Hi - love your post because i'm beginning to relate to a lot of what you said. i'm still perimenopausal (i'm almost 49) but "things" are changing for no apparent reason so i'm beginning to chalk it up to hormonal changes. here is something i found from PREVENTION magazine - it's very interesting!!! some of the advice doesn't fit into a stringent carb controlled plan like meat and eggs but for those of us who are doing high protein and good carbs (under 40 g a day or so) a lot of this advice is useful, and it sure explains a lot about what is going on with our changing bodies.
For years, Michelle Batz, 46, was 120 pounds of pure muscle. But a difficult pregnancy in her late 30s caused her to gain 70 pounds, and although she's since lost most of it, 9 pounds are still glued to her belly and hips today. "It's frustrating because I work out for 45 minutes every morning, don't snack, and always eat meals off of smaller plates than the rest of my family," says the Chicago phys-ed teacher. "I know I still look good for my age, but I want to look like I did a decade ago."
Who hasn't hit the dreaded weight rut, when after a few weeks or months of the pounds flying off, you're suddenly—bam—up against a scale that won't budge? "All dieters reach a plateau at some point, whether it's after a few weeks or a few months," says Louis Aronne, MD, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and a clinical professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. "After you've lost a certain amount, your body thinks it's starving and sets up roadblocks that make it harder for those last pounds to come off."
To make matters worse, the more weight you lose, the less effective your once successful diet plan is likely to be. The reason: As you lose weight, you may also lose muscle, leading to a slower metabolism. "Female patients come in asking, 'I lost 40 pounds—why is it so hard to get those last 10 off?'" says Scott Isaacs, MD, a clinical instructor of medicine at Emory University Medical Center and author of Hormonal Balance. "Yes, they're still eating the same amount of calories as when they started dieting, but because they weigh less, the nasty truth is they need to consume even less."
Unfortunately, these diet dead ends tend to get even tougher over time. "Age-related influences—a decreased metabolism, shifting hormones, and lifestyle changes—contribute to weight plateaus," explains Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and an anesthesiologist in Altoona, PA. But if it seems like every calorie you eat now has a straight-to-your-thighs homing device, new research suggests that there's plenty you can do at different life stages with diet, exercise, and behavior to lose even the most stubborn pounds for good. Try these methods today and see how fast you can get back to the weight you want to be—permanently.
Hitting the Big 3-5
At 31, Charlotte Tucker packed on 40 pounds and was diagnosed with a sluggish thyroid. After treatment, most of the weight flew off—except for the last 10 pounds. "I've been struggling with the same excess weight for a year," the now 35-year-old saleswoman from Jonesboro, AR, says with a sigh.
Why it's hard to lose now.
Even if you were able to shed weight, no problem, in your 20s, you may be in for a nasty surprise once you hit your 30s. "Your metabolism slows by about 5% each decade, which means that at age 35 you're burning about 75 fewer calories a day than you did at age 25," says Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh. That, she points out, adds up to an extra 8 pounds a year. Yet ideally, you should be seeing a number on the scale similar to what you saw in college (assuming it was healthy). For looking and feeling your best, the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, DC, recommends gaining no more than 11 pounds—for life—after age 18.
What you can do with diet, exercise, and behavior:
Try a temporary protein push.You're losing muscle as you age—you don't want to lose more as you diet. New Baylor University research found that 80 women who followed a diet of about 55% protein for 14 weeks lost 2.6 pounds more body fat than those who followed a more traditional 55% carbohydrate plan. "The protein helped the women maintain their muscle mass, which kept their metabolism elevated, thus sidestepping a common weight loss plateau, especially for women over 30," explains Richard Kreider, PhD, chair of Baylor's department of health, human performance, and recreation. Focus on low-fat protein sources such as chicken breasts, fish, and egg whites.
Cut what you eat by 25%. As you lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories in order to keep the needle on the scale moving down, down, down. One trick experts swear by: When you sit down to dinner or eat at a restaurant, look at your plate—and eat only 75% of what's on it. "It's a small change that prevents overeating, and it can easily shave up to 300 calories off every meal," says James Hill, PhD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado. Remember, you need to slash 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week; the "eat 75%" tactic will keep you way ahead of the game.
Pump some iron. "I see a lot of women in their 30s who come to me saying, 'I can't shake these last tenacious pounds,'" says Prevention advisor Wayne Westcott, PhD, fitness director of the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, MA. "Their big mistake is focusing on cardio and not spending any time lifting weights and building muscle." But you don't have to spend hours in the weight room to make a difference. A 10-week study conducted by Westcott of more than 2,000 women found that those who participated in a simple twice-weekly workout (20 minutes of strength training and 20 minutes of aerobic exercise) not only shed 4 pounds of fat but also regained 3 pounds of muscle they'd lost during the aging process. It's fine to do just one set, but make sure the weight is heavy enough—your muscles should be fatigued to exhaustion after the 12th rep.
