Are you in perimenopause or menopause and wondering if diet or exercise can help you lose weight?

Wondering if your symptoms of perimenopause will improve and if is there anything you can do that will help with weight loss?

In this chat we will discuss the symptoms of perimenopause, the stages of menopause, what age can perimenopause symptoms start, and diet for weight loss during menopause. 

In this video you will find:

• Stages of menopause

• Symptoms of perimenopause

• What can improve your perimenopause symptoms

• At what age perimenopause can start

• Can diet and exercise help perimenopause symptoms

Transcription of is weight loss possible during menopause?

Michele Riechman: All right. Hello and welcome everybody today. So I have my friend at Kim here with me today, and we're gonna be talking about perimenopause and menopause. So if you're wondering if diet or exercise can help you, or if you feeling like weight loss is really stubborn during this time, we're gonna give some tips for that.

And also just talk a little bit more about the symptoms of perimenopause, the different things that you can do, um, so that you can feel good as you go through this process. So just a quick disclaimer, if you're having problems, always talk to your doctor, talk to your healthcare provider about things. So we're just sort of giving some information.

And then you can take this information to your doctor, or you can also work with a coach on different lifestyle. So if you don't know me, my name is Michelle. I have my doctorate in physical therapy and I do online personal training, health coaching, and I teach yoga for moms. So I help women create a sustainable lifestyle with, um, healthy habits so that they're not focused on diets, but really just creating that change so they can feel good.

So, Kim, do you wanna go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us what. Yes. Hi.

I'm Kim Hines. I am a nutritional health coach and I focus on helping women over 40 give themselves permission to eat and lose weight intuitively not through dieting. So we agree on that, feeling really confident in their bodies and learning through, um, just the wonderful lifestyle things that we can do.

To help ourselves, you know, that are go way beyond just food and um, dieting. So thank you for having me. Yeah,

and so we just wanna remind you guys, menopause is normal. And I think a lot of times we think that we dreaded, or there's just different things, like maybe if you have kids, you dread having a teenager.

But we have to remember these things are just a normal part of life. It's our body changing. You know, we go through menopause because our ovaries stop producing eggs and our hormones change, and that is, . And just like Kim said, there's lifestyle things we can do and I think in our society of quick fixes, we forget these lifestyle things that do with nutrition, with a movement, with stress, that can make a big difference.

So I don't know. Do you have anything to add to that,

Stages of menopause

Kim? Yes. I love what you said. Menopause is something that we're all gonna go through, and since we're all living longer, there is a point where everyone is going to stop having. Their cycle and um, like you said, you know, we're not releasing eggs anymore at some point, so we don't need all of this to be happening.

But the process of perimenopause is this transitional time leading to postmenopause when we are done. . And so it does sound scary because you hear everyone talking about all the symptoms, but the symptoms don't last forever, and there are ways to help mitigate those a little bit. But post-menopause. So for those of you who haven't even gone close to this and you've just heard your mom talk about it or you've seen it online, um, post-menopause has a lot of benefits.

There are things that we do wanna look at because our hormones have dropped tremendously and they can really contribute to some of the weight gain, and they can also contribute to the uncomfortable feelings we're having. But the beauty and the wisdom and. The things that you have to offer and you don't have your period anymore, so you don't have to plan around it.

Um, there are a lot of benefits to it too, so I appreciate that. And yes, I'm coming at it from a nutritional, holistic, um, standpoint, not from a medical standpoint when we talked today. So I love that you said check in with your doctor or, and if you're dealing with some real anxiety as one of the symptoms, check in with your mental health provider too.

Yeah, I love that. Um, thanks for sharing and as we go through this, if you guys are watching live, you can put questions in and we'll just sort of check on those every once in a while. Um, and I know we had a couple questions, um, already before, um, this started. So real quick, just the stages for everybody.

You sort of have that perimenopause period where your hormones start changing. Maybe your cycle starts to change. You have that menopause period where you have gone 12 months without a period. . And then you have post-menopause, which is the rest of your life. You're living in it, . So there's these different stages that you're gonna go through and the time it starts, how long it lasts is gonna vary a little bit for everybody.

