Changing Body Shape
The intense focus on weight in the media coupled with the subliminal messaging we have been receiving our whole lives about how women should look are hard to shake. When our youth and fecundity start to slide it causes untold misery, and the redistribution and gaining of weight remains the most pressing symptom for women when questioned about their fears around menopause.
Nearly all women experience a change in their body shape during their perimenopause and menopause. It’s true even for me - not that I am special - but I do spend most of my life prancing around in a gym, so I could expect to stay slim. There is a noticeable thickening around my waist, and I wonder if my crop-top days are numbered.
Weight redistribution is usually due to fluctuations in hormone levels, but can be linked to many different aspects of life such as your genetic make-up, stress levels and sleep. All these factors need to be taken into consideration alongside your hormonal health, so let’s have a quick look at them before I give you a round-up of the best advice out there.
Why does fat land around our middle? Oestrogen receptors are present in every cell in your body, so when levels start to decline or fluctuate the body reacts. It tries to obtain a different type of oestrogen produced by fat cells, and many women find they start to develop a ‘spare tyre’ in response to this. Many women, (myself included) find they also have strong cravings for foods high in sugar, which the body will in turn lay down as (estrogen-producing) abdominal fat.
This time in our lives is stressful. There’s no other way around it – kids, aging parents, career paths, relationships, the rage, feeling disconnected from who we once were – it’s a maelstrom of emotions and strains. Our stress reaction releases adrenaline and cortisol, which causes the body to release glucose for a burst of energy to allow us to ‘flee’ (think fight or flight). When this glucose is not used for ‘fleeing’ it triggers the release of insulin, which then packages the glucose away as fat. For tips on how to manage your stress response please see last month’s blog post here.
Oh the sleep. Hot flushes, night sweats, raised cortisol levels, anxiety, needing to pee… the list goes on. Oestrogen deficiency is at the root of many of these problems, and bad sleep interferes with your ability to make good food choices, feel sated, and not recognising when you are feeling full. Sleep hygiene is a whole different topic, but I do want you to recognise the impact that poor sleep has on your lifestyle.
To simplify it’s easy to see why the weight creeps up at this stage of life, and how deeply oestrogen is bound up in our wellbeing. It isn’t hard to recognise why there can be so much disruption during the perimenopause and menopause. Here are my top tips for tackling this.
1. Exercise. It has to be number one. It needs to become a non-negotiable at this stage in our lives, which is ironic as it drops off many women’s to-do lists around about now. Partly because we are busy and forget to / feel bad about prioritising ourselves. Poor sleep patterns destroy our motivation to move, and often declining oestrogen can lead to widespread and persistent joint pain which makes exercise an unappealing prospect.
Barre is brilliant for midlife women. It is low impact so it puts waaaaay less strain through your joints than more traditional workouts. It is high intensity so you are still burning through the calories and getting the results you want. There is a serious strength training element to my classes designed to slow down the loss of bone-density, and a big emphasis on balance and co-ordination, both of which are skills that, as we age, either we use or we lose.
Equally important to me are the mental health benefits of barre. A kind of alchemy occurs in a barre class. The moves are quick and you need to be entirely focused, so a state of mindfulness descends. The music is selected to make you feel good, and the endorphin rush from the class releases a hefty dose of serotonin. There is a true mind, body and soul connection that takes place, and exercise becomes a pleasure rather than a chore, and barre becomes a source of joy, in and of itself.
2. Food-wise. Keeping a food diary is helpful. Noticing patterns in your behaviour, and pin-pointing times where you over or under eat can raise awareness of how you feel. You want to include protein at each and every meal, (e.g. fish, chicken, eggs, dairy, pulses), and complex carbohydrates are your friend. Healthy fats, (avocados, oily fish, seeds and nuts) will promote feelings of fullness for longer.
It is worth noting that crash or fad diets at our age are likely to do more harm than good. Restricting calories ultimately leads to a decrease in your basal metabolic rate. They are also likely to cause muscles breakdown and increase cortisol, leading to more stubborn fat deposition. These are all areas we need to be increasingly careful with as we go forward. We want to live and age well.
Reducing sugar, limiting (or even, whisper it, give up) alcohol, keeping well hydrated and eating lots of real food including masses of fruit and veg (2 portions of fruit to 8 portions of veg ladies) are all things we know we should be doing. Try it and see how you feel: you’re definitely NOT going to feel worse for it.
3. Gut health. Oh I could talk about this all day long. Ah, I already have. Have a look at this blog post about how improving your gut health can have hugely beneficial effects on mood, weight, and quality of sleep.
It’s a lot isn’t it? However, this time of life is also an opportunity to shed the person we felt we ought to be and become the person we really are. It’s the right time to conduct a thorough MOT of your health and well-being, but please be mindful that making sweeping changes across the board is unlikely to be a successful strategy. Introducing small changes at a time, and then adding more as you become confident, will soon start to make a difference.
If you’d like to try barre and see if it helps, I have a free class here. Alternatively, if you have taken a hiatus from exercise, and would like to try an entry level class, I have a beginner’s class available here. I promise you, it’s a game changer.