Frustrated!! Perimenopause and trying to lose weight!
 

Hello everyone, first I want to say I love fitday!! I'm a 44 year old female soon to be 45 in a month. I have been watching every calorie since January 15th. and keep a journal along with fitday, my problem is I have only lost 10 pounds!! :mad: I know a lot may be hormonal because I'm going through perimenopause. I do not exercise rigorously because I have a bad knee, I am very active around the house and yard which are pretty big and I do my exercise bike 3 times a week and walk when I can...usually... I struggle with knee pain a lot but I'm fighting the good fight and trying so hard. I am 5'7 and I need to lose 60 pounds. I actually do really well on my calorie count. I have maybe one or two cheat days a month....I was wondering if there was anyone with similar situation on weight loss and perimenopause?

yup. Frustrating! I'm 47 and it's amazing to me how easy it is to gain weight and how hard it is to lose. The numbers don't add up, either! Sometimes calories in does not equal calories out!
Everyone's different, but things that work for me (I'm sure you've probably heard them all before)[LIST]
[*]breakfast every morning - usually oatmeal, made 8,000 different ways in the winter time.
[*]LOTS of water
[*]Don't tell myself I can't have junk, but don't keep it in the house either
[*]eat real food! There is a LOT of processed crap that is trying to pass itself off as food - many with healthy sounding names
[*]do something to keep active every day.
[*]Reassessed my goals - realized that when my weight gets lower, more wrinkles appear - at an alarming rate!
[*]Enjoy good food when it's offered! On the other hand, decline when offered food which is just "average" - such as store-bought cookies.


Also, I have rediscovered my love of cooking, and have been enjoying making things from scratch.

I'll be curious to see what other women have to say!

fluctuating hormones are a bitch!
 

I'm of a similar age too and although I'm losing weight well I've had days when my weights gone up even though i know I've not eaten enough calories to be a culprit. I've found I need to be really careful with salt as i retain fluid. this does come off but its very disheartening to see. I retain when I ovulate too and when I'm pre-menstrual - fluctuating hormones are a bitch.

Welcome, IrishLass. I'm struggling with the same issues, only for me they happened after menopause. It is frustrating - I have to eat less and exercise more just to maintain the SAME weight, so losing weight is difficult.

When I feel like "why bother?", I try to remind myself that I'm eating well and exercising not only to lose weight, but hopefully to prevent getting diabetes which both my mother and maternal grandmother had. And I remind myself of the benefits so far - my clothes are looser, I have more energy, and my aerobic endurance has greatly improved.

10 lbs isn't nothing! Keep it up and at the end of the year, you'll have lost 30 lbs more. The weight may not be coming off as fast as you'd like, but at least you're going in the right direction.

You might try changing your diet or exercise to see if that makes a difference. Maybe add some weight training in (I just use various size bottles of water), or on your exercise bike, do a 10-min interval workout instead of a 30-min moderate pace ride. Try a low-carb diet if you're not already doing that. If you're exercising later in the day, try exercising first thing in the morning. Sometimes it takes a change to kick our bodies into a new mode.

Thanks for the replies :))
 

Thanks guys, I need to eat breakfast I'm not very good at that. I know when I was 36 I did the very same thing I'm doing now, I mean exactly the same even kept my old journal to refer back to and I lost 50 pounds in about 6 to 8 months. The first 30 fell off then the rest came off later but I gained it all back in the last 3 years :(....I do drink a lot of water I use to drink a ton of diet soda but I cut that down to once or twice a month. I retain water like crazy!!! It is so frustrating I just want it off so I can feel better. Since I can not exercise real good, I keep moving all during the day. I do not sit for more then 15 min. at a time up until about 6:00 in the evening. When the weather gets nice I'm going to try walking, I fell in January so its been tricky...Anyways thank you for the replies I appreciate it, I was beginning to think I was going crazy with the perimenopause and the weight.

