Firstly, Does the menopause really cause weight gain?
The short answer is a resounding YES! As estrogen levels decrease, your metabolic rate slows down. The weight distribution also shifts, and mainly accumulates as visceral fat – inside your abdomen – and around your waistline and love handle area.
On average, women gain around 1.5kg every year during the perimenopause. The average woman gains over a stone and a half (10kg) during the menopause.
British Menopause Society
Most women say that the old diet and exercise methods, that always used to work for them, suddenly no longer work when they approach menopause. What’s worse, things don’t go back to normal after the menopause is over. Sorry ladies – the new metabolism will be for the rest of your life.
Unfortunately there are some serious health risks, too. The reduction of estrogen levels is linked to increased cardiovascular disease and reduced bone density. This means getting enough of the right nutrients is more important than ever.
Don’t rely on Gimmick diets like the menopause diet 5 day plan to lose weight
The world of nutrition can be confusing, with trendy diets, false promises, pseudo-science, media misinformation, and celebrity anecdotes adding to the complexity.
There are at least seven different diets touted online as the “Menopause diet 5 day plan to lose weight”. Wouldn’t it be great to lose weight in 5 days? Obviously that’s not possible without liposuction!
While popular menopause diet trends may promise quick fixes, evidence supporting their long-term effectiveness is lacking. For example, there’s no reliable evidence that the Atkins or Dukan diets or a ketogenic diet works. There’s also no evidence that fasting till 1pm each day or fasting one day a week works long-term either.
Instead, a calorie-reducing diet coupled with increased exercise, including strength training, has been clinically proven effective for long-term weight management among perimenopausal and menopausal women. This puts you into calorie deficit, meaning you are using more calories than you are consuming.
Day 1: Get mentally ready for your Menopause Diet 5 Day Plan
The Problem: Diets fail when we’re too hassled to focus on ourselves.
The Solution: Evaluate your life to get yourself in the right head space.
Have you got other family or work worries and distractions in your life that make dieting difficult? Physical pain or other symptoms can make it impossible to muster the inner grit to go through days feeling hungry as well. Before embarking on any changes, it’s crucial to ensure you’re emotionally ready and willing.
Start by writing down a lit of all the things in the last week that have made you eat badly. Was it a junk snack because you were in a hurry taking care of your children? Ran out of decent food because you’re too busy? Comfort eating because your job is miserable?
Make a lit of all the life changes you will need to make that will create enough room for your own well being. Once other worries in life and with your own body are under control, you should feel more ready to tackle dieting.
Get your menopause symptoms well-controlled. We suggest you try natural remedies like a good quality herbal menopause complex first, and then discuss HRT with your doctor if you still feel things are out of control.
Day 2: Download a Calorie Counting app to avoid making diet mistakes
The Problem: We may think we know what’s fattening but we all have blind spots.
The Solution: Download a diet app onto your phone.
Why is a dieting app so important? Whether you know much about the calories in food or not, we all make mistakes. An app will help you iron out any overlooked diet-wreckers. Some typical slips are:
- Forgetting about all the little snacks
- Forgetting about the calories in fruit juice, alcohol or other drinks
- Eating while you’re working and not noticing you’re having too much
- Over-eating super healthy foods that you don’t realise are also very high-calorie, such as avocados, nuts, dried fruit and seeds.
You can log your calorie intake each day, along with the calories you burn through exercise. Look for a good app that makes it easy to track whether your fibre intake is sufficient, as well as making sure you don’t go over the limit on fat or carbohydrates.
Our favourite app for UK dieters is called NutraCheck, as it lets you scan any UK barcode to get an instant calorie count and also makes it easy to save meal plans and track your exercise and BMI. But we suggest you research and browse around find the app with all the extra functionality you’re most likely to stick with.
Day 3: Plan your exercise routine
The Problem: Dieting alone is never enough once perimenopause strikes.
The Solution: Plan how to weave exercise into your daily routine so that you will keep it up.
How to plan your exercise routine?
- Consider Your Preferences: It’s been scientifically proven that people lose more weight and gain more health benefits when doing exercise they truly enjoy. Whether it’s dancing, hiking, cycling, swimming, or attending fitness classes, choosing something you love also increases the likelihood that you’ll stick with it.
- Schedule Regular Times: Consistency is key. Schedule your workouts at times that are convenient and realistic for you. Treating exercise as a regular part of your routine increases the likelihood of it becoming a habit.
- Find a Workout Buddy: Exercising with a friend can make workouts more enjoyable and provide mutual motivation. It can be a great way to socialise while getting fit.
What to do if you hate sport?
- Explore Outdoor Activities: If you enjoy spending time outdoors, activities like hiking, jogging, or cycling can be both physically beneficial and mentally refreshing.
