21. Conquering Menopausal Weight Gain: Expert Diet and Exercise Secrets Revealed

Prepare to unlock the secrets of navigating menopause with ease and saying goodbye to stubborn weight!

In this episode, we wander through the hormonal labyrinth of menopause, focusing on the loss of estrogen and its ripple effects on our bodies.

You'll grasp how a decline in this key hormone leads to muscle mass shrinkage, pesky fat redistribution, and a spike in insulin resistance—all culprits in the menopause weight gain mystery.

We don't just stop at the problem; we equip you with personalized diet tweaks to manage those insulin levels and cravings like a pro, coupled with lifestyle adaptations that will have you conquering menopause with confidence.

Stay tuned for actionable advice, from emphasizing the might of magnesium in your diet to specially crafted bootcamp sessions that respect your knees and rev up your metabolism.

Discover the symbiotic power of resistance training meshed with cardio exercises, and learn why hydration and those precious Zzz's can be your best allies in shedding those extra pounds.

Tune in for a treasure trove of tips, including the surprising truth about meal frequency and insulin management, and why protein isn't just a buzzword but a game-changer in maintaining muscle and firing up your metabolic engine.

It's time to turn the tables on menopause and emerge feeling more robust and revitalized than ever!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, my friends, welcome, welcome. In today's video, we will be talking about menopause and effective weight loss strategies. If you're like me, I'm in my 50s and when you get into menopause, things are just not the same. So you have to do certain things in order to be able to lose weight. So if you're here and you're in menopause, go ahead and type in the chat what you're struggling with. What is it that's difficult for you when it comes to losing weight? I know for sure that menopause changes things. So, in addition to the symptoms that we get like hot flashes, fatigue, mood swings, poor sleep, all kinds of things, things then we start to get things that become our reality. Things like increasing belly fat, and there you go, I was about to say that. Things like increased cravings you're hungry all the time, just don't feel like doing anything, lack of motivation all these things come with menopause. So we'll talk about what we can do so that these problems that menopause are bringing to you don't have to stay here forever.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal physician herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, dr Inaka Yembe.

Speaker 1: 2:00

When it comes to menopause, we'll talk about two major hormones that we can control, not the hormone levels themselves Well, we can control insulin levels, but anyway, the way that we eat and the way that we behave can control these two hormones that we'll talk about today estrogen and insulin. We'll talk about the first hormone called estrogen. The biggest symptoms from estrogen, like we said, hot flashes, fatigue, poor sleep, brain fog and then the ones that really affect your weight lack of motivation, increased cravings and increasing belly fat. These are the things that we want to talk about today. But really, how does it happen? What does estrogen do?

Speaker 1: 2:51

Number one when you hit about the age of 30, you are getting in of 35, you're getting into perimenopause. Now your estrogen levels, which are produced by your ovaries, your estrogen levels, start to decline when you get into full-blown menopause, which, by that time, you have had no menstrual cycles for one year. So natural menopause comes after no cycles for one year. When you get into full-blown menopause, like myself, your estrogen levels take a nosedive. Few things happen physiologically that become your reality. Number one there is a decline in the muscle mass, meaning your muscles do not have the same amount of mass like they do. So the first thing that happens is that your basal metabolic rate will decline. So, right off the bat, if you're doing the same thing like you used to do when you were 25 and 30, you're doing the same things for weight loss. They are not going to work right now. You have less muscle and your basal metabolic rate has dropped.