At what age perimenopause can start

Yeah, that could happen between the ages of the mid thirties all the way to fifties. And if you experience and go through menopause before you're 40, that's called premature menopause, by the way. And some people are also forced into menopause because of hysterectomies and surgery. So, um, everyone is at a different stage and people used to think that they would go through it.

based on when their mom went through it or their grandmother went through it. But we're starting to see that that's not always the case because we're living a different life than our parents. We have different things in our environment. We have different lifestyles. We have different, even foods, sometimes, um, different stressors.

So it could be, um, all different things. And our estrogen. When you're perimenopause, the estrogen is the first thing to drop. And when that estrogen drops, that's when a lot of those symptoms come in. After estrogen, then we really look at progesterone as also dropping estrogen and progesterone. They kind of have to work together.

Symptoms of perimenopause

So, um, when that progesterone also drops, we have this little more stress, less sleep, things like that are going on. Um, but before that is all those things you hear about the hot flashes, the weight gain around the middle, um, little bit more anxious. Thinning hair and there's something else to pay attention to if you find that you're going through this.

This is all about awareness. It's so amazing. It's, it's not something to dread because now if you know what's happening, some of us didn't know what was happening, um, but we have something called thyroid where also your thyroid might be affected. It may. Have, um, less of the ability to do what it was doing in the past to keep up with those hormones.

Um, but like I said, I didn't know. I just thought I was, uh, you know, like aggressive and I was being a little cranky and just tired all the time. I just thought I had a lot on my plate and when I knew what it was, then I had something I could work. .

Yeah, I mean that's huge for so many areas of life. When you know what it is, it's not as bad.

Like if you're experiencing pain or something and you don't know what it is, that pain is intensified and a lot worse. But if you know what it is, it's a little more manageable. Um, so I love that you added that. And I guess just a quick side note, um, so I just turned 40 this year, so I'm sort of still at my normal cycling.

The past couple cycles I've gotten like really hot and like especially hot at night, but I should be like pretty far off still. But Dr. Google said that's like normal .

That is normal. The hot flashes definitely you could just be slightly dropping and then during your cycle, You know, your hormones are adjusted at that time too.

Yeah. And that might be, um, another indicator that hey, and just keep an eye on them and see if, you know, you're starting to have, so what some women experience are really irregular periods and they will go for two weeks or they'll go, you know, they won't have one. For two months and then they'll have a really heavy one.

So that's a really good sign that things are starting and you can start, you know, when you stop having your period for a long time, start paying attention to the time so that you know when your year is up. And there's some great apps out there, period, light. Is one of 'em. You know, a bunch of free period tracker apps.

Yeah. So you can keep an eye on it. I accidentally opened it the other day because I have been postmenopausal for quite a while. Okay. And it said something like, days late was like 3000 . I was like,

yeah. Yeah. And that's, I mean, just like, I mean, you don't always wanna Google stuff, but like, oh yeah. Like, okay, this is normal.

Like I don't have to fear it. is important. Mm-hmm. . Um, the other thing I wanted to bring up, and this not only goes with like menopause, but really any hormone problems is like the impact of stress. And I think especially when you are having these type of symptoms or even thyroid problems, the impact of stress is huge and people sort of put that off and really underestimate like how powerful that stress affects our weight loss just affects our health in general.

So have you seen that? .

What can improve your perimenopause symptoms

Absolutely. And you know, as an intuitive eating and emotional eating coach, we combine that with menopause and it's just a lot going on because stress underlying, when we think about stress, we're spiking that cortisol. And when we're spiking that cortisol creates all kinds of inflammation in our body.

So if we're already not feeling well, we're just setting off all kinds of things around our body. And then also corsol can contribute to. , you know, the blood sugar spiking too, and that sets up a whole nother host of things. Um, so I agree. I think managing stress is one of the most important things.

Getting rest and getting sleep during this time. And, um, I don't know if we were gonna talk about this, but just a sidebar to that, stress is when we are in peri. , there's our, our hormones are kind of so outta whack that if you test it on any given day, it would be different and your body's going through a lot and we push through it.

As women, we really do push through so many things and we can handle it, and we suck it up and do all these things, but really that's the time. When we really need to be doing a little bit more gentle, slower lifting, yoga, like we'll get into all of that, but really self care, taking care of ourselves and bringing all of that down.

