Your Weight Isn't The Problem - Here's What Is

It's not just about the number on the scale... It's about your metabolism!

If you’re a menopausal woman and your goal is to lose weight, I want to set a few things straight and help you reach your goals.

One of the biggest mistakes women make is thinking of their bodies as calculators; calories in and calories out. They think as long as they create a deficit (eat fewer calories than expended), they’ll lose weight.

Now it is true that you need a caloric deficit to lose weight. But at the same time, it's not quite that simple.

If your metabolism isn’t healthy to begin with and has been slowing down, which it naturally does with age, you’re going to need to understand how to work with it in order to change it. Simply cutting back on food, which has the potential to slow it down even further, and engaging in more exercise, might actually do you more harm than good.

Let’s start by explaining what exactly the role of the metabolism is so you can understand what it’s goal is in your body.

To put it simply, the metabolism is trying to convert food into energy to fuel your body’s processes. Basically, it’s trying to keep you alive. The thing is though, it can only work with what you give it.

Say you worked for a company and your metabolism was your coworker. They always work to meet deadlines, are always putting out fires whenever necessary, and are constantly making sure everyone has everything they need to do their jobs properly. Sounds like someone you want to work with right?

But say your boss has some communication issues, doesn’t provide everyone in the company with the tools they need to succeed, doesn’t follow any sort of routine and doesn’t listen to what you or your amazing coworker is trying to say.

All that work your metabolism is doing ends up being wasted most of the time because the person in charge refuses to listen to feedback and is regularly adding more demands and more stress to the job than necessary. This means no matter how hard it has worked, it always ends up looking bad and not being successful even when they try their hardest.

Without seeing that it’s the “boss” who has made all the mistakes, it would be easy to think the employee is the one who is ineffective, but the truth is, there is more to this than meets the eye.

I want you to think of your metabolism as a stress barometer. Any stress you put on your body is going to affect your metabolism by causing it to slow down. So if you’re the boss in question and your metabolism is your employee, you can’t keep putting so much stress on it and expect it to do its job correctly.

And this stress can come in many different forms; work, struggles in a relationship, money problems, lack of sleep, over working, and even from over exercising and under eating. The end result of this stress is increased body fat and decreased muscle.

You see, muscle is metabolically active tissue. Meaning it needs more energy to exist. This is why it’s one of the first things to go when your metabolism is stressed.

Along with stress you’re most likely not moving as much as you used to and not eating the right nutrients to support your metabolism.

So, let’s stop focusing so much on the scale and instead take a look at your lifestyle, how you’re treating your body, and how to change your body composition.

Instead, I want you to shift your mindset from 'weight loss' to ‘energy gain.’

Focus on fueling your body with the right foods and moving in ways that feel good to you.

Let’s start with your nutrition. As we head into menopause we need more protein than we ever did before so start there. Aim for about 30 grams of protein per meal. Carbohydrates and fats are going to be different for everyone as we all have unique metabolisms. This is why it’s important to work with a professional to help determine your starting point.

When thinking about nutrition, I want you to think about being that “boss” your body needs, though. If you’re going to be an effective boss to your body, you’re going to need to communicate with it properly, which means understanding what it can and cannot handle. You can figure this out by starting to record what you eat and how your body responds to it. If you increase your protein and add in veggies twice per day and your jeans start fitting more comfortably, your energy is up and you drop a couple of pounds, chances are you’re heading in the right direction.

I know you may be thinking that recording what you eat is a pain and you’ll probably just remember what you ate, but trust me, it’s a lot easier to forget than you think. Creating a solid base understanding of how your body is responding to the foods you’re eating, positive or negative, is going to help you move forward in the right direction. A professional coach or nutritionist can help you figure out what it all means as well.

If you really hate writing down your food, I would highly recommend at least taking pictures of each meal throughout the day so you can look back at it when examining how the past day or week went.

Next let’s work on movement. Strength training is absolutely necessary for building muscle and maintaining a healthy weight, especially as we get older and we lose muscle even quicker. But you also need to find a way to move that makes you feel good.

Not only will you feel a difference physically, this is going to make your entire weight journey much more enjoyable. Which also means sustainable.

Just like any good boss knows, work should still be enjoyable for the employees that have to do it. So give yourself something fun to do. Find group activities you like, maybe a fun sport or simply go for walks and listen to music. Let yourself discover the joy movement and activity can bring into your life.

When you focus on these things, you’re going to find your metabolism responding quite differently to your efforts. It’s going to be able to do its job more effectively and you’re going to see so many benefits from shifting the focus from “weight loss” to figuring out how to work enjoyably and effectively with your body.