The Secret to Menopause weight loss - it’s not what you think

Written By Karissa Pfeffer

Spoiler alert - the secret to menopause weight loss is NOT eat less and move more. You are probably thinking “wait - what?” I know I was. But that was prior to me understanding what was really going on with my body.

My Movement Practice

You see movement has always been a part of my life. I was a cheerleader in high school, taught step aerobics in college, and kept up a decade long yoga practice until the night I went into labor at 42.5 weeks pregnant! Movement was my way of life.

After having my daughter, it took me a year and a half to get back into a groove (hello, motherhood!). But when I did, I remembered my WHY. Movement made me feel good - physically and mentally. It wasn’t about the scale; it was about taking care of my body for my 80-year-old self.

I say all this to set the stage. To show you that even people who have had movement as a way of life for years or even decades are still not immune to perimenopause. Perimenopause does not discriminate. It doesn't matter how healthy you are, the healthiest of people can still experience symptoms of perimenopause. You can be doing “all the things” and it still can creep in on you.

Perimenopause Does Not Discriminate

No one told me what perimenopause would do to my body. I mean to be fair - no one told me about PERIMENOPAUSE at all! I could still move the same and eat the same, yet suddenly, I noticed a lower belly bulge. So I did what we’ve all been taught - move more, eat less - and nothing changed. My little pooch didn’t go away. In fact on some days I swear it was getting bigger. And I was getting more frustrated.

Then I learned what was really happening in my body. When your body is stressed it produces cortisol which signals to your body to store fat - especially around your midsection. During perimenopause, when your estrogen starts to decrease it can impact the body’s ability to handle stress. Increased stress equals increased cortisol. Increased cortisol can lead to increased belly fat! That stress you thought you were managing? Maybe you indeed were. Maybe you have continued to do the same things you always have but the invisible decline of estrogen now is impacting you - and your lower belly.

Move more, eat less Myth

Since estrogen can have significant impacts on cortisol, moving more and eating less alone won’t necessarily solve the problem of your body holding onto that stress fat. In fact - sometimes over exercising can cause even more stress on our body - creating MORE cortisol which leads to MORE belly fat. The vicious cycle continues!

Once I realized that, I knew I needed to reduce my stress. Now when you take an inventory of your stress there are going to be things you actually can’t change. Like if your job is the main source of stress odds are you can’t just up and quit. Or being a parent or taking care of one for that matter (the joys of the sandwich generation!) won’t necessarily get easier. But acknowledging what in our lives cause us stress and then having the coping tools to deal with can go a long way. It simply isn’t eat less and move more.

Five Minutes a Day for Stress Reduction

In addition to consistently moving my body as I had before (not just piling on more exercise to add to my stress) I went back to my yoga tools. I know how impactful breathing exercises could be. In fact, during labor because of my breathwork I was actually able to LOWER my heart rate during my contractions. The power of breath is real.

Breathing exercises have so many health benefits. It is known to help reduce stress by taking your body out of fight or flight and put it back into a less stressful state. This less stressful state you may hear referred to your “rest and digest” state or your parasympathetic nervous system. And it doesn’t take hours to do.

In as little as five minutes, breathwork can help aid in stress reduction. It’s funny because we need three things to live - air, food and water. Our body signals to us when we are thirsty or hungry. Yet the one thing we truly couldn’t live without for more than a few minutes - our breath - we often don’t think about ever.

I started getting more cognizant about adding mindfulness back into my routine. Here are some of my daily practices now to help my stress load:

It doesn’t have to yet another task that overwhelms you! Five minutes can go a long way for your stress load. And if you think you “don’t have time” go check your social media usage. I know when I did I realized how much time I truly DID have - I was just spending it on things that didn’t help me personally feel better.

And if you don’t know where to begin or are overwhelmed, that’s exactly why I created my Perimenopause Power Method Digital Course. It teaches you how to slowly add in habits like this to help you feel energized and in control during perimenopause. Because we are overwhelmed already - we don’t need one more thing to stress us out!



Karissa Pfeffer