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Menopause and Weight Loss

by: Cathy Taylor

During menopause, many women report that the challenge of weight loss becomes even more difficult. The need to lose weight haunts women most of the time, and now more men are reporting the same struggle. When women hit menopause, weight gathers around the waist and hips; despite our best efforts to diet and exercise.

What we know is that this additional body fat is linked to your hormones. Most women follow a conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet with lots of processed foods. Eventually this diet creates a condition known as insulin resistance; see Dr. Schwarzbein's book on the book list. When you are insulin resistant, your body converts calories into fat even when you are dieting. Menopause feels like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be.

When you are stressed, as the body typically is during menopause, stress hormones block weight loss. Despite adequate food, the body acts as if it's in a famine and stores all spare calories as fat.
This leads to a metabolic disorder called adrenal fatigue.

Many women combine a high-stress life with a low-fat, high-carb diet which creates a powerful hormonal imbalance which causes us to gain weight. Yo-yo dieting exacerbates the problem.
Also, when a woman is on a high-carb diet she is often barraged with a craving for sweets. The body can't maintain optimal blood sugar and serotonin levels, so you snack and drink caffeine to feel better. That makes your insulin resistance worse and the vicious cycle of gaining weight is accelerated.

During perimenopause, women lose estrogen which is an added factor to this problem. As estrogen decreases, the body needs extra fat resources. Other factors that play into this problem, are unresolved emotional issues, food sensitivities, digestive issues such as yeast, and even heavy metal toxicity.

So what do we do?

The most important step is to GET HEALTHY!

Follow an eating plan like the one in the Schwarzbein Principle or the Zone Diet

You need protein at every meal, low carbs, very little to no processed food, and lots of fruit and vegetables

Drink plenty of water

Take nutritional supplements

Try Supplements Designed for Menopause

Stop weighing yourself, use your clothes as a gauge (focus on your health not your weight)

Start exercising - walk 4-5 times a week for 30 minute (it boosts metabolism)

Get help for emotional eating - you have to face your fears to get through them

Reduce the stress in your life, make time for fun and relaxation - strive for BALANCE

Learn to love yourself during menopause and accept who you are and at what stage in life you find yourself

Menopause can make weight loss even more challenging for both women and men. But with the right knowledge and some hard work, it can be done.

The information in this article is for educational purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice.

About the author:
Cathy writes frequently on mid-life issues for women and men particularly menopause, and a copy of her book can be found at
To read a sample of this book go to

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Mom's Job Stress May Spread to Kids
by: Rita Jenkins

Low job satisfaction in working mothers increases the stress levels of their children, but allowing them to spend more time in childcare can help overcome these effects, according to new research published in Developmental Psychobiology.

Children whose mothers found their jobs emotionally exhausting or otherwise less rewarding had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than children whose mothers reported more enjoyment from their jobs, researchers found in a study involving more than 50 nursery school children.

Levels of cortisol in the evening were more than double in the children whose mothers experienced less job satisfaction. Placing those children in childcare would help to significantly reduce their stress, the research suggests.

The researchers also found that children from families that were either highly expressive or very reserved exhibited higher than average cortisol levels.

Greater support is needed for working mothers to help improve their job satisfaction and increase the availability of affordable childcare options, says the report.

More Time in Childcare

Dr. Julie Turner-Cobb, a health psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Bath, Dr. Christina Chryssanthopoulou from the University of Kent and Dr. David Jessop, a neuroimmunologist at the University of Bristol collaborated on the study.

To measure cortisol levels, they took saliva samples in the morning and evening from 56 children aged three to four years old. They also surveyed mothers about their workplace conditions and home life over a six month period.

"Spending more time in childcare makes a big difference to the stress levels in children whose mothers have low job satisfaction," says Dr. Turner-Cobb.

"It can help protect children from the effects of their mother's low job quality and emotional exhaustion. Ensuring that mothers of young children have good support in the workplace is essential for supporting both mothers and their children," she adds.

"Improving the job satisfaction of working mothers means that they are less stressed themselves," says Dr. Jessop, "and extending the availability of affordable and adequate childcare may not only improve the quality of life for the mothers but, in doing so, may improve the long term health of their children."

Healthy Adaptation to Stress

Cortisol is a steroid hormone that regulates blood pressure and cardiovascular function and immune function. It also controls the body's use of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

Cortisol secretion increases in response to stress, whether physical -- such as illness, trauma, surgery or temperature extremes -- or psychological. It is a normal and essential response without which we would not be able to function in everyday life.

When these levels remain high or become disrupted in some way over a prolonged period of time, however, they may have consequences for health. It is important to promote healthy adaptation to stress in children, and good quality childcare is one way of doing this, say the authors.

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