Losing Weight During Menopause

Remember when you were young and found it easier to lose weight? Or maybe you never found the process easy, but now it feels even more impossible since you’ve hit menopause. Either way, entering this phase in your life is hard enough, let alone having to worry about shedding any excess pounds on top of it.
And if you’re male, that doesn’t mean that you’re immune to this response either. Men experience a loss of hormones during this stage that occurs roughly around the age of 50, just like women. It is called Andro-pause and it can make it just as hard for them to lose weight, which means that no one is immune to its effects, regardless of sex. Not that this time frame is bad, as it should realistically be the best time of your life.
This Should Be the Best Time of Your Life
The great thing about reaching your golden years is that you should be better set up to start to enjoy the fruits of your labor. No doubt, you’ve already had many experiences that have helped shape you into the wonderful person that you are, and all of these—good and bad—have held a purpose for you and your life.
Not to mention, if there is any time in your life where you should have your finances under control, this is typically the time. This allows you to do activities that you enjoy, whether it is golfing, creating a beautiful garden, or even skydiving, without worrying so much about the cost. Sure, we all have financial boundaries, but people in later stages in life are generally less tied down by money thanks to years and years of saving and planning.
Even so, sometimes your health isn’t quite where you want it to be, and this can often be tied to your weight if you carry excess pounds. Fortunately, even though losing weight during menopause isn’t the easiest thing to do, it isn’t impossible, especially if you have a little guidance along the way.
Guidelines to Losing Weight During Menopause
If you are in your 50s and intent on losing some weight in an effort to improve your health and prolong your life, here are just a few of the guidelines that we offer in our new book, Fat Me Not: Weight Loss Diet of The Future:
Avoid fad diets. Certainly, you want to lose the weight as quickly as possible, but fad diets aren’t the way to go. Even if you are able to shed some pounds by doing what they say, your chances of keeping it off are slim to none. You’re better off working toward creating a healthy food lifestyle instead as this keeps you from the vicious weight loss and weight gain cycle that is hard on your body, and your mind.
Drink your water. Staying hydrated does a number of positive things when it comes to promoting weight loss at menopause. For instance, it helps you stay full so that you aren’t tempted to eat. Also, thirst cues are very similar to hunger cues, which means that you may want to eat when what you really need is a drink. This can be prevented by keeping your body hydrated with water throughout the day.
Engage in regular physical activity. You don’t need to have a grueling fitness program to lose weight, but engaging in 30 minutes of physical activity can certainly help the process. Additionally, keeping your body moving also benefits your heart, bones, and muscles by helping them stay strong, which is important to having a higher quality of life.
Mind your portions. Overeating is extremely easy and, oftentimes, we don’t realize how little food it actually takes in order to sustain life. Both of these situations are easily remedied by minding your portions via portion controlled plates and bowls, such as those offered by SlimPlate. Using these types of measuring devices allows you to easily recognize the amount of food you need from each food group, which takes guessing (and guessing wrong) out of the weight loss equation.
Take vitamins. Because your hormones are changing and your body isn’t necessarily able to absorb all of the vitamins you need from the foods you eat, it is recommended that you take various vitamins (like a multivitamin, B12, and calcium). This will help keep your metabolism up, which will make weight loss easier, in addition to improving your overall health and wellness.
Do these things and you’ll likely find weight loss easier while going through menopause or Andro-pause. And for more tips, feel free to get our book, Fat Me Not: Weight Loss Diet of The Future, as it has many more to consider.