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Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause is a real issue for most women after a certain age. You reach for that favorite pair of jeans, you try to slide them on but they wont button. You struggle from day to day to keep the weight gain off of your once fabulous body. But the rolls and layers of fat keep coming on that body of yours. You diet and exercise on a daily basis but those 10 to 30 pounds just wont come off. You join a gym or a woman’s work out class but you still jump on the scale and it still reads the same. You just want to scream or jump back in bed and hide under the covers. Is this you?

Weight Gain During Menopause

If you are coming on to that age of reaching that big 40 or you are gaining ground to the 50 age mark then you are more than likely in what is called the menopausal stage of life and this weight issue is one of the common symptoms of the menopausal stage. There are many other symptoms to the menopausal stage of life but in this article weight gain is what we are going to concentrate on. The reason for this article is that in today’s society our looks mean so much to woman. Weight gain during menopause, even if it is 10 or 20 pounds, can mean so much to a woman at this stage in life. Weight gain can bring on depression and anxiety which in turns can bring on the terrible hot flashes.

Weight Gain During Menopause – Why?

What causes weight gain during menopause in these bodies of ours? It can be one thing or a combination of many things. Toxins, stress, exercise, diet, emotions, anxiety, and hormones all can play a major role in weight gain. As the old saying goes, putting the weight on is easy and fun but taking it off is the hardest thing to do. Especially if you are in the stage of life called permenopause or menopause.

If you are in the stage of life of perimenopause or menopause more than likely your hormones are playing a huge factor in your weight. These hormonal imbalances are causing your body to store unwanted fat. The reason for this is that your body is feeling the affect that your hormones are hitting rock bottom and they are looking else where for a replacement of the hormones so the body turns to these fat cells. Studies have shown that woman tend to be insulin resistance do to their diet. When this happens the body converts every calorie it can to fat.

Stress and Menopausal weight gain

Stress plays a large role during this time in life of perimenopause or menopause. Stress hormones can block weight loss in a female. Even if you are dieting long term stress causes the body to go into what is called hoarding. Your body is putting on this fat and then you start to stress out about it and you start what is called yoyo dieting which in turns causes more fat to hoard in your body. It is a no win situation. Stress at this point can not only cause weight gain, but can cause depression, anxiety and make you feel unwanted and insecure about yourself.

You need to break this curse. You need to find yourself a support group and also have open dialogue with your partner at home. Also talk to a qualified physician about what you are going through. I mentioned qualified physician only because there are many physicians that do not understand what women are going through during perimenopause or menopause. Many physicians will say that these symptoms are all in your head and that you need a therapist instead of a medical doctor. Don’t fall for this, ask around and talk to your girl friends to find a positive qualified physician to hear your case. Don’t hold these feelings inside you, this will only cause your stress level to rise and cause other terrible symptoms to occur. Open communication is the key to good health and feeling better about yourself. Give it a try today, you will be glad you did.

Weight Gain During Menopause is an issue that many people deal with and I hope these tips help you out.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Back to The Grind

Hello Monday! I have to say this: I (with my husband) worked out six days last week and it was awesome. Most days we worked out in the morning and a couple of the days we worked out in the evening, but we did it! We were sore pretty much every single day. Insanity was majorly ass-kicking. By far, the hardest workout I’ve ever done. Ever. We scream at Shaun T during the suicide drills. I hate you Shaun T., but I love you too.

I like the schedule we set up: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Insanity. Thursday is one hour of yoga and one hour of strength, and then we finish with Insanity on Friday and Saturday. Our goal is to complete the 60 days worth of Insanity and start running outside again when it gets warmer.

I’m staying away from the scale for awhile, and hope to find it again mid-February or March. Truth be told, and saying this here makes it seem even crazier, but often the reason why I give up so soon on diet and exercise is because I don’t see immediate results on the scale. Which is crazy, but somewhat true for me.