We can ramp that up a little bit more in the postmenopause stage, but stress. , even when you're dieting, you're putting stress on your body and you're making things harder for yourself. I so agree with you. I think stress is one of the number one things that has to come down, plus the stress and anxiety causes if we want to eat in a a comforting way, and what's the most soothing thing to do is to grab food, sugar, salt, and fat.

And then we are contributing even more to what's going on. .

Yeah. And I think our society, that's just the normal people are stressed and we just start to accept it. And a lot of times, even if you're at a doctor, like, okay, like you're stressed, you know, like they might offer something, but it's not really, um, giving it the impact that it has.

Um, so I think that is always something good to mention, especially when it's like, Um, so we had a question before this. Um, someone was saying that they. Had hot flashes and night sweats, and then they sort of like seemed under control and then they're creeping back in. So do you have any advice for that?

Yes.

Well, the hot flashes is, it's a normal, it is a normal reaction going through perimenopause because that comes on when the estrogen drops. And so part of it is it's gonna be a process that you'll go through and when you don't have that estrogen, your thermostat is up a little bit higher. And when we get that hot flash, our body is trying to cool itself.

It's trying to take care of it for us because our thermostat is is not working completely at this time. So what I really suggest for. I think really it goes with almost everything we talk about is one just really trying to feed yourself well. And I don't mean restrictive, um, I don't mean I'm an in, you know, intu intuitive eating, however is along with eating whole real foods and a lot of fruits and vegetables, um, you know, came in the liver and the gut clean.

Um, just minimizing it doesn't mean you have to cut everything out. You can enjoy things, but processed food and sugar do tend to create that inflammation again, that could ramp things up. Staying really hydrated throughout the day is really important. We, we always talk about drinking water and staying hydrated for all the other reasons, but just to kind of help with that temperature.

Um, I also feel. , when we are stressed out, we run hotter anyway. Our heart rate is higher, so we'll go back to stress again. You know, helping to keep that heart rate down. Um, some people have found some, you know, supplements and, and you know, like black cohosh and things like that work. Um, I just highly recommend talking to your doctor and doing the research on anything.

Some people feel also that the black cohosh may help raise the estrogen. I don't know the absolute research on that, so just make sure that you're, um, checking with the doctor if you decide to try that. But those are some things that you can think about. Um, , you think it's counterintuitive because you're hot and you're getting these sweats, but exercise really helps keep the circulation.

It helps keep everything stable. It helps you process, it helps you de-stress. Just even walking helps you process your day. Um, kind of bringing your heart rate down, your stress down. But on the other side of. , it's something that is probably gonna happen, and until you are postmenopausal and decide what you might wanna do, If you decide to do H R t or if you decide to go natural, um, it might be just a part of the process and you can just understand it.

I'll have to tell you one of the things I did, I kept a t-shirt by my bedside cuz I literally had to change my shirt in the middle of the night and I got tired of getting up. So I just changed it, put a new one on, went back to bed. . Yeah.

Yeah, I love that cuz it is a normal thing that's gonna happen to most people, but just like you were saying, it goes back to that lifestyle a little bit and although changing things in your lifestyle may not get rid of it, it may help it, you know?

Effect of caffeine and alcohol on menopausal symptoms

And I think for some people also, like caffeine or alcohol or spicy foods. So if you know some different trigger. You know, keep track of those or if you're not aware, notice if there are any triggers, um, to go with that too. Um, I'm so glad

you mentioned the alcohol, because alcohol is a funny thing right now.

Like we have, um, we have a lot of things in our society that are saying, you know, relax, wind down with a glass of wine. And, um, and it is unfortunately, A sleep inhibitor. We fall asleep very fast. Within about four hours in we're waking up. But alcohol, thank you Michelle, for mentioning that that is a trigger.

Having caffeine afternoon can also be a trigger in the evening for that. But the other side of that is too, is um, both of them are hi inhibiting sleep anyway. And sleep is one of the things that you absolutely need during the process. Because your body is in such, you know, unbalanced mode. That's how we can optimize whatever hormones we do have left is through that sleep.

Yeah.

Can diet and exercise help perimenopause symptoms?