Thank you, I need to eat breakfast I'm not very good at that. I know when I was 36 I did the very same thing I'm doing now, I mean exactly the same even kept my old journal to refer back to and I lost 50 pounds in about 6 to 8 months. The first 30 fell off then the rest came off later but I gained it all back in the last 3 years ....I do drink a lot of water I use to drink a ton of diet soda but I cut that down to once or twice a month. I retain water like crazy!!! It is so frustrating I just want it off so I can feel better. Since I can not exercise real good, I keep moving all during the day. I do not sit for more then 15 min. at a time up until about 6:00 in the evening. When the weather gets nice I'm going to try walking, I fell in January so its been tricky...Anyways thank you for the reply I appreciate it, I was beginning to think I was going crazy with the perimenopause and the weight. I'm hoping with the warm weather coming soon maybe I will go swimming and that may help :)

I'm perimenopausal too. My body is holding onto the fat for dear life!
Losing has never been so hard. This site is helping immensely because I can log everything easily and not have to write it in secret code in a notepad so my husband won't know how much I weigh ;)

I know this isn't the best way to go about it but I am using two high protein shakes as breakfast and lunch and doing a reasonable dinner with a couple healthy snacks thrown in. I just wasn't seeing any loss with just trimming a few calories here and there. This short term plan seems to be kick starting the weight loss for me. I'll see how I should modify my diet in a month.

Good luck to you.

Getting old sucks, but the alternative is not acceptable...
 

Several things...

Try a progesterone cream (from the health food store, not a synthetic) to balance your hormones naturally. Most often (according to what I've read over the years), it's not that we lack estrogen--our estrogene and progesterone are out of balance. We see a lot of estrogen prescriptions because synthetic estrogen has been patented and someone makes money from it. I used progesterone cream throughout pre-menopause and never had hot-flashes or other side effects of menopause.

Don't just blindly count calories, make sure that they are not empty calories--processed foods, sugar, etc. Some low-calorie stuff is horrible for your health.

As we age, a lot of us become insulin resistant. Make sure that you're either seeing a doctor periodically or tracking your blood sugar. If you don't want to go to the doctor, you can buy an A1c test at Wal-Mart. Personally, I think it's easier to have the doctor do the A1c, but that's just me.

Watch out for foods that cause inflammation--such as wheat and other processed flours/products. Cut out all processed grain (cereal, bread, cake, etc) for a week or two and see if your joints hurt less. It is the difference between walking with a cane and walking 12-minute miles (without a cane) for me.

Track your food religiously and keep a journal so that you can see the relationship between food and how you feel. You'd probably be surprised. I was...things I used to be able to eat without any problem now cause indigestion and painful inflammation. I wouldn't have know what was causing problems if I hadn't been tracking food and energy/pain levels.

On breakfast...I'm with you, I HATE eating befor 10AM. I have a protein shake and a cup of coffee for breakfast (about 360 days a year). It works for me. Lately, I've been making chia pudding for breakfast. But, you have to plan ahead for that because it takes a few hours for the chia seeds to gel. Use chia seeds (from the health food store or online)...2 TBS, 1/2 cup of Silk unsweetened almond milk, a little Torani SF syrup or sweetener. Mix together, cover, and store in the fridge. I make 6 at a time--it gives me breakfast or an almost-sweet snack in seconds. Don't eat to many servings in one day, though, because chia seeds are very good at keeping you "regular."

Good luck!!

I know exactly how everyone feels - It was hard enough to lose weight before now with peri/menopause it is so much harder.

I am posting the link to a blog post on my company's website regarding peri/menopause and weight loss -www.drybabe.com/blog/weight-gain-during-menopause/

- which explains how our bodies are changing and what we can do to lose weight and maintain it once we get there.

- I hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi Irishlass1,

I will be 51 in July and I understand what u are going thru. Hormones play a big role in weight loss. Your bum knee don't help either. 10 lbs. in about 12 weeks isn't bad! Slow weight loss is gone stay off more than a quick drop. I have gone from 191.8 lbs. in Jan of 2012 to 163 lbs as of today. It has been a slow drop. I have been stuck at 160 to 165 for several months. I deal with a lot of stress, my hub and I care for his 89 yr. old mom and we are stressed to the max.
When I started this weight loss journey in 2010 I was at 182 lbs. I drop to 165 lbs and than regained after being put on hrt. and cholesterol meds. stopped them and started dropping. I got down to 184 lbs. last June and got a puppy and dropped 10 lbs. in 2 months. Was put on metformin for diabetes and dropped another 10 lbs. and here I sit stuck at my current weight.

