I've spent the last 12 years honing my expertise in midlife metabolism, and helping a couple thousand clients lose fat, improve energy, and achieve an effortless relationship with food.
But over the last 18 months one specific area of study has occupied my whole brain: Perimenopause Metabolism.
I've learned so much, and I want to share some of that with you today.
10 Truths About Perimenopause Metabolism
A post-reproductive woman is less resilient than a baby-making woman. We have lower tolerance to stress. We may think we "handle our stress well," but biologically speaking? You don't. Not like you used to. It's imperative for menopausal women to manage their nervous system state (less fight/flight; more rest/digest).
Life is more challenging in midlife. Never mind our changing bodies and the health concerns that come with it, a lot is changing outside of us too. We have aging parents and family members to tend to. Kids are moving out of the house, getting jobs, entering relationships, and trying to become adults (a completely new type of parenting you hadn't had to figure out before). You may have more pressure on you as you reach a higher point in your career; or maybe you've made a massive career change. And while all of this is happening, your hormones are "going out of whack" (official medical terminology 😉). In short: life becomes more stressful for a woman who is less resilient to stress. And stress has a massive metabolic impact.
We are tired. We have been fighting in some way or another our entire lives and many of us don't have the energy to battle our bodies (or how we feel about our bodies) for another second. This "life fatigue" is yet another source of low-grade chronic stress.
The menopause transition makes women slightly insulin resistant. A post-reproductive woman is just not as good at using fuel. Our fuel needs change after we leave the baby-making era. This actually makes perfect sense when you think about it. But this change in "metabolic machinery" is why the things that used to work won't work as well now. You can't eat-less-move-more your way out of this metabolic shift. (In fact, strict dieting and punishing exercise can make it worse.)
Our fat storage pattern can change toward visceral, abdominal fat. For a woman in the menopause transition, this shows up as a distressing change to the SHAPE of our bodies. We don't look like we used to. We don't recognize ourselves. BTW (and you probably already know this since it's become a pretty mainstream concept), chronic low-grade stress stress can exacerbate belly fat storage -- see points 1, 2, and 3.
The above two things can happen relatively quickly, making it seem like we've gained weight all of a sudden. These shifts are a consequence of falling or wildly fluctuating estrogen. Estrogen is NOT a metabolic hormone, so there is no way to "diet" one's way to estrogen balance. Balancing estrogen is a conversation you'll need to have with a doctor. But in the meantime, you can ABSOLUTELY influence the effectiveness of your metabolism and your "fat burning machinery" through diet and lifestyle change. I've created a specific solution for this.
Metabolism >>DOES NOT<< slow down as we enter our 40s or 50s! This is the fuel and energy system of your body... it cannot and does not "slow down," when you cross the mythical threshold into midlife. Metabolic rate slows down by about 1-3% when you get into your late 60s or early 70s (this amounts to needing to eat maybe 20-50 fewer calories a day). But for your whole life until you die, you must be good at using fuel. This system of the body doesn't just "stop working." If you're in your 40s or 50s, you're still a young human, and you have just much potential to be an awesome fat burner as you did when you were in your 30s.
Not surprisingly, tons of magical pills, potions, and supplements have come onto the market to cash in on the surge in perimenopausal women like us who are fighting through this transitional stage of life. You don't need any of them. Food changes, lifestyle interventions, and a good doctor (and maybe a nutritionist with a specific expertise 😌) will get you where you need to be. Start with changing how you eat, move, and live. These are the biggest dial movers for menopausal metabolic health.
To manage your weight, and how you feel about your body, you may need to explore menopause hormone therapy (MHT, also known as HRT -- hormone replacement therapy) with a doctor who has a modern view on menopause and is very hormone literate. You can find these doctors, I promise. It may or may not be a gynecologist. It may or may not be YOUR CURRENT DOCTOR... but if it's important to you to solve this medical mystery, then I encourage you to take the bull by the horns and seek out a great doctor that is accessible to you. Here are some suggested search terms: "Women's Health Specialist Functional Longevity Medicine Menopause Hormone Therapy <insert name of closest city to you>". Alternately, you can reference the physician directory on Dr. Marie Claire Haver's website, thepauselife.com.
Statements like "I don't feel like myself," "My body feels totally different all of a sudden," and "Things aren't working the way they used to" are VALID SYMPTOMS that you should be able to talk to your doctor about... and your doctor should listen. And if your doctor doesn't listen, or makes you feel like a foolish, overreacting woman, get a new doctor (see above).
To be honest with you, this list could have 50 more things on it, but this is an awesome start.
We simply must begin to reasonably manage our expectations around what this stage of life feels like; what's really happening with us as we move away from being fertile women; and we must be able to clearly articulate what we want the next 10, 20, 30 years of our lives to look and feel like.
So that's your homework.
Think about your goals as you move through this stage of life and beyond.
What does life look like 10 years from now when this is all "working" the way you want it to?
For what it's worth, I fully believe we can feel strong, energetic, and sexy in the second half of our lives.
We definitely have to change the way we engage with our body and our health-supporting behaviours -- because what used to work isn't going to work now... but I'm here to assist you in keeping it really simple.
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