17. Can You Lose Weight in Perimenopause?
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In this episode, we covered:
- Hormone changes that affect your weight
- Why stress is a huge culprit of weight gain
- Is it “estrogen dominance” or progesterone deficiency?
- ‘Hunger’ and ‘satiety’ hormones that get overlooked
- How our client Aleah lost 17 pounds!
- The one macronutrient you need to track
- Why your gut plays a massive role in your weight
- Why you need to LHS (lift heavy sh*t)
- What I do to avoid “bulking up”
- How I track my steps
Perimenopause and the weight gain struggle
If you’re like many of the women in my community, you may be struggling with weight gain or difficulty losing weight in your perimenopausal years. If so, this episode is for you.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from women is “I can’t lose weight” no matter what I do Claudia”.
So I know how frustrating it can be when you’re doing all the things: eating a healthy diet, working out, taking supplements, walking every day…yet the weight just. won’t. budge.
It can really affect your confidence, self esteem, and your social life – who the heck wants to be around other people when you don’t feel good about how you look? You can feel so self conscious.
Here’s the thing…it’s not just about your diet or the workouts you do. There’s more to it.
Your hormones – as you may have guessed – play a pretty big role. So let’s dive into some of the hormone changes that can affect your weight.
#1 High cortisol:
As you lose sex hormones, you’re more susceptible to the impact of stress; high stress = high cortisol = body prioritizes survival over weight loss or anything for that matter. Simply put: if you’re chronically stressed out (and I talked about the different stressors in episode 13; it’s not emotional stress), your body will only focus on keeping you alive. It doesn’t care that you want to be 20 pounds lighter or fit into your size 6 Abercrombie jeans. By the way, I’m loving Abercrombie jeans right now – especially the Curve Love, b/c I’m definitely curvy.
#2 High/low estrogen:
In your 40s, estrogen starts to fluctuate wildly, before it declines closer to menopause; estrogen helps regulate metabolism, insulin, thyroid health and body weight. Since the ovaries are no longer producing enough estrogen, the body looks at other sources of estrogen. One source is fat cells. So the body starts converting energy sources into fat, which leads to weight-gain, especially in the abdomen area. So many women end up with that menopause belly or menopot (I hate that term by the way). I have it too – that little pudge going on. It’s like where did you come from? But that belly fat is also due to high cortisol.
#3 Low progesterone:
After 35, anovulatory cycles (lack of ovulation) are common, so you won’t make progesterone; we need progesterone to balance estrogen’s effects. So you’ll hear the term “estrogen dominance” throw around a lot. But it’s more of a case of progesterone deficiency. Sure, you could have too much circulating estrogen in the body, which means you need to open up detox pathways and change the products you use for safer swaps (I’ll do an episode on this soon). The other thing we need progesterone for is healthy thyroid function, which brings me to…
#4 Low thyroid hormones also affect your weight:
When your thyroid is sluggish, EVERYTHING will slow down including your metabolism and ability to lose weight; hypothyroidism is more common in women in perimenopause. Go back to episode 8 to learn about your thyroid. Many women may go on thyroid hormone, but most doctors are only prescribing T4, when T3 is the more active thyroid hormone. You likely need both.
#5 Low testosterone:
Women need testosterone for lean muscle mass and a healthy metabolism; as we age, like other hormones, we lose testosterone, so we lose muscle mass and our metabolism slows down.
#6 Ghrelin:
Your ‘hunger’ hormone, stimulates your appetite, increases food intake, and promotes fat storage, especially in the belly area. It slows your metabolism, decreases ability to burn fat and tends to rise at night, which can cause late night snacking. The lower the level of ghrelin, the more satiated you’ll be and won’t feel the need to snack and/or overeat.
#7 Leptin:
The ‘satiety’ hormone, located in your adipose (fat) tissue, suppresses hunger and tells your hypothalamus to reduce your appetite. Essentially, it helps maintain your weight. BUT…leptin imbalances can result in excess weight. The more weight you have, the more leptin you have. So it’s a bit of a vicious cycle.
Besides heading into perimenopause (the 2-12ish years before menopause), hormones go awry due to certain food & lifestyle habits, the type of exercise you do, what you put on your skin, level of stress in your life, toxins in your environment, and more.
But is it possible to lose weight in your 40s+ and keep it off? I want to give you some hope by sharing an experience one of our clients, Aleah, had in The Hormone Rescue…
“I was 25 lbs. overweight (and unable to lose anything for years, I was only gaining despite eating healthy and exercising). I was exhausted, had breast tenderness, always felt bloated and like I was retaining so much water (I had to resize my wedding rings twice to make them bigger!).
After working together in The Hormone Rescue, I have lost 17 lbs., my wedding rings are loose, my pants are loose, and I feel so much better. My main goal was weight loss, and I felt it just could not happen for me as I had tried everything. But Claudia’s protocols focused on my gut health and mineral levels and that was something I had not tried on my own, because I had no idea where to start.
I feel so much better. My mindset has also changed, as I look at eating this way as a way to better myself and feel good and not as a diet that I have to be on. I’m very grateful to Claudia and her team for helping me through such a difficult time. I plan to continue working with her to get guidance and support!” – Aleah R.
Like many women, Aleah was dieting, working out, taking supplements, worked with doctors and even did hormone saliva testing – yet she wasn’t getting results.
