How to lose weight during menopause

I have developed a reputation as being an expert in female metabolism and especially menopausal weight loss.

The reason for this was very simple. I was in the personal training world and all of my clients were women. I quickly discovered that there was a profound difference in the way my female clients 40 and up responded to diet and exercise compared to the women I worked with in their 30s and 20s.

Do you know what was the issue? Two words: cortisol and insulin.

Here is the thing to know. In order to lose weight you need two things. First you need to lower calories.

Second, you need to balance hormones.

Only problem with that is the menopausal metabolism is, by very definition, an imbalanced hormone state compared to what it was in a female’s younger years.

Insulin is a fat storing and muscle-building hormone. Even if you achieve a calorie deficit, if you have too much insulin around you may lose weight, but that weight will be far less likely to be fat.

Cortisol is a stress hormone and it, along with insulin, causes fat storage around the middle. Even if you achieve calorie reduction, like insulin, cortisol makes it more likely you burn muscle along with fat.

And if you don’t succeed in lowering calories, both hormones almost assure those calories will store as fat and especially around the middle. If you are menopausal you know what I mean.

Estrogen is a hormone that works against insulin and cortisol. Progesterone has little impact on insulin but does fight against cortisol.

These two hormones are the reason women have an easier time staying leaner when they are young. So at menopause, when these two hormones go away, the female metabolism:

1. slows down

2. is more carb sensitive (due to insulin)

3. is more stress reactive.