Get up and move a little. "A woman at age 35 is often more sedentary than she was at age 25—she's sitting at her desk all day or driving everywhere instead of walking—and that may mean she hits a weight plateau more easily," says James Levine, MD, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. His study found that obese people spend on average 2 1/2 hours more in a chair than their skinnier peers do, which translates into burning 350 fewer calories a day. "Leaner people tend to move more without even realizing it," he says. The message? Up your activity level, even incrementally, whenever possible: Pace or stretch while on the phone, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or just play with a puzzle while you're watching TV.
Weigh yourself monthly. "So many of my female clients get hung up on the numbers on the scale, but your weight does fluctuate by about 5 pounds throughout the month because of diet and hormones," says Gerbstadt. "Even stepping on the scale once a week may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts: You see the numbers go up, get discouraged, and go on an eating binge." She suggests weighing yourself at the same time each month, preferably on the seventh day of your menstrual cycle (a week after your period starts), when you're least likely to have fluid retention.
Extreme Stress
Diane Kaspareck gained 30 pounds due to the stress of being diagnosed with uterine cancer 2 years ago. Although she has recently lost 10 pounds and is in remission, she's struggling to get back in shape. "Every time I feel stressed, I overeat and gain weight," the 50-year-old New Jersey nurse says. "A few weeks ago, I was very anxious due to an upcoming CAT scan, and sure enough, when I went to my Weight Watchers meeting, I'd gained 5 pounds."
Why it's hard to lose now.
It's a fact that stress—whether a new job, a family crisis, or your everyday hectic lifestyle—makes it hard to lose those last few pounds, even if you feel like you're so nervous you can barely eat. "When you're stressed, your adrenal gland secretes the stress hormone cortisol, which increases your appetite and also stimulates your body's release of the fat-storing hormone insulin," explains Christiane Northrup, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Yarmouth, ME, and author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom.
The result: Your body holds on to its fat stores as hard as it can, even if you're eating less than before. And despite all your best efforts, you may be sabotaging your weight loss attempts by overeating. "It's easy to be so stressed-out, you just wolf down everything on your plate," says Gerbstadt. Stressed women are also more likely to snack on comfort foods like chocolate and chips. "It's a form of self-medication, because these high-carbohydrate foods raise serotonin levels, a chemical in your brain that boosts mood," says Northrup.
What you can do with diet, exercise, and behavior:
Go for a walk. It might not be appealing, but new research suggests that exercise is exactly what you need when you're stressed. When researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center looked at 80 people ages 20 to 45, they found that symptoms of mild to moderate stress-induced depression were reduced by almost 50% in those who participated in 30-minute aerobic sessions three to five times a week.
Sip green tea instead of java. Coffee raises levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline, making you even more jittery. Another solution? Drink green tea. A 6-ounce cup of green tea has about 30 mg of caffeine, compared with about 70 mg in coffee and 40 mg in black tea, and may be the extra push you need to get your scale moving again (decaf green tea should have the same benefits). A recent Japanese study found that people who drank a bottle of green tea daily lost 5.3 pounds after 3 months, while those who drank oolong tea only lost 2.9 pounds. Green tea contains catechins, which may trigger weight loss by increasing your body's metabolism, says Northrup. It's also a good substitute when you are hit with the afternoon munchies: "Now when I'm tempted to eat in the late afternoon, I brew myself a pot of green tea and the food cravings go away," says Kaspareck.
Say sayonara to salt. It's not unusual for stressed-out women to munch on salty snacks. But that's exactly what you shouldn't do: Salt raises blood pressure, which in turn raises cortisol levels even more, causing a vicious circle of overeating, says Isaacs. Cutting back on salt will also reduce bloating. Aim for a diet that contains less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day (check your food labels).
Set a scheduled eating pattern. New research from the University of Nottingham in England suggests that women who eat erratically consume more calories and burn them less quickly than those who have set eating times throughout the day. When 10 women scheduled three meals and three snacks a day, they consumed 120 fewer calories than women who ate whenever they wanted. The key, experts say, is to set regular times for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks—and stick to them so you don't overeat. "Space meals and snacks throughout the day so you don't go more than 3 or 4 hours without eating," adds study author Ian MacDonald, PhD, a professor of metabolic physiology at the university.
Take up meditation. A recent Oregon Health & Sciences University study found that overweight women who took up relaxation techniques such as meditation lost an average of 10 pounds after 18 months—without ever consciously trying to diet. "These women were less stressed, so they were less likely to overeat," explains study author Anne Nedrow, MD, medical director of the university's Center for Women's Health. Sit quietly on the floor with your legs crossed. Inhale, then gradually exhale for a count of 10, and repeat. Can't sit still? Any relaxing activity should help.