Yeah, I love that. And I'm just gonna share, um, this book, hormone Intelligence. So Dr. Aviva Ramm, have you heard of her? Yes. Dr. Iva Ramm. I love her. Yeah. So if you guys don't know her, she is a md, she's a midwife and she's also an herbalist. Um, and this is a really good book. And in the back of it, she talks about like a perimenopause, a blueprint, and she gives you those different ideas, like if you wanna try herbs, if you wanna try these different things.

And I mean, her whole thing is just sort of like Kim is talking and I believe in too, it's like going back to the Whole Foods, you know, limiting, she's pretty strict in the book about sugar. Mm-hmm. . . Um, , you know, knowing that that could be a trigger for you, but really going back to the whole foods, the lifestyle, decreasing your stress.

You know, she talks about yoga and, you know, getting out in nature and all these different things that we do have control over. Um, so yeah, this is a great word resource if you guys wanna book it. Also, if you are not there yet, it talks about P C O S and other hormone issues. Um, so it's a really good. I'm gonna probably read it again.

I read it in the summer. But Dr.

Rom is really, there's so much intelligence in that book and, um, just like Dr. Rom, Dr. Sarah Godfried also is very strict about her protocol, but if you look at it, as a reset instead of having to be perfect forever. That might be a way to go into either of those protocols to just kind of reset yourself, um, so that you feel like you have control.

I love Michelle. You said that doing the things we have control over and sunlight, sunshine, nature, all of those things are still important and you are tired. , you know, sweet lady rest. It is okay to take a power nap. We, we feel like we are so, um, on demand all the time. It's okay to put boundaries up, and this goes into a whole nother side of this, but it's funny because my postmenopausal women that I work with found that that was the time that they learned to create better boundaries for themself or self.

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And just a side note, that doesn't quite have to do with it, but it's sort of like nourishing yourself. So, um, I just moved from Illinois to Arizona, so big move, selling a house, lots of things going on. And I know Kim had posted about sort of a green. , um, juice and, uh, a supplement she took that like has herbs in it, like basically these natural herbs that Dr.

Aviva Ramm talks about too. And I'm like, what was that? Because I feel like really depleted. I wasn't sleeping as well and my stress had been high. And when your stress is higher, you deplete your body of nutrients and stuff. Um, so I'm taking this time, it, it's not gonna be a supplement I take forever, but it's something I'm taking now to sort of refuel my body and using these herbs and.

To make myself feel better. So especially if you have gone through a period of increased stress or you're just having these, they're lower, lower hormones. But when you're having these dips, what can you do to sort of nourish your body more and take that rest? Yes,

I love that. And it's, there's so many supplements out there.

You have to see what works for you, but filling in the gaps and just remember, supplements are. Supplementary by nature, that's the name to the food that you're eating. And the reason why Michelle and I have used that green juice is because it's just filling in the gaps when we're having times when we maybe can't get everything and we'd like to get in.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the one other topic someone wanted us to bring up was birth control and the impact of menopause, starting in symptoms. And so our first disclaimer was, you know, check with your doctor. This is not our area of expertise, but we'll have just a little information that you can take and sort of look at.

So when I looked into this, I did find that sometimes being on birth control can delay your, um, the menopause. So that can happen, um, but also, Being on birth control can sort of minimize some of those symptoms. And I know, um, Kim, you said you've had some clients that have actually been in menopause and then went on birth control to help with the

symptoms.

Yes, yes. So it's interesting because birth control is putting estrogen and progesterone in your body. And what's, what are the two things that we drop in when we go into menopause, um, and perimenopause? Is that estrogen and progesterone? So the same, I, you know, I looked into it also because not being a doctor, I wasn't really sure.

Um, but it would make sense and it's something you can explore with your doctor. It would make sense that it would, um, delay it because those are the hormones that were depleted in that cause all the symptoms. Right. But the other side of it is, um, I, even though I have had. Um, perimenopausal women when they're really anxious and all of this is going on, doctors will put them on sometimes birth control and maybe even in anti-anxiety or antidepressant.

The problem with any of that is, um, again, you just have to decide on a personal level if that's what you wanna do and work with your doctor. Um, my issue is synthetic birth control can cause a lot of other things too, right? So, um, we know just look up the risks. You do the research on it. Ask your doctor.

