Menopause.

As women age, levels of female hormones fall, causing a wide range of both physical and psychological symptoms. These symptoms can occur up to 10 years before periods stop - the peri-menopause. Eventually, period stop and hormone levels remain low - we call this menopause.

Hormone deficiencies associated with menopause have long term impacts on health, increasing the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.

Gaining weight.

Many women notice in their 40-50s that they begin to gain weight, particularly around the middle.

Prior to this time, high levels of the female hormone, estrogen, signals for fat to be stored on the breasts, legs and buttocks.

As estrogen levels fall in peri-menopause and menopause, weight is stored around the waist, in a distribution more similar to men.

Metabolism.

Low hormones also impact the way the body metabolises food, and many women find that, despite not changing their diet, foods they have always eaten, now (all of a sudden), cause weight gain. This is due to altered blood sugar processing and higher levels of the fat storage hormone insulin. This, in turn, also increases the likelihood of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Improving health.

To optimise health during Peri-menopause and Menopause, most women benefit from hormone replacement therapy, using body identical hormones to top up the levels of those they become deficient in. This and/or non-hormonal therapies are important for both symptom relief, and reducing the risk of future health conditions.

However, tt’s also a very important time to optimise nutrition, along with other lifestyle factors. We now understand that what we eat, as well as when we eat, has a profound difference on whether the body burns or stores fat.

Losing weight.

We’ve been told that weight loss is a simple equation: reduce calories coming in (by eating less) and/or increase calories going out (by exercising more), but the human body is far from simple.

Although low calorie diets may initially result in weight loss, they are usually unsustainable.

The body senses reduced calories and responds by increasing hunger and reducing metabolic rate. This makes it increasingly difficult to loose weight, as the weeks progress. When the diet stops, metabolic rate stays low, which means the weight (and often more) comes piling back on.

…Sound familiar?

Rather than yo-yo dieting, the goal is to lose weight sustainably, and without constant hunger. To do this, we need to understand what’s causing weight gain and hunger in the first place.

Insulin.

Hormones play an important role in weight management, especially the fat storage hormone insulin.

Insulin’s role is to regulate blood sugar levels. High blood sugar is toxic, so when levels rise, insulin is released. This tells the body to burn some sugar for fuel, and store the rest as body fat.

Releasing insulin is a normal and healthy response to rising blood sugar, but if blood sugar levels go very high (“spike”), a large amount of insulin is needed to bring them back to normal.

If we regularly eat foods that spike blood sugar, insulin levels remain high. The body is stuck in fat storage mode, resulting in weight gain.

When blood sugar levels are normal, insulin falls, which switches the body into fat burning mode. Body fat is broken down to be used as fuel which results in weight loss.

Hunger

Blood sugar spikes are usually followed by blood sugar crashes (where levels fall too low) due to the large amount of insulin released.

This can result in feeling tired, hungry and craving sugar, only a couple of hours after eating.