Speaker 1: 3:58

The second thing that happens with that declining estrogen level is a redistribution of fat storage. This is why most of us now we are looking at the belly fat that's here. Your body undergoes a redistribution of fat. It's no longer stored just in your thighs and in your butt. It comes up and is now stored in your belly, on the inside, where you can't pinch it. That's called visceral fat. That one is dangerous. You build up enough visceral fat. It's around your liver, your bowel, around your heart. It predisposes you for major medical complications like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and more. So we've talked about the declining muscle mass. We've talked about the redistribution of fat.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Next thing that happens with that decline in estrogen is increased inflammation. Joints hurt. You start having joint pain for no reason. That's one thing that can slow you down as you get older and you're not exercising like you used to Next thing declining estrogen levels can cause decreased bone density. And, most of all, what we want to worry about, or we need to know, is that declining estrogen levels causes increased insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a thing that everyone needs to worry about, not only diabetics. But just getting older as a female, you become more insulin resistant. No wonder you are gaining weight now, even when you're struggling. Really, talk about the second hormone and we'll talk about how to counteract all these hormonal changes that are happening in our bodies. So that second hormone is insulin.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Insulin is responsible for breaking down carbohydrates. When you eat a meal, you get the carbohydrate in the raw form. Your body needs to break it down to glucose so that your muscles and your brain and the rest of the organs can use it. The hormone responsible for that is insulin. Its job is to take glucose out of the blood and drive it into the cells. It gets into the cells. Your body uses it. If there's excess of glucose, it says whoa, I've got too much here, I need to package it and store it somewhere. That's why we call insulin a fat storage hormone. In addition to that, let's listen really closely. When you eat glucose, because you have now consumed energy. Insulin tells your fat cells do not release any energy. She has given me some energy, so insulin stops your fat cells from releasing energy.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Now what happens if you consume too much carbohydrates. With time You're always snacking little things. You go to the bank, eat a little candy. You go to the child's lunch, you eat a little something on the way. So you're constantly snacking Even though you feel you may not be consuming a lot. You're overstimulating that insulin axis and it's constantly telling your fat cells do not release any fat. In addition to that, constant snacking or overconsumption of carbohydrates will increase your insulin levels to a point where your body has to protect itself. It's going to say whoa, this is too much of insulin, we're not going to feel it. We're not going to feel it. Next thing you know, your cells do not feel your own insulin. That condition now becomes a little bit precarious. That's called insulin resistance.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Declining estrogen alone will make women more insulin resistant. You eat too many carbohydrates, you become insulin resistant. So if you're consuming too many carbohydrates and you're in menopause, this is a double, double whammy. You are making it awfully hard for yourself to lose the weight. So what really is insulin resistance? Like I said, it's a condition where your body doesn't feel your own insulin. So your blood sugars slowly go high. Your body has a difficult time releasing fat. What are the consequences? Weight gain and increasing serum, glucose, Blood sugars start going high. You don't feel anything. You really don't feel anything, Don't feel much, you don't feel pain, you don't feel tired, until one day you start to experience symptoms, or maybe you don't. You go to the doctor, get a blood test and they say well, guess what? You're now diabetic. So diabetes can come as a result of insulin resistance. So how does that impact us, those of us women in menopause, Thinking about how the estrogen decreases our basal metabolic rate, how estrogen makes us more insulin resistant so we have a bigger likelihood of storing fat compared to burning it. How estrogen causes all the symptoms. So we're not sleeping, we're tired all the time, don't want to exercise, feel less motivated, just a lot of things that are coming into place. It's a perfect storm on the inside of your body with all these hormonal imbalances. You can take control, and take control so that your body doesn't just age any kind of way with time, but you can control things so that your body ages in the way that you want it to. Let's talk about how to counteract all these hormonal changes that are happening as we get older.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Number one now depends on what you eat. So the very first thing I will talk about is intermittent fasting. What is intermittent fasting? It's bunching all your calories and consuming them in a short amount of time so that you have longer periods of not eating. And while you are not eating, guess what's happening? Your insulin levels are dropping and your body releases fat a lot easier.

