Menopause Weight Loss
How this MENOPAUSAL client “lost 5lbs in a week"
Ever found yourself saying “Im in a deficit but I’m not losing weight” well let's go through 3 examples from our recent client check ins around this
So TWO WEEKS ago 3 clients were not seeing weight loss results - They were all eating in a deficit according to their food logs but all three of them were not seeing results for different reasons so let's break it down
Client 1 - Michaela
If you have been following our content and insights around client menopausal weight loss we share regularly via email you will know by now that their TWO types of fat: Subcutaneous and Visceral Fat
Subcutaneous fat: Driven by CALORIES ie being inside a deficit according to your metabolism and energy output
Visceral Fat: Driven by inflammation, hormones and insulin resistance
So when we are working towards MENOPAUSE weight loss we must tackle both. Visceral fat remains pretty dominant in PRE menopausal women - it starts to NATURALLY increase in peri menopause years - a large reason why weight loss during menopause is DIFFERENT
So step one we checked Michaelas calorie deficit ie her food from that week to see if anything was “off” and was stopping subcutaneous fat
We discovered that she was including her oils and butters in her food logs - very common mistake/oversight! This was taken Michaela out of a deficit. Simply adding these in her tracking resulted in a 4lb drop in the 2 weeks since that
Client 2 - Jill
Jill was seeing weight loss for around 4 weeks then it stopped, nothing in her food changed and nothing about her exercise changed - was it a plateau?
No
Her VISCERAL FAT was still being tackled. This takes longer than subcutaneous fat to “burn”
Ie when we put a menopausal client into a deficit we usually see subcutaneous fat reduction straight away but visceral fat can take weeks
This is why it's SO important to track inflammation SYMPTOMS and not just your scale weight etc when looking to lose weight in menopause
These will be your MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS
- Gut Health
- Brain Fog
- Hot Flashes
- Joint Pain
Being the main symptoms we look at to see what inflammation is doing
Jill was experiencing ALL of these which is a key sign her inflammation is high - so on top of tracking her scale weight and tape measurements each week we were tracking these symptoms. They were SLOWLY coming down each week as we were focusing on anti inflammatory foods but typically it takes 6+ weeks to see significant reduction
As we have done this with SO many menopausal women we know this - we can explain this to a client and give her realistic timelines and reassure her
“Just keep going, your inflammation is coming down but it's going to take another couple weeks of doing what we are doing to see much difference but you are on the right path”
2 weeks later - the scale dropped 3lbs in one week and all of have these have made significant improvements
✅ Gut Health
✅Brain Fog
✅Hot Flashes
✅Joint Pain
Client 3 - Victoria
Victoria is a new client and after 2 weeks she still wasn’t seeing any drop on scale weight. Without proper guidance, knowledge and support most women will give up at this point thinking it “doesn't work”
But Victoria came to us with SEVERE gut issues
- Constipation
- Bloating
We explained that until we get this sorted she may not see much drop on scale and explained WHY (when constipated/bloated you will be holding on average 3-5lbs of “waste” weight so the scale will always be skewed when you step on it and you are constipated/severely bloated etc)
Thats why, again, it's SO important to have other ways to track progress
We were tracking her sleep quality, energy levels, gut health, brain fog etc
All of these were slowly improving so Jill could see things were moving in the right direction
The scale weight may not be dropping but everything else was moving in the right direction so she had faith
2 more weeks of gut work she started going to the bathroom each day and the bloating had reduced significantly
So after 4 weeks of no scale progress she stepped on the scales again and 5.2lbs had been dropped!
So ladies this is your reminder to be PATIENT, to be aware of OTHER factors that impact weight and realize that menopausal weight loss is harder, yes BUT it's not impossible
If you want to talk to myself or a member of my menopause coaching team to learn whats STOPPING you from seeing results book a FREE Menopause Consultation below