It seems like once your reach menopause (even by the time you are at peri menopause), all you have to do is look at a cookie and you’ll gain weight. You’ve probably already googled metabolism boosters and tips on how to speed up your metabolism during menopause.
Here’s the truth: quick tips, boosters, or hacks don’t work for your metabolism.
Instead, you need a re-committment to the basics of diet and lifestyle such as eating the right number of calories for your body and regular exercise.
But how can that be the answer when you are already doing that?!?!
You’ve been keeping up with the same diet and exercise program they’ve always done, yet the weight has come on quite quickly.
Especially all this belly fat, right?
It must be the hormones!
Not so fast.
There is of course some influence of the shifting hormones, but one of the largest contributors to why many people (not just women!) need fewer calories with age is the decreasing muscle mass.
This does happen naturally with age, but activity volume – and intensity in that activity – are going to dictate the rate of muscle mass loss (which starts after age 30).
And even though you may be active, you may not be as active or as intense due to shifting life priorities since your 20s and 30s and maybe even some orthopedic issues have changed what exercise looks like these days. These all contribute to the natural loss of muscle mass with age. It’s a slow, gradual progression such that the accumulated effects are often not realized in any one year, but instead after a decade or two.
And all else being equal, less muscle mass results in a lower caloric need – which is why many people find they gain weight with age. Their eating habits stay they same while their caloric need decreases – that results in weight gain.
The unfortunate truth, however, is there are no quick fixes or tips to changing your metabolism. One of the best metabolism “boosters” is actually investing your time in a long-term exercise program and specifically one that includes resistance training. This increase in muscle mass increases your daily caloric need.
This is just one of the many topics covered in The Consistency Project podcast episode titled “on Aging and Menopause.”
The podcast episode includes:
• Why women tend to have a harder time with weight gain compares to men;
• The truth behind belly fat during menopause;
• If there are any effective supplements or natural therapies for menopausal symptoms,
• Practical strategies to lose weight in peri-menopause or during menopause;
• What does the research say about Time Restricted Feeding for menopausal women; and
• What is resistance training and why is it important.
