Losing Weight In Perimenopause
Are you in perimenopause and need to lose weight? Or, do you suspect that you are entering into perimenopause and you need to lose weight, and want to know how? I feel you, and I have been there. Although, like most of you, I did not know at the time that I was in perimenopause, and I think this is true of a LOT of women. Many women are entering into perimenopause and need to lose weight but they don’t recognize or even consider the time of life that they are in and so they put their blinders on and only think about the weight loss problem as a fitness/diet problem. Nothing could be more WRONG as far as the approach to take at this time in your life ladies, trust me. The more you ignore your HORMONES and limit your thinking to diet and exercise, the more you set yourself up to fail. In this post, I’ll share with you my experience in figuring out hormonal balance and how I ultimately was able to lose weight during menopause– and hopefully my situation and this post can save you some time and trial and error!
My body first began to change (I now know it was my hormones changing, but I didn’t at the time) back in 2007 when I was about 38 years old going through a divorce (great timing!). The symptoms I noticed at first were skin bumps- rock hard skin bumps all over my neck, arms, back and chest (I’ll cover this in another post where I talk about Spironolactone and other bad drugs you should never go on and how adult hormonal acne is often misdiagnosed. You can watch this video I recorded here in the mean time to learn more) then I started having problems falling asleep so I had to take Excedrin PM every night to fall asleep then my body temp changed– I’d notice my armpits would be sweaty whereas never before in my life had I had dampness under my arms (eww). Then I gained weight after not changing my diet and still working out. In fact my trainer at time asked if I was pregnant because my boobs got very big and swollen. (estrogen). ALL THESE SYMPTOMS HAPPENED but I only paid attention to the weight gain. Go figure. This is what women do! The common symptoms of hormonal imbalance (which will happen in perimenopause) are (including but not limited to): acne/skin problems, body temperature changes, night sweats, hot flashes, headaches/migraines, mood swings, irritability, vaginal dryness, lack of libido, excessive bleeding with periods (I had this too), weight gain, inability to lose weight without changing diet/exercise, insomnia, brain fog, hair loss, and more. But again, many many many women will experience a LOT or all of these symptoms and still 1) not pursue seeing a specialist and 2) will only focus in on the weight gain and 3) will blame themselves for the weight gain without ever considering hormones’ part in the weight gain.
The Part Hormones Play in Weight Gain
Ladies, let me save you some time. Please understand, yes, there are a few unicorns out there who can breeze through perimenopause and menopause unscathed and not gain weight and not get hot flashes and not have anyyyyy issues with hormones. Those unicorns should be banished to another planet in my opinion. Most of us will have hormones go haywire in some way and NEED to have them addressed. I’m also not going to sugar-coat this for you. Getting your hormones balanced is 1) not SIMPLE– it is unique to each one of us. 2) it’s not cheap. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. I remember when I started reading all of Suzanne Somers’ books, I guessed that bio-identical hormones would cost thousands of dollars a month. No. I currently pay about $425/month for all my bio-identical hormonal treatment and then I get bloodwork done about 2-3x a year- COMPREHENSIVE bloodwork done and — I can save you a LOT OF MONEY by having you use my friends at ULTA LAB TESTS. You simply pre-order your bloodwork, pre-pay– and trust me, you will save upwards of 75%– and the blood-work is done via Quest Labs anyway– the best bloodwork providers. So my recommendation is that you get bloodwork done via ULTA LABS then take those labs to a qualified FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE DOCTOR (the great thing is you can see a doctor anywhere in the US now due to telemedicine!! I recommend my doctor– Dr. Ruthie Harper– she is amazing and a life changer and is taking new patients currently) and have them interpret the results and prescribe bio-identicals for you. Sadly, insurance won’t cover bio-identicals because big pharma can’t come in and make money off it so there’s that……but who knows what the future holds. For me, it’s worth every dime and if you are financially strapped and want to talk to me about how to earn an extra $500 a month — girl I got you. You know I’m all about helping women make extra streams of money, what could be a better motivation than your future health and longevity– and I’m telling you, bio-identicals will change your body and health FOREVER.
