Menopause and Waistline Woes – Do We Even Have a Chance? Yea, we do.
So many articles, so little time. Just in the last two weeks since I have been sick, there have been many popups on my phone about menopause and weight loss, what we can do and can we even fight it.
If you are following along with my weight loss journey, stalled due to illness, you will have learned that us women, in menopause, need to work out like body builders just to MAINTAIN our muscle mass and resistance training MUST be a part of it.
Now many of us have changed a ton of our habits to subdue our menopause symptoms. We gave up booze, sugar, processed foods, red meat. We exercise more, we try and do the right thing. One things I think is missing from the conversation about weight loss is our protein intake. But hey, I may be getting ahead of myself. I have a couple of articles on Menopause and Weight Loss. I am going to read them now ad come back with my thoughts.
Here is the first one: https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/chasing-life/episodes/dfd149c2-8efa-11ee-ae9c-97b9817bc064
This is my second Sanjay Gupta posting. I like how he comes into these interviews as if he is uninformed.
The most important thing Dr. Gupta says is this:
“...whether you gain weight or even how much you gain will vary from person to person. But as a general rule, the weight gain can go on for around 7 to 10 years. Now again, this may seem obvious, but I think it bears repeating that no two people are going to be exactly alike when it comes to their health. And the same is true when it comes to women and menopause. There's a lot of factors at play everything from your genetics to your lifestyle, and there is so much variability then when it comes to the experience of menopause.”
Pay attention to what is in bold, underlined, and in italics. It is for a reason, so please pay attention.
You and I will not have the same menopause even though we have the same symptoms. We will also not gain, nor lose weight the same way. Throw in genetics, race, outside influences, the poisons and plastics in our foods and you have hormonal disruption out the wazoo.
The way I need to lose weight will be different than yours, but we have something in common you may not realize.
We do not get enough protein in our diets and Dr. Gupta’s podcast did not address that at all.
You can google a protein calculator, but the results may be all over the place. Here are mine from the calculator above:
American Dietetic Association (ADA): at least 59 - 106 grams/day.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): 48 - 169 grams/day (10-35% of daily caloric intake).
World Health Organization safe lower limit: 49 grams/day.
That is such awful information. So I should take in anywhere from 48 to 169 grams of protein a day? Huh? So I went looking for a different calculator found here: https://barbend.com/protein-intake-calculator/
That one says I should intake 94 – 195 grams of protein a day. I calculated it for fat loss and muscle gain. Same result. Oh boy.
And yet a third calculator: https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/ says I should intake 95 grams of protein a day for fat loss and muscle gain. At least this one was more specific.
Just for giggles, here’s a fourth: https://www.strengthlog.com/protein-calculator/ which put me in the 106-159 grams of protein range.
No matter how I look at it, I do not get enough protein and I bet you don’t either. Not nearly enough.
But I have no desire to eat that much in a day. For a recovered bulimic, I hate feeling full and I would need to eat all day long to get to those protein numbers.
We NEED this protein. We need to save our muscle as we age because we lose it at an alarming rate during menopause if we do absolutely nothing about it.
From Feisty Menopause: https://www.feistymenopause.com/blog/menopausal-women-need-unique-muscle-making-guidelines
“Muscle Goes Fast and Is Harder to Make. Generally speaking, adults lose about 3 to 8% of their muscle mass every decade after age 30—a loss that accelerates to 5 to 10% after age 50. For women, this loss is particularly precipitous, especially around the menopause transition.”
Now I have been doing menopause research for 6+ years. I look at everything I can from every angle I can and here is what my take is on menopause and weight gain: We gain weight because we intake less protein and don’t do resistance training. It is seriously time to think about how much protein you get in a day and how you exercise. Cardio is not going to cut it. Your daily walk will NOT help your muscle mass. Sorry.
So Sanjay’s podcast did not mention loss of protein and weight gain, let’s see if these other articles do.
This next one is also Dr. Gupta and Monica Christmas: https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2024/03/08/menopause-weight-gain-explained-lbb-ag-orig.cnn
The bottom line from this article? Resistance training. They make no mention whatsoever about upping your protein intake, which is crucial to losing weight and maintaining muscle, ESPECIALLY if you are doing resistance training.
Moving on...
I just sent Dr. Sanjay Gupta a Facebook message so maybe we can talk about this and get a better understanding of the protein aspect of weight gain/loss. I don’t have an M.D. behind my name so I won’t count my chickens.
In order for me to get about 100 grams of protein a day, this is what I would need to consume from: https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/100-grams-of-protein-what-your-daily-servings-should-look-like-on-your-plate/
Greek yogurt (15 grams of protein) I HATE Greek yogurt
Beef sausage (14 grams) Not a sausage fan at all. Too much fat.
1 ounce of mixed nuts (5 grams) I could do this
Two eggs (12 grams) Easy
Snack cheese (5 grams) Processed snack cheese? No thank you
Four slices (2 ounces) of deli ham (10 grams) and lets add the processed meat, nope.
Two slices of rye bread (10 grams) I’m guessing this is part of the sandwich I won’t eat.
½ cup of rolled oats (5 grams) Just ick.
One can of tuna (27 grams) Processed tuna when I can get a ahi steak for $4? No thanks.
If you are a vegetarian, this is what 100 grams of protein looks like:
Four eggs (24 grams of protein)
½ cup of rolled oats (5 grams)
Two tablespoons of peanut butter (7 grams)
One tablespoon of hemp seeds (4 grams)
¼ cup of protein granola (10 grams)
One scoop of plant-based protein powder (20 grams)
Two snack cheeses (10 grams)
A single-serve Greek yogurt (15 grams)
And a Vegan gets this:
¼ cup of protein granola (10 grams of protein)
One scoop of plant-based protein powder (20 grams)
1 ounce of nuts (5 grams)
Two tablespoons of peanut butter (7 grams)
Two tablespoons of chia seeds (about 10 grams)
One tablespoon of hemp seeds (4 grams)
Two slices of rye bread (10 grams)
A protein granola bar (8 grams)
½ cup of rolled oats (5 grams)
Ew. Um, like what, you eat hemp seeds plain or with something? None of these “plans” works for me.
Fortunately for me, I can mix and match but I’m not doing Chia or Hemp seeds, Greek yogurt or anything processed, if I can help it.
I have added at least one protein shake a day, two if I remember. Hubby and I are also doing more fish and, as I may have mentioned, cutting red meat. Not completely, just not more than one time a week.
And after watching some movies about food and how we treat the animals we eat, consuming meat is, well, almost disgusting. It should alarm you. It should scare you. It frightens me to no end.
Here is my final thought:
You need to be comfortable in your own skin. If you aren’t, do something about it.