Sit down and savor your meal. "When you're stressed, you tend to gulp down your food, thereby eating more than if you were savoring every bite," says Northrup. A study conducted at Brazosport Memorial Hospital in Lake Jackson, TX, found that when six women were asked to eat slowly, chew thoroughly, and stop when their food no longer tasted as good as when they took their first bite, they lost, on average, 8 pounds. A control group averaged a 3-pound weight gain. "Your body intuitively knows how many calories you need and will dampen your taste buds once you've had enough," explains study author John Poothullil, MD.
Perimenopause
"The other day, I got an e-mail from a 50-year-old patient I hadn't seen in a year; she'd been smoothly losing weight but all of a sudden was faced with a thickening spread around her middle," says Fred Pescatore, MD, an integrative medicine practitioner in New York City. "She wrote, 'I'm eating the same and exercising; what am I doing wrong?' I wrote back: 'Welcome to perimenopause.'"
Why it's hard to lose now.
Blame it on shifting hormone levels. Most women start going through perimenopause at around age 45 (though it can start as early as 35 or as late as 50), experiencing symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, dry skin, and headaches. During these years, estrogen levels rise and fall, making you susceptible to fluid retention. "When estrogen levels are high, you can easily carry around 5 pounds of water weight," explains Arlington, VA, weight loss specialist Denise Bruner, MD, past president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians.
But the stress of hormonal fluctuations can cause your body to secrete more of the hormone cortisol, which in turn stimulates production of the fat-storing hormone insulin, especially around your abdomen. Your goal shouldn't be just to get back to your lower premenopausal weight; it should be to get rid of those love handles. "You want your waist size to be under 35 inches; more than that is linked to an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease," explains Bruner. In fact, one study published in February in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a woman's waist size is a better predictor of her blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol than is her BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight.
What you can do with diet, exercise, and behavior:
Up your workout intensity. The same routine that worked at age 35 may not be enough once you hit your 40s. But you can blast past a weight loss plateau at this age by adding interval training, or bursts of high-intensity moves, to your workout, suggests Northrup.
For example, if you usually walk at a 15-minutes-per-mile pace, add a 30-second interval of speedwalking every 3 minutes. Try circuit training, where you complete one set of 8 to 10 exercises one after another with little or no rest in between. "Unlike regular strength training, this form of exercise keeps your heart rate up throughout your workout, which helps you burn more calories," says Westcott. One easy way to circuit-train is to simply go down the rows of fitness machines in your gym, doing 12 reps of each.
Go for good carbs. Once you hit perimenopause, you're more likely to become insulin resistant. That's because during this time, Aronne says, women often produce more insulin, which causes their fat cells to malfunction, which in turn leads to their bodies producing even more insulin to try to compensate. The result: Your body hoards fat. This sets you up not only for weight retention but also for health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
One solution: Pay attention to the glycemic index (GI), which measures how quickly a food affects blood sugar levels. A recent study at the University of Massachusetts Medical School found that subjects who followed a low-GI diet weighed about 10 pounds less than those who feasted on higher-GI foods. (To find out what foods are high-GI, check out our glycemic index list). Aim to eat a diet rich in whole grains, nonstarchy veggies, protein, and healthy fats, and avoid refined grains, sugars, and flour. "I recently heard from a perimenopausal patient who was frustrated by the thickening around her middle, even though she eats well and exercises," says Pescatore. "But after we cut out the hidden sources of high-GI foods in her diet like sweetened yogurt, bananas, and fruit juice, she started to lose that weight."
Get your daily moo. Besides helping to maintain bone mass, dairy products may be exactly what you need to crank up your metabolism and lose tummy fat, research suggests. A University of Tennessee study found that women who consumed 3 cups of low-fat yogurt a day lost 61% more body fat (and 81% more abdominal fat) than women who didn't. The magic ingredient is calcium, which appears to serve as a switch that tells your body's cells to burn fat faster, says study author Michael Zemel, PhD, director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee. You'll reap the same benefits if you munch on low-fat cheese.
Ultimately, however, one of the most important weapons you need to fight those last 5, 10, or 20 pounds is a positive attitude. Just as your weight set point is changing, you may have to adjust your mental set point, too. "A lot of women beat themselves up because they don't look like they did at age 25—even though they're 45," says Corio. "But there's a difference between being at your ideal weight and a healthy weight; as long as you're at the latter, there's no need to stress about the former." Just ask New Yorker Laura Kaminker, 43, who's come to terms with the fact that she's never going to be able to fit into her "skinny" jeans again.
"One of the healthiest things I did was to get rid of all my old clothes of 15 years ago, because each time I saw them in my closet, I'd just feel bad knowing I couldn't fit into them," she says. "I may not be able to have the body I had 20 years ago, but I can be healthy and accept myself as I am, which is what really matters."
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So I made piece with myself, and just accepted that I am no longer size 6, but a firm and muscular size 10. The only thing I am against is flab, and this is what I am working on.
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