Now, with regard to diet and exercise. The mistakes that most women make are this: they OVER-DIET and OVER-TRAIN. I did both for years. Here is what you need to know. When your hormones are changing, the last thing you need to be doing is treating your body and yourself like a workhorse….and when you over-train and over-diet, that is what you are doing. Your body will inevitably fight back with elevated cortisol, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, and overall just more extremely unbalanced hormones. THE BEST thing you can be doing is seeing a specialist to address your hormones– ALL OF THEM. (The reason I capitalize all of them– is because what happens to a lot of women is they’ll seek help from their OB/GYN or their Primary Care doc or an endocrinologist and they’ll be prescribed ONLY progesterone or ONLY estrogen or ONLY synthroid (which is a synthetic version of thyroid medicine, not ideal vs. naturethroid which is a non-synthetic) — when you understand hormones, you know that hormonal imbalance needs to address ALL YOUR HORMONES not just one.) The 2nd best thing to know is that if you are struggling to lose weight, and you are dietings and working out- it’s PROBABLE that you are dealing with insulin resistance and as such, a lower-carb/keto approach to eating is going to be beneficial for you. As stated above– I’d be remiss if I told you that just going keto alone will suffice. I strongly recommend getting the hormones checked as a foundation–or you could start keto and then get started with good hormones doctor but just know – you have to have a plan in place to address hormones. I can help yo in all areas– 1) You could start with my Keto Cookbook to start making some lower carb meals to start out dipping your toe in the water. 2) I also have an Online Keto Bootcamp that is a self-paced video taught school that is me teaching you how to do keto the way I did- -and I lost 36 inches and 30lbs last year after being stuck for years (with hormonal imbalance and insulin resistance and not being able to figure out all the things that you are probably frustrated with!)– my school is just $99 and it gets you lifetime access to the videos and the FB Group where you get to ask questions about anything at anytime! CLICK HERE. 3) I did state above that if you desire to get bio-identical treatment and the idea of adding a $500-ish plan each month is not doable with your budget and you’d like to just listen and learn about what the heck I’m referring to with earning an extra $500-$1000 a month in additional income (sure you could earn more if you hustle) reach out to me at kelly@kellyolexa.com and we’ll set up a call– 10-15 minutes and if you like what you hear, cool, if not -no worries.
Let me summarize a few things — and just know I’ll be sharing a lot more posts on these topics and going into more detail so let me know what your questions are. 1) We don’t need to give up on our fitness game just because it’s perimenopause time. HELL NAW. In fact, I’m just so you know — I’m actually past menopause and done with it but I’m just getting started with a new program (I’m doing 30-Day Breakaway with Beachbody right now loving it– it’s running and strength training)– but I’m learning that strength training – heavy training is more important than ever– and cardio is ideal — HIIT is the best!! So it’s all about the KIND Of workouts we do and 2) With food- it’s all about FUELING OUR BODY vs. starving ourselves like we used to think we needed to when we were younger. And understanding insulin resistance and glucose spikes — that is a huge help with deciding how to eat. Get this book: CLICK HERE. 3) You MUST GET YOUR HORMONES BALANCED by a professional! I’d recommend my doctor she can change your life. 4) You have to get comprehensive blood-work done: get ULTA LAB TESTS and if you want to see my lab-work so you can order what I get done every quarter I’m happy to share. Just email me kelly@kellyolexa.com. 5) If blood-work and BHRT sounds cost-prohibitive to you, let’s set up a time to talk because YOU CAN easily earn an extra $500 a month or more and pay for that and YOU DESERVE IT- it’s life changing treatment!! What questions do you have about bio-identical hormones or perimenopause or losing weight at this phase of life???
But Wait, There's MORE!
If you liked what I’m throwing down in this blog, you’ll probably want to check out these posts and podcasts and videos: VIDEO: Insulin Resistance and Weight Loss: CLICK HERE. VIDEO: Why You Should Count Carbs Instead of Calories: CLICK HERE. My Keto Weight Loss Transformation: CLICK HERE, Next up- grab my FREE Keto Kwik Start eBook.
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