For example, this past week I worked my butt off with exercise. I was consistent, I ate well, I cooked at home a lot, I counted and tracked calories. I worked for it. But, in my mind I think “okay I worked hard, have I lost 50 lbs yet?!” or “how could I NOT lose 10 lbs this week?” it’s so crazy, but I let the scale guide me rather than my actions. I’m looking for insant results and when the scale doesn’t show it- I give up.

So I don’t know what I weight, or how much water or weight I’ve lost. And I won’t know for a least another month. I’m letting my actions guide me right now. I’m trusting that I’m doing the right things for the results I want. Moving more+ eating less. That’s all I can hope for. And I had a real moment with myself when I said “If I just lose 40 lbs this year, that would be great”.

So with that said, I’ve got another week of action goals. Six days of exercise, just like last week. Count and tack calories and cook often.

What are your action goals this week?

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How To Lose 10 Pounds In One Month

Many people struggle to lose weight for one main reason: they fail to set concrete goals. Instead of specifying an exact and quantifiable goal, plan, and deadline, they content themselves with vague targets like, “I want to lose weight.” This is no way to win. To be successful in any endeavor, including weight loss, people must set concrete goals, define the stepping stones that will mark the path, and create and stick to a plan that will keep them moving forward towards the target.

If you want to lose weight, set a goal, one that is quantifiable, or can be represented with objective numbers. For the purposes of this article, let’s say the goal is 10 pounds in a month. Now chunk it down – there are four weeks in a month, so you’ll need to lose about 2.5 pounds a week. At seven days per week, you’ll need to lose about a third of a pound each day. If each pound of fat contains 3500 calories, this means you must burn around 1250 calories a day through diet and exercise.

Thus, losing ten pounds in a month is difficult, but not impossible, especially if you are very overweight. In that case, those first ten pounds will be quite easy, as long as you follow the plan. If you simply want to lose the ‘last’ 10 pounds off your frame, this goal will be harder to accomplish. No matter your situation, to meet this calorie target, you will have to consistently follow a strict and detailed plan of diet and exercise. Here are the main steps:
1. First, determine how many calories your body uses each day based on your age, sex, weight, and activity level. There are many of these ‘calorie calculators’ around the internet, so find a good one and enter your vital statistics. Let’s say that your basic burn rate in a day is 2500 calories.

2. If you did no additional activity, you’d have to eat 1250 calories a day in order to hit your calorie target and induce weight loss. This would be very difficult to sustain, as you’d be hungry all the time and you’d suffer from malnutrition. Thus, you need to add in daily workouts to up your calorie burn. Let’s say you shoot for 500 calories burned in exercise. This takes your daily calorie burn at 3,000, and thus you need to eat 1,750 calories a day – a much more doable target.

3. Once you’ve determined your calorie target, plan out your daily meals so that you eat that many calories or less. A few guidelines: first, don’t starve yourself. If you consistently deprive your body, it will go into starvation mode, lowering your metabolism and killing your fat burning machine. Instead, you need to make sure your body is well supplied throughout the day with food and water. Instead of eating two or three big meals, eat 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day. This will help control your hunger while also keeping your metabolism roaring. Second, make sure to eat a wide variety of foods from all food groups, focusing especially on whole grain carbohydrates, lean proteins, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables. Drink plenty of water each day, and avoid empty calorie beverages like soda and iced tea. If you make the right choices, 1,750 calories should be plenty of food to keep you satisfied each day, but you may still need to get used to ‘real’ portion sizes and wean yourself off the excessive portion sizes that are seen as ‘normal’ today.

4. Once your nutrition plan is in place, design your daily workout regime. You will want to mix in cardiovascular exercises and strength training. Shoot for about 4-6 cardio workouts each week, 3 strength training workouts, and daily flexibility training. Each type of workout will give you specific benefits. Cardio will improve your heart and lung health while also burning calories. Strength training will burn calories too, but it will also build muscle mass, increasing the number of calories you burn simply by existing. Flexibility will help you recover from workouts more quickly and will reduce your chances of injury.

If you follow this clear, detailed plan without fail, you will be sure to hit your goal after one month. The journey doesn’t end there, though – fitness and health is a lifetime quest; a journey, not a destination.

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