It’s no secret that our metabolism slows as we age. You may have heard terms like “menopause middle,” “midlife creep,” and, my favorite, “the shifting sands of time.”
The average woman gains 1.5 pounds per year during her adult life – enough to pack on 40+ pounds by the time she’s in her 50s, if she doesn’t combat the perfect storm of hormones, muscle loss, and stress that slows her fat-burning engine.
Weight gain not only affects self-confidence, it can also have serious implications for your health.
Carrying extra weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and respiratory problems. Also, the extra stress on the joints can lead to arthritic issues, limiting mobility and making it harder to exercise.
We all want and deserve to age well, enjoy all the activities we love, and move through the day with confidence and ease.
So, what the heck is going on? And what do we do about it?
Several factors contribute to the slowing of our metabolism as we enter midlife.
Hormonal changes.
A decrease in estrogen and progesterone triggers metabolic changes in the body, causing us to burn fewer calories throughout the day.
Loss of muscle mass.
Muscles burn calories. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your burn, even when you’re sleeping or watching tv. This is why men can release weight more easily than women. They have more muscle mass.
Plus, the muscle tone lost from reduced hormone production is often replaced by fatty tissue deposits, especially around the midsection. Ugh!
Stress.
Midlife is often a time of major life shifts. Children growing up and leaving home, career changes, retirement, divorce, relationship changes, aging parents, and more, all contribute to higher stress levels.
When stressed, our bodies produce excess cortisol, which slows the metabolism and can cause cravings for sweet, fatty and salty foods. The double whammy!
Decreased physical activity.
Many women in midlife work at sedentary jobs, lead a busy lifestyle, or have simply gotten out of the habit of moving their bodies. Plus, women tend to prioritize everyone else – work, kids, family, etc. – leaving no time for their own self-care and healthy habits.
This doesn’t have to be the case!
Here are four proven strategies get your metabolism back up and running at full speed, release weight, and reclaim your health.
1. Break up with sugar
Plain and simple, eating too much sugar is one of the main culprits when it comes to weight gain and belly fat. It can be so hard to resist!
What many don’t realize is, cravings are actually a message from your body that something is out of balance. Once you start listening and trying to understand what your body is telling you, the cravings will start to go down.
Here are some strategies to get your cravings under control:
Make sure you’re eating enough and not skipping meals. If you don’t fuel your body regularly, your energy will crash. When you need a quick boost, you’re most likely to reach for sugar and unhealthy carbs. These digest quickly and give you an energy spike. Until it crashes again and the vicious cycle continues.
Start with a hearty breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day! If your body is full and satisfied first thing in the morning, your blood sugar, hormones, and energy levels will stay steady and you’ll avoid the energy crashes that causes cravings.
Eat plenty of protein. Not only does protein digests slowly, keeping you full longer, it’s also foundational for building and maintaining muscle mass.
2. Strength train
More muscle mass equals more calories burned all day every day, not just during exercise. The old adage, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” absolutely applies here.
Cardiovascular exercise, like walking, biking, and swimming are also vitally important to maintaining good health. But strength training, aka resistance training, using weights, bands, or body weight, is where the magic happens when it comes to boosting your metabolism.
3. Reduce stress
Many of us lead extremely busy lifestyles, living in a constant state of fight-or-flight. With chronic high stress and high cortisol levels comes hormone imbalances and stored body fat.
Finding ways to regularly reduce stress levels activates the parasympathetic nervous system (often called the rest and digest state), which lowers blood sugar levels, normalizes hormones, and increases your digestive metabolism.
4. Address emotional eating.
Emotional eating is THE MOST common reason so many women struggle with on-again-off-again weight cycling.
That’s because, trying to fix your outside world (aka creating a healthy lifestyle), without addressing the underlying reasons you eat, is like taking aspirin for a brain tumor.
Many of us turn to food to boost our mood when we feel sad, lonely, unhappy, stressed, or bored, in order to numb out uncomfortable emotions. Instead of addressing the underlying issues we often “stuff them down.” It works short term, but, if the real issues aren’t dealt with, the cycle of turning to food for comfort will keep repeating.
Working through emotional eating can be difficult to do on your own. Especially if you’ve been struggling with it for a long time. Getting support from a coach or mental health professional can be a huge help in uncovering and breaking unhealthy patterns.
Menopause is unavoidable, but weight gain doesn’t have to be. With a few lifestyle adjustments you can reclaim your health and be vibrant and active for decades to come.