Speaker 1: 9:59

So intermittent fasting let's talk about how the body spends about 12 hours consuming all the energy that you have eaten in a meal. So of course, you want to fast for 12 hours or longer. Best thing to do is fast around the time that you're sleeping. For example, if I go to sleep at 8 pm or 9 pm, I can stop eating by 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock. So I stop eating at 7 pm. I wake up in the morning at 7 o'clock in the morning and I don't eat anything until 7 o'clock, until about 10. All of a sudden, you have fasted for 15 hours. If you can do that three, four times a week, that's going to help you. I'm not a very big fan of doing rigid or I mean extreme things for too long, because your body gets tired, it just gets too much and you don't have any leeway to enjoy life or to live life. So if you're fasting, try to fast for three to five days in a week. The rest of the time you're okay, so you can spend time with family, birthdays and things like that. The best schedule for fasting is the 16 and 8. So eat in an eight hour window and fast for 16 hours. During fasting, you are to drink water, unsweetened coffee and unsweetened tea, and that's it. Not lemon water, not anything else, but just those three things. It helps decrease insulin resistance, it helps you with cravings and it helps you burn fat.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Strategy number two for losing weight while in menopause. I talk about this all the time. Of course, our muscle mass is declining. Basal metabolic rate is dropping, just naturally. So the way to counteract that is to eat more protein. When I talk about protein, I'm talking about things like healthy meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, tofu. There are vegetarians here. There are vegetarian alternatives that contain protein. So how much protein? Try to consume one gram of protein per pound of your body weight, unless you weigh more than 170 pounds, more than 170. Now you want to look at your ideal weight and take your ideal weight and consume one gram per pound of protein. For example, if I weigh, say I don't know, 170 pounds or 180 pounds. So I say no, that's too much protein. I can't consume 180 pounds of protein per day. I'm going to take my ideal weight, which may be 150 pounds, for example, so I'm going to consume 150 grams of protein on that day. A very simple way to do it also is just to think and consume 30 to 35 grams of protein per meal.

Speaker 1: 13:09

With many menopause, you want to be intentional about consuming protein. The way I describe it to my program in my bootcamp, I have an online bootcamp. If you haven't joined, you're missing out. You're really missing out. I coach them once a week and I give tips every single day on my bootcamp. Anyway, for my bootcampers, I tell them every time you sit down to eat protein first, that's the first thing you want to think about. Get that protein first on your plate or on your cup or wherever. Protein first, and then you have your add-ons. Your add-ons will be your healthy fats and your healthy carbohydrates, but you want to have protein first because proteins help build your muscle mass. So, of course, if I want to increase my basal metabolic rate, I want to preserve my muscle. So, please, if you're a menopause, you're trying to lose weight.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Trying to lose weight, don't go with the carbs, carbs, carbs. Eat vegetables and salads like I used to. You may get stuck in the bind. You may be eating too little calories overall and not enough protein. You get in the bind, you get stuck, or you're struggling, not eating enough and the weight's not coming off. Now strategy number three we're going to talk about this.

Speaker 1: 14:19

When I started coaching in my clinic as a brand new physician several several years ago, I used to tell my patients eat three meals and three snacks. So eat six times a day because you want to keep your metabolism revved up. No, we don't believe that nowadays. In fact, the more often you eat, you don't give your body time to rest and you don't give that insulin a rest. Your insulin needs to come up and go down back to baseline as few times as possible. This is going to help you with weight loss.

Speaker 1: 14:50

So you don't need to eat, eat, eat, snack, snack, snack, Snacking. Snacking will come may backfire on you. Do not snack throughout the day. Most of all, do not snack at night. We want to throw out the concept of having a nightcap. Save the nightcap for special occasions I don't know, date night with the husband, things like that. Save those nightcaps and don't come every single night. A sip of alcohol, have a half a glass of wine that's going to backfire, it's going to backfire, it's going to backfire. Don't do it. Do not snack all day long. All right, Strategy number. I am on number four.

Speaker 1: 15:31

I'll tell you a story about myself. Back in my days, when I was over 300 pounds smart, I said I was gonna go on a low fat diet. I'm gonna completely stop eating any fat. So all I'm gonna allow myself to eat is chicken and salad with absolutely no fats. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Listen, your hormones in your body, your cell membranes most of them, especially the hormones that work for you they have a basic structure of cholesterol. So some fats are essential. Some other fats are junk, Junk, yes, junk. All right. What are the good fats you want to consume? Things like nuts, things like flaxseed, chia seed those are healthy. Avocado I mean you can name a whole lot more than I can. Healthy, fatty fish, salmon, trout those kinds of things may help you. Other fats that we need to throw away are the vegetable oils. So things like canola oil, processed oil, the ones the fast foods they use that for frying our meals. Do not consume those processed fats. They're not good for you. But you want to consume healthy fats with all meals.

