Understanding Perimenopause Weight Gain
No ladies, it’s not in your head.
Weight gain and body composition changes can occur during perimenopause and it’s time to address the nitty gritty of why this happens and how we can navigate these changes. Believe it or not, sometimes these changes occur without your contribution because of the declining estrogen in our bodies. Estrogen is strongly connected with metabolism.
Perimenopause is BIG life cycle phase, and it really comes on strong with many negative symptoms that unfortunately affect our mind and body. I think we feel it more because so many things are happening to women simultaneously – we’re having kids, we’re juggling home/work balance, we’re trying to be healthy, we’re embarking on new aspects of our career or finally seeing the career commitments/sacrifices of our 20 and 30s pay off. This phase is a transitional time that presents with hormonal imbalances that get affected by how we live our day to day.
As a wellness professional and a fellow 40+ woman, I have learned first-hand the importance of nutrition, sleep, movement and stress during this transition. Having a good routine for fitness, nutrition and stress management can help alleviate the severity of the hormonal changes you may including weight gain. First, let’s consider why weight gain is a symptom of perimenopause.
Why do we see weight gain?
a. Estrogen is decreasing which affects our muscle mass composition and calories burned
b. Our overall metabolism could slow down as a result of hormonal changes
c. Our bodies become more insulin resistant due to the hormonal fluctuations between estrogen, progesterone and insulin.
For many of us, our immediate response is to feel stressed and start a journey of a various diets to try and lose weight. Many try to calorie restrict, engage in high-intensity interval training, give up alcohol, start a weight loss drug, test out various supplements and more. While that may work for the short-term, here are a handful of wellness tips to incorporate for sustainable habits.
1. Eating dinner early. Design your meal to include more protein, fiber and healthy fat vs less starch. This will help you digest your food, optimize your metabolism and hopefully keep blood sugar levels on track.
2. Hydrate upon waking up and continue to over a 60/90-minute timeframe. This behavior will help kick start the digestion process and reduce morning bloat while providing energy.
3. Swap out HIT workouts if you are doing them regularly. Start incorporating LISS – low intensity steady state workouts which are more effective in cortisol balance, burning fat and mood balance.
4. Avoid engaging in any kind of calorie restriction. Less calories causes our bodies to hold onto adipose tissue (a.k.a fat) and you’ll likely not see any kind of weight loss. Evidence demonstrates that low calorie diets do not provide long-term sustainable changes[HA3] .
5. Listen to your body. Intuitive eating is important so that you don’t cave into cravings. In fact, if you pick something you love, enjoy it in moderation and bonus – chew slowly. Eating our food slowly helps activate the digestion in our mouths and slowly allowing for us to feel satisfied!
Shout out to all the 40+ women who may be experiencing perimenopause but are taking the time to seek out professional resources to make this journey more manageable!
Anita Mirchandani is a Registered dietitian and fitness professional. With over 15+ years of experience, she specializes in women’s health as well as overall general wellbeing planning. After several years of various nutrition experiences including consulting, private practice work and nutrition communications, Anita launched ARM NUTRITION, a nutrition tele-health platform in 2021. She also accepts insurance for nutrition services - from insurance providers such as Aetna, Cigna, BCBS and UHC. Anita is also licensed in NY, MA and CT.