This isn't a marathon. We didn't gain this weight overnight. It isn't going to come off overnight. Be patient and continue to do what you are doing. Trying adding 1 extra 10 - 20 minute walk a day to your workout it may give you the boost you need. Just My Opinion.

Good luck. Sounds like your doing everything great. Just them darn hormones.

Track your food religiously and keep a journal so that you can see the relationship between food and how you feel. You'd probably be surprised. I was...things I used to be able to eat without any problem now cause indigestion and painful inflammation. I wouldn't have know what was causing problems if I hadn't been tracking food and energy/pain levels."[/U]


I am 100% on board with volley ball granny's comments here, I only began experiencing abdominal paid from inflammatory foods at 60. I had not been eating processed foods much, but any time I had gluten I would suffer. And overuse of nsaids for the pain was creating a viscious cycle. Lose the wheat :) And don't sub in rice and tapioca products, they are as bad if not worse. Anything in the store that touts gluten free is likely a very processed food. Eat low glycemic real fruits and veggies and clean lean protein. I start every day with a protein smoothie, and
then a healthy lean lunch and dinner. Serious workouts included resistance and muscle building, overdoing cardio is not the answer either. Balance it out, get sore, get results...my two cents :)

It took you four months to lose 10 pounds, and you have cheat days? Wow! In another four months, it would be 20 pounds you will have lost. Not shabby. I'd say, just keep it up. You're living with a plan that works for you now. It seems your only complaint is that you would like it to work faster.

I'd say you're doing fine.

One thing that I have found when I try to carefully track my calories eaten and burned: the estimator for the calories burned seemed to estimate high. I started using a heartrate monitor, and that helped a lot to get a better picture of what I was really burning.

And... 10 lbs in 12 weeks. That's GREAT!! How long did it take you to gain those 10 lbs in the first place? A lot longer, right? As long as the scale is moving downward, slowly but surely, you will get there.

Hello Everyone,
I am new to FitDay. I have been told I am going through a hormone change and am just confounded by my inability to lose weight. Doctors have been no help. I have always been the type to take control and lost that weight. This time I was unable to exercise or eat right for two years all the while thinking "when this is over I will quickly lose the weight" WRONG. Since May I have been logging food eaten, exercise logging, pedometer logging, eating fresh, no wheat no dairy no potato no beef low sugar and the list goes on. Yes, I eat oatmeal by 9 AM everyday and do not eat after 9 PM. So far I have lost a whopping .3 pounds. A friend told me about FitDay which says I should be eating a whopping 2100 calories per day...I have been sticking to 1200. Have you been sticking to the suggested calorie count?
Glad to be here.

You sound just like me. Pausing, bad knees, etc. Get your thyroid checked if you haven't already; perimenopause and menopause are times when women's thyroids tend to quit on them. If your thyroid isn't working you can't lose weight no matter what you do, until you get medication for it. I know this from experience. And even then it's harder than for a person without those issues. Pausing is a great big pain in the butt. I take very small estrogen supplements to keep the hot flashes away... the smallest pill and I cut it in half. I tried natural progesterone supplements but didn't get results so after 3 months I stopped. It does wonders for some women though. It just depends what your body needs.

Thank you all for the great advice and encouragement. I joined this program 2 months ago. I have gained 80 pounds steadily in the past 20 years. I am now 52. I know it is going to take a long time of lifestyle changes to reach my long-term goal. I know I have to up my level of activity and do all the right things this program advises. Need all the help I can find.
Start weight: 253 lb 10/21/2013
current weight: 238 lb 12/22/2013:
short term goal: 190 lb 06/01/2014; long term goal 150 lb 06/01/2015.

You've lost 10!!!!!!!!!!!! That's great. It may be slow but you're doing something right.

I started gaining in my 30s, more in my 40s, now at my heaviest in my early 50s. It's really sad and really unhealthy for me. I'm afraid I'll end up diabetic. I have reflux although I'm getting a handle on that. Thyroid is an issue for me as well. I'm starting to count calories again. I've been LC for a long time. I don't know what else to do:confused:

I've only lost 7 lbs since I started Jan 15th, so you've got me beat with your 10. I'm 42 and have been working out at the gym 5-6x week and eating about 1500 calories per day with lots of water. I too used to find it soooo much easier to lose weight. I suppose it's the metabolism slowing down. I don't honestly know. As far as I know, I'm not premenopausal. The only symptom I've had is the urinary issues. No hot flashes, etc...