After implementing strategies geared towards a perimenopausal woman and addressing underlying imbalances, she got incredible results working with us – and she’s still going!
I want to share some of the strategies we used with her below.
1) Tracked macronutrients more closely.
She got serious about what she was eating every day. Turns out, she was eating too much of the wrong type of protein, over consuming fat, and under-eating quality carbs. I know tracking doesn’t sound fun, but if you do anything, at least start keeping track of how much protein you consume. Aim for at least 100 grams per day.
2) Switched up her movement
Instead of grueling workouts at the gym, she focused on getting more steps in each day, rest days, and light strength training a few times per week – increasing weight slowly over time to challenge your muscles, but not add more acute stress to her body. We also suggested she consume protein + carbs after her workouts to support muscle growth + recovery.
3) She began to prioritize self care & sleep.
As a busy, working mom of 3, she didn’t realize how easy it was for her to skimp on sleep. One more episode, one more email, one more scroll…she made the commitment to get 7-8 hours of sleep, as well as create a more relaxing nighttime routine, like magnesium foot soaks.
4) Optimized her gut health.
She focused on managing gut inflammation, we removed a couple of problematic foods, she greatly reduced her alcohol intake (yes, alcohol affects your gut by encouraging growth of inflammatory gut bacteria), increased fiber intake, practiced mindful eating, and addressed overgrowths and suboptimal digestive function we found on her GIMAP stool test. This is a comprehensive microbiome analysis that we use with our clients, if their budget allows. Your gut health is so important, because you need to properly absorb nutrients from the food you’re eating, your gut metabolizes hormones, and manages inflammation. Inflammation is a huge stress on the body and like I said earlier, when the body is stressed, weight loss will not occur.
5) Addressed mineral imbalances.
We ran an HTMA hair tissue mineral analysis on her and found she was low in a number of macro minerals – and even though she was taking magnesium pills, she wasn’t properly absorbing it.
6) Addressed hormone imbalances.
I know I sound like a broken record, but after the age of 35, hormones start to decline, as does thyroid function. We supported her thyroid health with mineral and gut optimization, and made recommendations on how to speak to her provider about hormone replacement therapy (HRT). She started on a regimen that worked for her needs.
But the best part: she realized it really wasn’t hard! Everything she did made her feel really good, without restriction, without obsessing over calories, or intense workouts that left her depleted.
On that note: if you’re not strength training or LHS “lifting heavy shit” in this stage of life, you are truly doing yourself a disservice.
Strength training will serve you BIG time.
Strength training increases muscle mass. We need muscle – it supports a healthy metabolism, helps to regulate our blood sugar, gives us strength, stamina, improves mobility especially as we age, our bone health and gives us that “toned” look we’re all after. Not to mention confidence! My arms are looking pretty ripped right now and I definitely want to wear more tank tops. But like our hormones, we start losing muscle in our 30s!
I know lifting weights can be boring and you may think “I don’t want to bulk up”. I totally understand the frustration with this. And I know so many trainers, especially online, will say “it’s impossible for women to bulk up”. I find that to be really dismissive, b/c like I always say, “we’re not all the same”. Some women won’t bulk up, but others, like myself, can.
I know my body well and I’ve been strength training for YEARS. When I go a bit too heavy for lower body moves, over time, my legs bulk up and that’s my problem area. I’ve always gained weight in my legs and have wanted skinny legs since I hit puberty. I’ll likely never have them. So what I do and what you could do, if this is a challenge for you or even just a concern is to use lower weight, with higher reps, versus higher weight and lower reps.
Don’t leave out low-intensity cardio
And make sure you get plenty of low-intensity cardio. I walk upwards of 13-15,000 steps per day. I know that’s not feasible for everyone; my schedule is flexible and I work at home. But aim for 7-8k steps at least per day. If you don’t have a tracker of some sort, you may want to get one.
I personally use an Oura Ring. It tracks steps, sleep, stress, and a bunch of other things that I don’t really pay attention to truthfully. The other thing is: you can also add a couple days of pilates and/or yoga. Those work smaller muscle groups and tend to elongate the body. I notice when I add pilates in, I tend to get slimmer. So if that’s your goal, try it out.
To wrap it up, in this stage of life (hello, perimenopause), please know that the things you did in your 20s and even early 30s, like restricting calories, doing tons of cardio, skimping on sleep, drinking too much alcohol – do not work anymore. If anything, they make matters worse.
Alright, I hope that was helpful to you! See you next week.
WORK WITH US: The Hormone Rescue Program
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16353426/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25926512/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-023-00888-0
https://arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/volume/38/2/alcohol-and-gut-derived-inflammation
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/strength-training-time-benefits/
Claudia Petrilli is a Functional Health Coach, Integrative Nutrition Coach, Women’s Health Educator, and creator of The Hormone Rescue program. Having experienced debilitating periods, digestive issues, a sluggish thyroid, a pituitary tumor, and perimenopause symptoms in her late 30s, she knows exactly what it’s like to get dismissed by doctors and spend years searching for answers.
To connect with Claudia Petrilli:
FREE GIFT: Peri-What?! The Must-Have Guide for Navigating Hormone Changes in Your 40s
WORK WITH US: The Hormone Rescue Program
QUESTIONS? EMAIL: claudia@claudiapetrilli.com
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