Am 55, menopausal, and have been battling the bulge and obsessing about being fat for sooooo long! This site I am hoping will offer support and encouragement and I will hopefully start to win this battle. I have put together my own little calorie counting spreadsheet and have been sticking to it for two weeks already. I had a very bad day yesterday, calorie count was massive - but, despite that, my count for the week still fell below the daily average I am using, based on a very conservative average BMR (it is lower than the recommended BMI calculated on the NHS website). I am also being sensible in that I am trying not to go too far below the recommended intake, so that my body does not decide to go into starvation mode and hang on to the fat!! Am keen to hear from others of a similar age, as I feel that we are the ones that appear to struggle more, being menopausal and if any of you have had success in losing weight this way, it would be very encouraging for me indeed.
Diet Buddy: Am 55, menopausal, and have been... - Healthy Eating
Diet Buddy
Hi. I'm 62 and been struggling with weight for years .Im doing the 5.2 diet and trying to throw in some excersize to help it along .Lost 7 pounds since Xmas .Couldn't see any difference myself until my daughter showed me pic of before and after.Now every time I want to keep eating I look at photo and take control again.So good luck and stick with it.
Thank you Rosie. I know a few people doing the 5.2 diet and it is working for them 
I am doing my own brand of that, just counting the calories, some days I am way below my recommended average, which is possibly a little like the 5.2 method - I have been on it for 2 weeks now and have lost 2.1 Kgs = 4.6 pounds. Thank you for the encouragement and for your reply, it is so nice to be able to speak to others on the same journey. Good luck to you and hope to catch up with you again soon
When I hit menopause, I started putting on weight around the middle, and about the same time my brother, who is mostly vegetarian and was quite overweight, passed on info about a low carb diet. The premise in a nutshell is that sugar and carbs, specifically grain products, trigger an insulin release, and insulin is what moves fat into fat cells. I can tell you from experience that cutting carbs works, and there are more and more books and websites on the subject that explain the process. To me the process doesn't really matter; what matters is that if you cut carbs, you cut pounds. You can forget counting calories. Just watch the carbs. Read the labels and limit yourself to no more than 15g of carbs a day. A great site that explains the concept and has loads of personal stories and recipes is dietdoctor.com. This way of eating is being referred to as LCHF- low carb, high fat. Fat doesn't put on weight, carbs do. We have all been raised to be fat-phobic so it's hard to retrain your brain into believing that healthy fat won't kill you! Fats fill you up, carbs will leave you wanting more within just a couple hours. And by the way, it was the carbs that made my brother so overweight even though he is vegetarian. He's now back down to his normal weight and happy as a clam!
I think that grapefruit has an inhibiting effect on the insulin release too. I have incorporated it into my daily intake and am combining that with a calorie counting way of life and will see how that goes. I think it is easier to focus on just the one element - i.e. how many calories are contained in a particular food - rather than have to determine what food category it falls into and whether or not it is something I should have more or less of. I stick to the theory that as long as my intake does not exceed my recommended body metabolic rate - I should see results. I am motivated by that and am sticking to it - and the beauty of it is that I am not feeling at all deprived and I am not the slightest bit hungry.
Hi, I'm 50, I have been loosing weight since September 2014, I was doing well on, and I have lost 38lb in all, but now I am losing 1lb one week putting on 2lb next week, this is being going on for a while now, and I know it is because I am eating too much.... So I am regrouping have found the NHS weight loss, and I am going back to the start.
I'm 52 and in the middle of perimenopause and I am so ready to be through this change. I've never been thin but I've never been as big as I am now. My weight was always in my hips but now it's my belly. I know I need to eat more veggies and less bread and I need to be more active but some days all I want to do is eat and rest.
What is the 5.2 diet?
I tend to crave carbs so maybe I should concentrate on eating less of them.
I am the same Di - always tended to be "hippy" but at least had a flat tummy - but now I have put on the weight around the belly too. The 5.2 diet is where you eat a maximum of 500 calories on two days out of 7. The other 5 days you just eat as normal, but within reason. So many people have had success with this. I think it is what you set your mind to and at the moment, I am bent on doing the calorie counting, but in my own way and so far it is working and I am motivated. It seems to me that in order to successfully achieve a perfectly balanced diet - we have to get a degree in nutrition. So many posts offer so much technical information regarding how different foods affect the body, it is just mind-boggling. I find the easiest for me at the moment and the most logical is that if you take in more calories than you expend during the day, you are going to gain weight and so I am making sure that I keep the calories at a certain level, as prescribed by the NHS Body Metabolic Rate. This way, I just need to watch the calories and not also have to read up on ingredients and whether or not the foods is a carb, a protein etc etc. I am in week 3 - will post further with results. I refuse to weigh myself until I have done this for at least 6 weeks.
Hi Suzytree, I spent my entire career providing health care for menopausal women and counseling them about many issues including diet. It is definitely more of a struggle when you are post menopausal. Personally I feel like I kept adding a pound a year for the past decade or so and I am now 62. I have been on a plant based diet for a year. It is a lifestyle, not a diet in the conventional sense of the word, and I have lost 17 lbs with no calorie counting, I eat as much as I want, I am never hungry. Also exercise must be a key component to weight loss. I make sure I walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day plus other work outs. I did this at my cardiologist's suggestion and my cholesterol, my glucose, all health indicators are healthier than they have ever been. I've never had more energy. I eat a great balance of plant based proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. I avoid sugar as if it was poison. This has been a really easy lifestyle for me to adopt. Maybe it could work for you too. Best of luck, be well.
I 53 and gone through the menopause. my weight is still the same. I exercise everyday and eat healthy foods. I stay away from processed foods including all take away foods. I cannot tell you how god it feels. You can follow me on facebook at Healthstart.
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