Speaker 1: 16:46

Now, if you're a woman in menopause and you're struggling with cravings, this is a quick tip for you Get you some raw nuts, raw almonds, raw, any kind of nuts, so long as you're not, you're not allergic. But get you a handful of raw nuts. Consume those somewhere in the afternoon, say three o'clock, four o'clock. Drink lots of water behind that. That tends to stay in your stomach. Keep you half full so that you're not consuming just snacking or having too many cravings at night time. How about that? Most of us in menopause, you know, I go to bed, I'm trying to sleep, and then it seems like I start thinking of something in the refrigerator. But if you had those nuts, say three, four hours ago, they tend to reduce your cravings later on. Nuts really, really help with providing you with essential fats and help reduce your cravings.

Speaker 1: 17:35

All right, now let's talk about some seasonings or some flavorings. My biggest one is cinnamon. All right, my diabetic colleagues down here where I live I know that they discharge their patients. Every time they talk to them, they discharge them with a list of foods to eat, a list of foods not to eat, and at the bottom there they have some suggested vitamins and things like that, and one of them is cinnamon. Cinnamon is a good friend to keep close. Keep cinnamon close, it would help you. It's very versatile. First of all, you can add cinnamon to your coffee, add it to your tea, add it to your soup, add it to your yogurt, Put it anywhere on your pancake, wherever Cinnamon contains. Let me tell you the word. I'm going to read this for my paper, because it's a long one. It contains methyl hydroxycharcoal polymer, which is an insulin-like molecule. It acts almost like insulin, so it just helps stabilize your blood sugars. Make cinnamon your friend and consume it several times during the day. It will help you. It would help your cinnamon.

Speaker 1: 18:35

The next one I'm going to talk about is magnesium. All right, halt, disclaimer. Run these things by your primary care physician. Don't, don't, don't, do not. Take some of these any teaching online. Don't take it at 100% and apply it to yourself without checking with your primary care doctor first.

Speaker 1: 18:55

All right, my next one I'm going to talk about is a mineral called magnesium. I consume 400 milligrams of magnesium in a tablet. I get it from the Whole Foods store. I consume one every day. It helps me with muscle soreness. I mean, I am teaching bootcamp Again. If you're not in my bootcamp, you're missing out on my workouts. Okay, You're missing out my workouts. Women in menopause, my workouts are very, very, very, very friendly on your knees. All right, I consume magnesium every day because all the running, all the picking up of weights, all the exercises that I do, the muscles get sore. Magnesium will do two things for you or for me. They help keep you regulated and so that belly bloat that you have, that we may have sometimes, magnesium helps with that. Number two it helps with muscle recovery. It really, really helps me. So consume about 400 milligrams of magnesium tablet every day, All right.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Moving on to the next tip here, exercise, tip number seven. And among the days I was actually an obese marathoner Think I have six whole full marathons under my belt. I did a lot of cardiovascular training. I walked, I jogged, I did a lot of cardio. My weight went nowhere, especially since my nutrition was very lacking, of course, but that's also to tell you, steady state cardio. If you're trying to lose weight, you want to try to change that and move away from just cardio. Walking is great, Of course. It is better than doing nothing. I get it. But if you're walking, how about you hold two bottles of water? Those are almost a pound. Just walk with them, swing your arms at the elbow. It would help you recruit that muscle mass and helps burn calories more.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Next, try to add some resistance exercises. I'm not a big fan of going to the gym and spending three, four hours. Try to add some resistance exercises that you can add to the end of your cardio. If cardio is your thing, why about you come home and do some push-ups? Or you come home and pick up some dumbbells? Or you have resistance bands Anything that will increase your resistance exercises? Try to do those three to five times a week. All right For me. I confess, I work out six, seven days a week. I have no problem with that. It's just me, and when I get tired I'll take a day off. All right, you do you? There's no one size that fits all, but you want to get some resistance exercises in? All right. Let's talk about the next one Water.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Now, if you're not drinking enough water, our bodies are made of water. Mostly Women in menopause, especially you you need to be drinking lots of water. I hear all the complaints about, oh, I don't want to go to the bathroom and I just tell myself it is a few extra steps. Yay me A few extra steps that I can take to the bathroom during the day. My thing is and here's how I do it with water, I wake up in the morning that first glass of water has half to one teaspoon of lemon juice in it. Do not drink lemon juice through your teeth. Get you a straw, a pack of straws. Always stick a straw in the water so that that lemon water is not bathing your teeth because it tends to be a little harsh on the enamel. But drink lemon water first thing in the morning. Just lemon and water first thing in the morning. That's going to help kickstart your digestion. It's going to help with that belly bloat, All right.

