Due to the physical changes, it is not uncommon for women to gain a few pounds during the menopause. Losing weight, on the other hand, is a challenge due to the usually slowed-down metabolism. We have 10 tips to help you lose weight during menopause.
Many women know that losing weight is not as easy as one would like it to be. And unfortunately, it doesn’t usually get any easier to lose unwanted kilos with increasing age. In addition to typical symptoms such as hot flashes, sleep problems or digestive disorders, the metabolism can also slow down during menopause due to the low estrogen level. In combination with the fact that at this age the muscle mass decreases anyway and the body uses less energy, it stores more fat and we gain weight. However, with a few helpful behaviors, you can effectively counteract it.
Also interesting: 4 mistakes women make during menopause >>
Table of Contents
Losing weight during menopause: 10 tips
1. Get some exercise every day
Despite the slower metabolism and lower energy needs associated with menopause caused by estrogen deficiency, many women continue to eat normally during this time. If you also move a little, you can quickly gain a few kilos. Sufficient exercise is essential to counteract weight gain – every day. Walking is wonderful because it not only has a positive effect on your health, but you can also lose weight with it. Depending on your pace, you can burn between 200 and 350 calories per hour.
Also interesting: Lose weight by walking >>
2. Avoid salt
Do you add salt to your food before you eat it? You should avoid this, especially during the menopause. Because salt is important for our body in small amounts, but it is harmful to our health in excess. High salt consumption increases the risk of high blood pressure and thus also the development of cardiovascular diseases, the risk of which increases anyway during menopause. Apart from that, the mineral promotes water retention, which women are already prone to during the menopause.
Also interesting: This is what happens when you eat too much salt every day >>
3. Change your diet
Because your body changes during menopause, the best way to counteract weight gain is to change your diet. Avoid empty carbohydrates such as white bread, as these do not fill you up in the long term and contain hardly any nutrients. Likewise, you should only consume sweets, fast food and alcohol in exceptional cases, because these not only make you fat, but also increase the risk of various diseases. Instead, your diet should include more vegetables, fruit, whole grain products, nuts and healthy oils. To counteract muscle loss during menopause, you should also consume high-quality protein in the form of poultry, fish, eggs, yoghurt or quark.
Also interesting: Diet during menopause >>
4. Cook yourself
After work, order something quickly from the delivery service or buy a ready-made meal in the supermarket – that saves time and effort. However, you should cook for yourself if possible, especially during the menopause. Because with ready-made products or ordered food, you don’t know exactly what ingredients are in the dish. For example, you can consume large amounts of salt and sugar, which will negatively affect not only your figure, but also your health.
5. Drink lots of water
If you drink at least one and a half liters of water a day, you can both lose weight faster and counteract weight gain. Aside from being essential for our body to function properly, water fills up the stomach, which automatically makes us eat less. Because thirst is often confused with hunger. It is important that you avoid sugary drinks such as soda and the like, which increase the calorie count, and drink water and sugar-free tea instead.
6. Get enough sleep
Sleep disorders are one of the typical menopausal symptoms – unfortunately! Because poor sleep quality or a lack of sleep can make other symptoms worse, such as mood swings or weight gain. A lack of sleep has a negative effect on hormones that control our feeling of satiety and hunger, which is why it promotes obesity. If you want to lose weight, you should get enough sleep – yoga and relaxation exercises, special tea blends and bedtime rituals such as reading can help here.
7. Do sports
In addition to going for walks and the like, you should incorporate several sports units a week into your everyday life in order to lose weight during the menopause. Weight training is best suited here to counteract the muscle breakdown during this time. You don’t necessarily have to go to the gym for this – home workouts also have a positive effect.
8. Get your thyroid levels checked
Many women do not know that the risk of thyroid disease increases during menopause. Studies have shown that estrogen levels can affect thyroid hormones, which can lead to hypothyroidism, for example . This in turn can aggravate various menopausal symptoms – including weight gain.
9. Be in a calorie deficit
It doesn’t matter whether you’re going through menopause or not: If you want to lose weight, you should make sure you have a calorie deficit. If you burn more calories than you consume over the long term, it will show up on the scale. How high the calorie deficit should be varies from person to person. You can determine the individual value for your calorie requirement here, for example >>
10. Avoid alcohol
You should also limit your alcohol consumption during menopause. Because this not only damages our health and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which increases anyway during menopause, it also promotes weight gain due to the high calorie content. Apart from that, the consumption of alcoholic beverages can increase other menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and sweating.
Tip: The book “The Menopause Bible: Losing Weight in Menopause” by Frederike Eschecke can help you lose weight during menopause. For example , available here for EUR 19.90 >> You will also find helpful recipes and a training plan in the book “Weight Loss in Menopause” by Sebastian Kreuzer. For example buy here for 12.99 euros >>
