuits and chocolate during the week, but then allow a small amount at the weekend.

I'm the same. Age 48 and cut right down on alcohol. Treat myself to 1 beer a week and perhaps once a month might have a bit more. Last 3 months I've been going swimming 2/3 times a week and don't think I've lost any weight at all. I've started going to the gym and I know I need to do more exercise as I only do 30 minutes each time but trying to build up my fitness slowly after years of doing nothing. But I know my diet is the issue. Eat plenty of fruit, veg and salad, cook from scratch and hardly have junk food or takeaways but snacking is my issue especially in the evening.

That book looks great, I've just had a look at it on amazon! Yes I think it definitely is about satiety. That's amazing that you've managed to stop snacking, that gives me hope!

I would cut out the snacks and watch the size of your carbs. Have a google at volume eating. You can actually eat an awful lot and still be in a deficit if you’re eating the right things.

I would also up the exercise. Even just walking.

You could also work out your TDEE and calorie count for a couple of weeks just so you get an idea of how much you are eating. Calorie counting is laborious but it helps you understand food better as even some healthy foods are hugely calorific.

The wine at the weekend is also doing you no favours. Even halving the amount you drink will help.

Oh no, an extra 700 calories for my snacks, no wonder I'm not losing weight 🤣! It's good to face this as I have just had my head in the sand for ages and wasn't even thinking about calories, I just felt hungry - ate snacks - then felt depressed because I'm not losing weight. Thanks for the meal ideas.

Yes as you and PPs have said, there's no magic way around it, it is about discipline and changing my habits.