How many of you are peri or in full menopause and are taking HRT?

I was having a hard time with peri: insomnia, feeling "foggy" and out of it, plus a few other things.

I tried "bioidenticals" but they didn't work for me (long story). Dr. suggested BC pills (hey, they are estrogen and progesten, so why not). It seemed to help all issues - EXCEPT my appetite grew uncontrollable and I gained weight (not to mention they made me extremely moody!)

I want to stay on HRT, but I am having trouble finding the right "regimen."

If you are on HRT - what has "worked" for you as far as both estrogen and progestern replacement?

Perimenopause
 

Hi, I am back on Fitday, having the same issues! I am on a low dose of progesterin (mini pill) and gained 10 pds that I want to take off since I started progesterin.....(overall 20 pds -goal weight...frustrating indeed and it's a lot harder with perimenopause..44 yrs old and need encouragement :) ......Any help/suggestions, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!:)

This diet works for me.
 

Weight was never really a problem for me until I hit 50. Over the years my weight fluctuated somewhat but I was always able to drop the extra pounds easily, even after giving birth to three children. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated when those extra pounds refused to budge with what I thought was a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. A friend had mentioned the Paleo diet to me about a year ago but I thought it sounded too radical. I ran into her again about 6 months ago. She looked amazing and told me she was feeling great. So I decided to give it a try. At first the diet seemed a little limited but after I started using this Paleo cookbook I became easy and fun. The pounds dropped away easily and my energy levels shot up. I also felt like the mental fogginess that had come with menopause had lifted, If you're interested here's a link

Let me address something to Topspally who stated earlier that she's been trying to lose weight and sticking to 1200 calories a day. I weighed my heaviest eating 1200 calories a day and could not lose weight. Arriving here and seeing what "they" thought I should be eating, I upped my calories to 1800-2000 calories a day, eliminated processed food, moved more (mostly walking) and lost 50 pounds,albeit, slowly but consistantly and have kept it off for 2 years. Eat the "real deal" no diet food, no lite dairy, or lowfat anything. The real food is less processed and the body can draw energy from real food. You get less of it but it feels and actually TASTES like something.

Blood work is now "perfect" while before I was getting high Glucose, high cholesterol and feeling lousy.

Perimenopausal & totally frustrated
 

Im 48 and ive just been told im perimenopausal and am going through a nightmare. Prior to being diagnosed I joined slimming world to lose one stone however in the last 6 wks I have put on just over a stone in fact I put on 1 stone despite following slimming world to the letter (I put on 14lb in 4 wks and a further 5 lbs in the following 2 weeks as you can imagine im devastated). So now I have just over 2 stones to lose and despite eating healthily my weight is not budging in fact I am gaining rapidly! on top of this my joints are killing me and my bladder has gone crazy im urinating up to 7-8times a night and the same during the day.
Please ladies advise im at the end of my tether. Ive gone from a sz 10 to a sz 14 in about 6 wks im getting no sleep due to having to get up to wee all night long and my joint pain is sometimes unbearable I feel so totally stressed

Have you talked to your doctor? Sounds like he or she might have some insights. All that discomfort could be some medical issue other than perimenopause.

Hormones help with weight loss
 

I am 51 and have been on diets forever. detoxed, raw food and exercise. Your hormones will either work for or against you.
I just wrote an article on re setting hormones, because when I understood this it helped me a lot.
Ive taken a different view on food, diets and losing weight. I am filling myself with positive aspects and nourishing myself on every level I can and then so many of my old cravings just don't work anymore.

Im not preaching or trying to prove anything just saying, if it had not worked then there is another way.

XX Fiona

hi guys i hear all of your complaints caue i am there too i am 55 and in menapos and fighting the same battle ! plus under a whole lot of stress ! and have fibromyalgia too so it slowsm down but every day i do the fight cause we are all going to beat this! whose with -ME-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!