7 Powerful Strategies to Beat Hormonal Weight Gain

Sisters, I had a moment this week. It was like Jesus connected all the pieces of my fitness goals and my hormonal weight struggle. Everything clicked together, and I could see the clouds lift.

Today I’m going to share the things I learned and the conversation I had with a top integrative Doctor that made this happen.

 If this is your struggle, I want this clarity for you too!

Before you read another word, let’s pray.

Father God, Help reveal to my Sister what is keeping her from her best health and fitness. Give her clarity. Show her you are with her. God throughout the day, help her remember to stay connected to you. The answers to her problems and the consistency she needs are found in you, Don’t let her lose hope. Father do a new thing in her today, show her it isn’t over, and the best is yet to come.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Okay, let’s dive in!

Why am I gaining weight so fast during perimenopause/menopause?

A few things are going on here: your hormone levels are declining, sarcopenia is happening that is age-related muscle loss, and subsequently, your body fat is increasing because you are less metabolically active (which means less muscle).

So what can we do?  Let me start by sharing common mistakes that are making it worse:

• Overtraining/ undertraining/ training incorrectly
• Stressing your body with food, alcohol, workouts
• Eating poorly, not eating enough protein, eating man-made food, or eating sugar alone
• Not recovering from your workouts - rest is where the results happen
• Believing it’s hopeless

During menopause and postmenopause, your menstrual cycle stops and your ovaries no longer make estrogen. Instead, fat cells start making the majority of your body's estrogen. I realized when I learned that my body is supposed to do this, it’s supposed to go through this. I found peace in that.

Can you gain muscle and lose weight during/after menopause?

Here was my question to my doctor, and probably one you have to, “is it possible to lose weight? Can I gain muscle or hold onto it?”

My doctor told me that weight loss and muscle gain are going to be harder but not impossible. Don’t listen to that and think it’s hopeless. Hear that it’s possible. We talked about strength training, and he confirmed my research that it is more important than ever now. He also said that stressing your body with hiit training classes is probably doing more harm than good if it’s raising your cortisol and your sympathetic nervous system is activated.

Information always makes me feel good, if you know what to expect and you commit to doing something about it, you can make a difference.

I have decided to declare war against aging, and even though I can’t do anything about my hormones, I am completely responsible for what I eat, how I work out, how I sleep, what I drink, and what I think.

Write that down. You get to decide. While your body is changing, you don’t need to participate in destroying your health with poor choices knowingly.

I’ve been in a stage of life that feels so overwhelming, and I’ve gone through so much with my hormones and trying to balance work, a new book, a new website, a course, my podcast, and then my workouts, cooking, family, and on and on, that without God I couldn’t handle it.

Why do we think it’s supposed to be easy? 

It’s not. Anything good takes work. Remember the narrow road, ladies. We are on the narrow path with Jesus.

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Excellence costs a lot. A lot of time, energy, and focus. It will require more than you have, and that is where God does His best work in us when we give Him our free will.

So what can you do?

When your hormones feel like they are working against your fitness goals?

I’m going to share 7 strategies

1. Strength training is the most powerful tool you have for changing your body composition, reducing abdominal fat, and building lean muscle tissue, which increases metabolism. Having muscle in your body is like having money in your savings account. It's the gift that keeps on giving long after your workout is over. But you need to lift weights that make that 12th rep feel like you can barely do it, don’t leave results on the table with super light weights and reps you still had in you. And don’t just pick the body parts you want to change there is no such thing as spot-reducing. Your whole body needs strength, and you can design that in many ways, Upper, lower, or traditional split slike, alternating, Push, pull, leg days. Aim for hitting each muscle group twice a week.
2. Cardio, don’t overtrain, undertrain, or just remain the same of the same old machine. Doing hours of cardio can contribute to the muscle wasting that is already going on Use the FITT principle when it comes to your workouts; Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type of Exercise. Mix it up This is as easy as if you’re walking, push it for 30 seconds and then take a 60-sec recovery and then repeat. Start where you are, and then build. The physical activity guidelines rec 150 minutes weekly for a baseline and 300 per week for weight loss.
3. Have protein with every meal, protein becomes more and more important as we age, keep that muscle, keep blood sugar low, cravings down, energy up and help you stay full. Ever eat carbs, and your hungry an hour later? Protein stops that.
4. Nutrition is medicine right now, your nutrition is more important than ever Man-made Sugar, and processed carbs have to go, weight gain, fat gain, awful stubborn belly fat, insulin function, diabetes, heart disease, mood swings, headaches, hot flashes, listen to this, Sugar adds to your stress. I believe sugar is of the devil, it is a drug, ladies, and it’s as addictive as cocaine. Let’s get off of it!
5. Mindset: your hormones may be out of your control, but that doesn’t mean you quit it means you fight, it means you focus on everything you can control. This goes back to my come to Jesus moment. Write this down, I may not be able to control my hormones, but I am completely responsible for what I eat, how I work out, how I sleep, what I drink, and what I think.
6. Reinvent yourself with a mindset of hope, let God do a new thing! It isn’t over!
7. Rest and recovery are imperative and without proper recovery, intense exercise can lead to elevated levels of cortisol in the bloodstream and heightened symptoms of physical stress, even when exercise is not being performed. 

In the perimenopause to post-menopause transition, your hormones are going to fluctuate and then flatten out. Your body stops making estrogen and progesterone, the testosterone decline is not as drastic during menopause as estrogen's and progesterone's, and strength training can raise testosterone levels which increases energy, strength, and libido. Testerone is the one we can change…

When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. Exercise makes you happy!

I want to encourage you to hold on to every ounce of muscle tissue you have right now because that lean mass is what is burning calories, and muscle is what’s going to prevent you from injuries as you age. Muscle is what makes your arms and legs look tight intoned Muscle is a gift that keeps giving.

Since I prayed before, I’m jumping into some powerful faith fuel!

James 1:2-8 is our faith fuel and in my NKJV its title is

Profiting from Trials

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let’s not doubt. Let’s get to work on what we can do and show the world what God can do in us!