Menopause weight gain, is something many women, including me have to deal with. It just seems that more difficult to shake those extra pounds that start showing up during menopause.
But if you look at your lifestyle, I find you can’t always blame it all on menopause. Sure things do slow down, including your metabolism, but we may have slowed down a bit too. We drive more, grab fast food on the run.. It doesn’t take much for the weight to show up. Even just a few pounds a year, for the last five years, and the next thing you know you have 10 or 15 pounds on your body.
Statistics show, that during menopause and after, we do not need the same calorie intake as before, and the problem is, we tend to eat the same way we always have and do the same exercises we did before. But at this special time, we need to change things up a bit, since our body has changed also. What worked before may not be working now.
Diet: I hate that word!.. But what we do have to do, is take a look at our most routine days, where we eat mostly the same and at the same time, and for me, that is Monday to Friday. Now without resorting to dry rice cakes… just try and shave off 30 calories here, and 30 calories there, and try and find 250 calories or so during your day. It could be as simple as changing the brand of bread you use, or cutting out some of the cheese on your sandwich, or switching mayo with mustard or pickles.
All of these can add up during a day. Don’t forget to look at drinks also, they can be loaded with hidden calories. If you must have a fizzy drink, switch out your cola for club soda with some lemon or lime flavorings. If you drink coffee, switch cream for milk, or try drinking it black, keep latte‘s for a special weekend treat.
At the end of the day, you should be able to tweak your diet enough to find 250 calories or more. If you stick to this plan, and maybe walk more, take the stairs, park farther, you should be able to lose 2 pounds a month or more without noticing or feeling the change too much. Then you will have menopause weight gain under control. Two pounds adds up big time over months without feeling any deprivation, and that is the only way you are going to stick to it. By not feeling deprived and doing this slowly.