Um, I have two daughters, so you know, when we had that discussion over it, I've had to share all that information with them. They're adult women. They get to make that choice, and that's what I want you to do is just make that choice, but know that it's been used before to help mitigate some of those situations.

Yeah, I love that. And then the, just a side note, there is like the combination pill that has those two hormones and then the progesterone only. And I think for my reading, the combination one, you get definitely more of those health risks. But I will just say as a side note, definitely look up the risks of birth control, whether you know, you're cycling or whatever using it for, because I just feel from a consumer standpoint, that was always undersold to.

Um, there, you know, it was just like, it's safe, it's safe. Um, but I've seen other people in my life have some serious side effects from it and it sort of opened my eyes to it. So definitely, um, look up the risks. I mean, it will say in the drug thing. I mean, all drugs do, but yeah, do a little research, um, about that.

Really any drug or anything you're putting into your

body, right? And what they don't share on the side effect list is. , a lot of medications, including birth control, are, um, affecting your gut microbiome and they're really your microbiome's taking a hit. And when your microbiome's not working, then the transmission to your brain for, um, any of the mental health things you're dealing with, um, your immune system.

You know, your melatonin we're finding is now produced in the, you know, we find it now in the gut. We thought it was in the pituitary gland. So all those things can be affected, and I'm not bashing the pill. I want everybody to have their own informed choice. But, um, I love that you said look up anything, even if you decide to do hormone replacement therapy when you are postmenopausal, just do all kinds of research and talk to as many people as you can about

it.

Yeah. And also, um, so my husband, he's a nurse practitioner, just a traditional one. But you know, they don't, doctors, nurse practitioners, whoever you see typically don't have a lot of time scheduled. And I think a lot of 'em find it really hard to encourage lifestyle choices because some people won't do it.

Some people want the quick fix, and I feel like they've just sort of given up on people in general. A lot of people will make some of those lifestyle changes, but doctors don't have the time. They really don't have the knowledge. So just really going back to that nutrition, that exercise, that stress, that sleep, all those important things, um, that your Dr.

May not bring up, but that you can do. . Um, yes. So, and we love,

we love doctors. They're trained to deal with the after effect and, and fix. We're trained more on the preventative side.

Yeah. Yeah. I always tell my husband, I'm like, I wish they would bring, there should be health coaches in every office because the doctors don't have time.

Like, Hey, go see our health coach. Like start working on how to actually do some of this. Well, my

hormone specialist actually, we refer to each other. So it is, it's a sy we're creating a system to try to build that.

Yeah. Nice. Um, so before we finish here, Kim, is there anything else you have to speak to just about how perimenopause and menopause impact weight loss and really like, sort of what that shows up for

people?

Yes. Um, so during perimenopause, I, I know this is gonna be hard to hear, but it's a very challenging time to try to lose weight because your hormones are dropping and when estrogen is so low and it creates that midsection, the belly fat, we do want to lose that fat eventually because, and I'm not talking, weight loss is different than fat loss.

So I use the word weight. A lot, but I really mean fat loss because on the scale, the number is just the number. But when you get rid of the dangerous fat around your organs and that dangerous fat that's causing cancers and inflammation and chronic disease and heart disease, that's what we wanna get to.

But beating yourself up during perimenopause. Instead of doing that, take control through that gentle exercise and through the yoga, the walking, the slow lifting. Um, be gentle with yourself, with nutrition. Take care of your body. Do those things because when your hormones finally level out, um, I had a client today and she said, I got my blood work back.

That's always what I asked people to do. Just get your blood work when you finally hit that one year. and just get your blood work done. She was at a negative for both progesterone and estrogen. I didn't even know that was possible. But now she can make some decisions and she can move forward so that if she chooses to take care of the hormones, um, and she's been doing all the work during peri.

of lifestyle changes, it's all gonna come together. And I, this is not about me, it's about all of you out there, but I was shocked as a nutritional health coach, I went through this and I gained six to eight pounds overnight. And I was working out every day. I was running every day. I was eating the way I ask my clients to eat, and I could not control anything but those factors and my stress and my sleep.

