How to Manage Middle-Aged Weight Gain
I’m continuing on with the series of experiences (aka “symptoms”) you might have during perimenopause. Check out the previous ones here:
Today, we’re going to talk about weight gain.
I know.
This one is LOADED.
And it's a longer one...
I’ve been interviewing women in their 40/50s about changes in their bodies after turning 40, and this one keeps coming up. It’s a common concern.
I want to be clear: this isn’t about being a certain size or weight. It’s about finding the place that your body feels good from the inside.
If you’re carrying extra weight for your size, it can be hard on the body in a number of ways that I think our culture (including the medical community) has already bombarded us with, so I don’t need to go into that here.
I honestly believe much of the diseases associated with weight are more likely caused by the ROOT of why someone is overweight (often stress. toxins in our food, environment and products, and our hyper-consumerist culture) rather than weight itself, which I think is just an easier target for studies.Remember that association does not equal causation.
(There is also a much deeper discussion here outside of the scope of my newsletter around socioeconomic factors and access to healthy food)
Why weight gain tends to happen in middle age for women isn’t well-understood from a Western perspective (shocking, I hope you’re noticing a theme here) AND also may not (from that perspective) have anything to do with menopause.
From an Ayurvedic standpoint, it may have to do with this idea of the accumulation of our lifestyle up until the point when the estrogen starts to drop, and is no longer able to support our general metabolism (digestive fire!) as much.
Which means: it’s time to start paying attention to things we’ve wanted to ignore in the past, like managing our stress instead of pushing through, and putting ourselves first on the priority list.
What I most commonly see in my practice is that most women have put on weight because their kapha (earth + water) dosha is trying to come in to bring down their vata imbalance (air + ether). In other words, it’s secondary.
What is that kapha sweetly whispering to you? (Because you know, kapha is loving and sweet)?
Me, slowing down to enjoy the view. Staunton State Park, CO. Photo by Ron Michael photography.
💗💗💗SLOOOOOW DOWN SISTER💗💗💗
Kapha is literally trying to weigh you down. She’s trying oh-so-hard to keep that air and ether in check. Sometimes, she’s working on that pitta too (drive to do-go-do, fire, ambition, hustle!).
What’s a woman to do?
I have a whole cheat sheet on this (Ten Ways to Ease Middle Aged Weight Gain WITHOUT Changing What You Eat) that doesn’t involve changing your diet or adding exercise (though, please do those things). If you don’t have it yet, grab it here. It could have been this entire email.
A few additional, possibly counterintuitive tips:
🧈Add ½ tsp of ghee to every meal
This isn’t the 90s. Add good oil to your meal. Ghee can help decrease vata, increase satisfaction of your food, and help your gut microbiome, ultimately helping your digestive fire
🏋️Be sure you’re not OVERexercising
In middle age, this causes us to hang on to more weight. You want to do lower impact exercises, including weight bearing and strength training, which are really important for bones. Yoga, pilates, moderate weight lifting, walking, dancing, hiking, swimming, all wonderful. Exercise just to a sweaty glow. Stay away from Cross Fit please
🥗Eat less salad and ditch cold smoothies
Though in theory raw vegetables have more nutrition, most of us can’t digest them, especially in a smoothie form. Eat more warm, cooked, spiced meals that nourish the body, keep you satisfied, and that you can digest
🧴Watch out for endocrine disrupters
This one is kind of brutal. They’re everywhere. If you read a label on your beauty product and it says “fragrance,” you can bet there is an endocrine disrupter in there. These can cause weight gain in and of themselves
Endocrine disrupters can be found in makeup, body products, plastic water bottles, and more. Not only can they increase weight, they can also put you at higher risk for other mean stuff like cancer.
You can learn more about this at EWG’s website. Warning: it’s kind of overwhelming. Do what you can– I try to get all my clients off antiperspirant as a small start!
🥤Stay away from processed food as much as possible
I could write a whole newsletter just on this. It's hard to digest, it often doesn't provide nutrients, it's less satisfying. Even that protein powder that is touted as a health food is hard to digest
😴Get a good night’s sleep, and REST
Sleep affects EVERYTHING, including how hormones respond to the satisfaction of food
I cannot say enough that taking breaks during your day to rest (even 5 minutes) is essential