- Consider Classes or Programmes: Joining exercise classes or programs can provide structure and guidance. Whether it’s yoga, pilates, or a group fitness class, having an instructor can keep you motivated and going to a venue with other women in the same boat adds a social element to it as well.
How to stick with it?
- Start Slow: If you’re new to exercising or getting back into it, start with low-intensity activities and gradually progress. This approach reduces the risk of burnout or injury.
- Mix It Up: Variety keeps things interesting. Consider combining different activities throughout the week to engage different muscle groups and prevent boredom.
- Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to how your body responds to different exercises. If you enjoy the activity and feel good afterward, it’s likely a good fit. If something causes pain or discomfort, consider alternatives.
Day 4: Write your Menopause Diet Weekly meal plan
The problem: Your body needs extra nutrition in perimenopause yet you have to eat less.
The solution: Research online or ask a professional for a medically approved diet plan.
If you know about nutrition, write out a weekly diet menu. Alternatively you can search online for a diet that gives you a varied and nutritionally dense diet. If you feel out of your depth with this, ask your doctor to refer you to a dietitian. They tend not to hand out diet sheets these days so you can pick a few diet plans from online before your appointment to ask for their opinion, if you wish.
Safe, maintainable weight loss needs a daily calorie deficit of approximately 500 calories a day or 3,500 calories per week. This means you eat 500 calories less each day than you burn through exercise.
Your Meal Proportions
¼ protein foods
meat, fish, eggs or cheese
¼ carbohydrate foods
rice potatoes, pasta or bread
½ fruit, vegetables or salad
get your 5-a-day or more
It’s essential to steer clear of weight loss diets that involve cutting out whole food groups as this means cutting out whole nutrition groups. You will need less carbohydrates and more protein than you used to before the menopause came along. The reality is that the menopause changes our metabolism and changes the diet we need. Hormonal changes cause an extra build up of “visceral fat” inside our abdomens.
Decide a weekly alcoholic drinking limit and stick to it. Cutting out alcohol altogether is best, because it triggers hot flushes. Plan your snacks and select nutrient-dense foods instead of junk. Fruit and raw veggies are the best snacks.
The best way to fill your tummy without overdoing calories is to eat predominantly vegetables. This is also the best way to maximise the nutrition in your food. You can whizz vegetables into soup or juices, have them raw as tasty and portable snacks, roast them for a colourful meal, boil them to accompany fish, eggs or meat, and mince them to turn them into burgers.
Day 5: Review your Menopause Diet nutritional intake
The problem: When you cut down on calories you risk cutting down on vitamins and minerals, too.
The solution: Review what you eat and consider the main nutrients you may lack.
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) analysed dietary patterns and nutrient intake across the UK population. They found that, among women in perimenopause:
- Only one third eat their 5-a-day fruit and vegetable intake
- Average consumption of oily fish is just 40% of the recommended 156g per week
- Intake of total fat, saturated fat, salt and free sugars all remain above recommended levels
- Dietary fibre intake falls well below recommendations
- 25% of women have low iron intake
- Folate and iodine intake is low.
These are some of the nutrients that women in perimenopause are most often found to be deficient in:
Calcium
Adequate calcium intake is vital for bone health. Unless you consume a lot of dairy foods, you should consider a calcium supplement with added boron which helps to place the calcium in your bones.
Vitamin D
Take a daily vitamin D supplement during perimenopause and menopause. This helps keep your appetite and weight under control, supports healthy bones and fends off osteoporosis, and it also important for a healthy immune system.
Vitamin B12
Plant-based diets can be healthy but a fully vegan diet usually gives you inadequate protein and very low levels of certain nutrients. If you follow a vegan diet you will certainly need a Vitamin B12 supplement.
Iron
Heavy bleeding leads to significant iron loss and many women in this change in life develop iron-deficiency anaemia. Look for a gentle iron such as the VitaBright supplement, that is formulated to avoid constipation or diarrhoea.
If you are worried about deficiencies in any important nutrients, ask your doctor for a referral to a dietician for professional advice.
Many people believe that you should get all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. This is all very well if you can eat quite a lot. Some women in perimenopause reduce their food intake down to toddler-sized portions to keep their weight under control. It’s probably magical thinking to imagine there’s a way to get absolutely optimal amounts of all the vitamins and minerals they need. And that’s before we take into account how much of what we eat is processed food containing very little nutrition anyway.
If your menopause Diet 5 Day Plan goes wrong
Don’t give up dieting if you fall off the wagon. We all make mistakes. Just forgive yourself, and then carry on. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Embrace the journey, and know that small, steady changes can make a significant and sustainable impact on your well-being.
You are ready to start your new weight control plan to a healthier and slimmer you. Good luck! Here’s to your health and happiness!