And then as soon as I was done, Then I could move forward and everything worked out. And that, and you know, that's, again, you have to make the choices, you know, with the hormone, how you want to, um, fix the hormone levels. But I will tell you, there's some things that some people are using. And again, it's very, you know, it's experimental.

You are your own science project. You know, people are taking things like ma. Extra vitamin E, they're taking gin, sing the black cohosh, um, soy products. And again, that's another thing to research because the iso flans and people get nervous about soy as long as it's organic. Um, I feel like it's okay. Some people find acupuncture's very helpful.

We talked about the nutrition, hydration, and the general exercise. So those are all things that you can try. and look at these two books that we talked about. Dr. Sarah has a hormone reset and Dr. Aviva Rom has that beautiful book. Um, hormone Intelligence. Yes, hormone Intelligence. Just have fun, have fun with trying it and know that it's gonna end and everybody's time is different.

It could be two years, it could be four. I won't go past that. I've, I very rarely have seen it go past four years. . Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks for sharing a little bit of your own story and sort of giving that long time length picture and I. , you know, regardless of your size or your weight, it matters what you're putting into your body.

So, you know, there's studies where you can have these underweight people who are really unhealthy and have high risks for diseases, and you can have an overweight person who is eating healthy and moving their body and they're not at risk. Mm-hmm. . So the most important thing is your food. You can control just these things that you can control and sort of like you're saying, give it.

give it that time to, um, catch up. And, you know, I think, you know, a lot of people in general, you just get stuck in that shame or that guilt, or you just like, are really stuck up on the size or these different things and that does not move you forward. Mm-hmm. . So giving yourself that grace, um, to move forward.

Yes. And that is the thing we didn't even talk about the emotional side of this. When you wake up in the morning and you can't button your pants that you wore two weeks ago or a month ago, and you go through your whole closet and there's tears over it, I understand that that's challenging. That's, that's harsh.

That's it. Just, it makes you feel bad, even though it's just part of the, the changes. , and I highly recommend during that time finding a couple things that feel really good on you and finding things that you feel good going out in just a few things until you get through the process. Um, because it's not a, like you said, it's not about the size and it's not about the scale weight.

It's about how you're taking care of yourself and it will work itself out when you go through all. Steps. Um, but that shame and guilt, it's not. , you didn't do anything wrong. You are a woman going through a process, and we've gone through puberty and some people have gone through childbearing. Our bodies are meant to change over time.

They're not meant to be the same forever. And we always compare ourselves to our younger self, which is really dangerous because 10 years ago, yes, I was killing it. I was so fit and I'm running marathons and all these things. So imagine if that's the body. I look back 10 years ago. Imagine in 10 years you're gonna look back at this body and wish you had it.

So love it and take care of it

now. Yes, absolutely, man. I remember like in high school, I thought like, oh, I'm like, I'm like fat rolls. Like I was skinny and like you're supposed to have like fat on your body, like yes. . Yeah. Um, yeah. Well, thank you for sharing with us today, Kim. So what do you have going on in your business and how can people connect with you?

Thank you. I am on Instagram and actually all social media at Kim Hines Health, h e a l t h. And um, I have a free workshop coming up that is actually very similar to what we're talking about. It's three surprising secrets for fat loss in women over 40. And most of the people that are in these workshops with me are perimenopausal and menopausal.

And what I'm gonna share is all the other things you can look at, um, and some of them we touched upon today. But even getting into, you know, checking out your hormones, what to look for, blood sugar, um, just some things body image, we'll talk about body image and how to love your body more as you're going through the process.

And then, um, I have a seven step framework that just helps people who are emotionally eating. because when we're sad and we're not feeling good and we're stressed out, um, we tend to turn towards, I don't know about you all, but I wouldn't eat broccoli when I'm stressed. I would probably turn towards chocolate or chips and um, you know, just a little framework for people to remember how to eat, not just what to eat so that we're slowing down and really.

um, not overeating or mindlessly eating. So that's when a free workshop and if anybody gets in touch with me, I've got a bunch of other freebies, um, to get everybody started.

Yeah. And I will share those links down below. So I hope that you guys all enjoy this and just remember to. Get community and connection too and get support as you're going through your journey.

And if you guys need anything, just reach out to us and we would be happy to chat with you guys. So have a good day.

Thank you.