Speaker 1: 22:34

Next thing that you want to do is consume at least 2.7 liters of water all day long, which is about 11 cups. Is it difficult to consume 11 cups of water? Don't think about it. Here's what I do. I find it I don't know why it's easier for me to just hold that gallon and chug it down. But make it a habit of drinking water all the day. It helps you with weight loss. I noticed that my weight loss stalls or slows down a lot when I am behind on my water consumption. Men need to consume 15 cups of water, 1-5 as in 15. So you want to drink 3.7 liters of water every day for optimal body functioning. Of course, if you're out there walking in Louisiana, the 100 degrees for every hour that you're walking out in the heat you want to add one small or half a liter of water just to stay hydrated.

Speaker 1: 23:29

And now we are down to the last tip, which is my favorite also sleep. Now I hear people say I can't sleep seven to nine hours a day. Listen, you only need to be about 80% accurate. 100% doesn't exist. 100% puts us in the bind, makes us struggle, makes us to give up when we make a mistake. It's no such thing. Overall, try to sleep seven to nine hours a day. I'm the one who never sleeps on Monday and Tuesday. Why is that? Because I'm working, so I'm not going to get seven to nine hours of sleep on those two days. Fine. The rest of the days I am in my bed. Bootcamp workout ends at 7.30 pm. At eight o'clock. I am in my bed, like it or not, the way to learn to sleep is beyond. I mean, I'll bring you some tips on how to learn to sleep, but we'll do that in another video.

Speaker 1: 24:22

But one of the things that you can do your body has this unique ability to learn things. You can train yourself to do anything, just anything. So train yourself to go to sleep, stay asleep. Just stay in the bed, Even if you, if you're not sleeping, stay there. Put the phone away, don't try to talk to people, turn the tv off and lay there for long enough until you fall asleep. You will notice that you do that often enough. Then your body starts falling asleep at that time.

Speaker 1: 24:53

The other thing that comes behind sleeping at a specific time is waking up. Just don't lay in the bed as long as you want to Train yourself to go to sleep at a specific time and to wake up at a specific time. For me personally, that time goes between 8 pm, for the earlier you wake up, the better you have a hold on that day. Why is that? Especially for us women, you wake up late 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock the day is gone. Like Oprah said, we've got to get centered first thing in the morning.

Speaker 1: 25:26

So last tip for you you want to develop some morning routine. That morning routine is key in helping you get all these tips to work for you, Because if you wake up late and you start running around and doing different things, you don't have a handle on things. But if you wake up early, take some time 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever your time is. Take some time to sit down and think about what strategies you're going to put in place today. Calmly, go about your day. Work out, Go to work. You're not screaming down the street because you're upset and late. You're not running into the office because you're late. You didn't rush through the big break room and three cupcakes accidentally ended up in your stomach because you were late and now your day is over. Make it a habit of having a morning routine. You have better success when you think about things that you're going to do to achieve your goal in the morning. All right.

Speaker 1: 26:28

So we've talked about intermittent fasting. We've talked about increasing that protein. Stop snacking Not worth it. Add healthy fats into your nutrition. Add some cinnamon, some magnesium. It will help you. You want to exercise? Add some resistance exercises to your cardio. Drink lots of water and sleep 79 hours a day. I hope these tips help you. Follow me on Instagram and on YouTube. Follow me and I will continue to bring you all the tips and the things that I have learned and that I share with my bootcampers. I am very passionate about helping you lose weight in a healthy way and in a way that is sustainable long-term. All right, everyone, Thank you. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you, Bye.

Speaker 2: 27:21

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of thriving through menopause. Until then,