The term peri-menopause is a recent one and it simply refers to the eight or so years before the menopause when your periods finally stop for good.  So, as the average age for menopause in the UK is 51, for most women the peri-menopause begins in the early 40s, but it can begin as early as 35, especially if you have had a later pregnancy.

Peri means ‘around’ and the peri-menopause is a time of fairly subtle hormonal changes that start to become more obvious as you approach the menopause. If you have any health conditions such as PMS, irregular periods or migraines, you may find that declining levels of oestrogen aggravates these conditions. You may have your first hot flush or night sweat during this time and hear yourself saying ‘Is it hot in here or just me?’ You may also feel tired and find it hard to concentrate or feel irritable or anxious for no reason.  In addition, the peri-menopause is a time when many women experience weight gain (especially around the middle) and find attempts to loss weight near futile. You may, for example, be eating the same foods and exercising the same but find that instead of maintaining or losing weight as before your weight is slowly creeping up.

 

Are you in the peri-menopause?

If you tick five or more of the following symptoms the chances are you are in the peri-menopause:

 

• Have your periods changed? Have they become irregular or has your cycle got shorter?
• Are you irritable, bloating and craving sweet foods just before your period?
• Are you getting headaches?
• Are you finding it hard to sleep?
• Have you had any hot flushes or night sweats?
• Are you having mood swings?
• Do you have frequent memory lapses?
• Have you noticed a reduction in vaginal secretions?
• Have you noticed that your hair is thinner?
• Is your skin drier, more sensitive or spot prone?
• Are you finding it harder than ever to lose weight?

 

There are a number of good reasons why weight loss is harder during the  peri-menopause. First of all as you get older your growth hormone levels decline and muscle is gradually replaced by fat. This affects your metabolic rate – the rate at which your body burns calories and the less muscle you have the lower your metabolism. But that’s not all. Your body starts to hang onto fat because it is a source of the sex hormone oestrogen, which your body is gradually making less of from the ovaries as you approach the menopause. And if you find that most of your weight gain is around your middle this is because your body can manufacture oestrogen from the fat cells stored around your waist. It really wants to keep this fat so you may find that the hardest place of all to lose weight is your belly.

 

And if you’ve gone on a strict diet to lose weight this could make things even worse because fad diets encourage you to cut out certain food groups or restrict calories and don’t give your body the nutrients it needs to kick start your metabolism and help you lose weight in the long term. You may get an initial weight loss but this is mainly muscle and water and as soon as you start eating normally again you’ll gain all the weight back again as fat – along with saggy skin. Not to mention the fact that if you eat unhealthily you risk heart disease, osteoporosis and even cancer.

 

For most of us the peri-menopause is a tougher ride than the menopause and life beyond and you are not imagining it – it is harder to lose weight than ever before. Fortunately it is not impossible to lose weight. What you need are some new diet rules – because the old ones don’t work anymore – that can not only help your body adjust to lower levels of oestrogen so that any symptoms of the peri-menopause subside but also give your body the foods it needs to shed pounds, boost your energy and fight the effects of gravity.

 

Your peri-menopause diet rules

 

1)       Boost your metabolism

Physical activity is necessary to effectively maintain a constant body weight with increasing age and doing more exercise is the best way to boost your metabolism and encourage weight loss during the peri-menopause. Exercise also builds muscle and muscle burns more calories than fat even when you aren’t exercising. Weight bearing exercise like brisk walking and jogging are two excellent exercise choices that cost little more than a good pair of shoes and comfortable clothing.

 

During the peri-menopause I recommend at least 30 minutes aerobic exercise a day, five times weekly and two to three weight training (resistance) sessions a week. And during the day, try to fidget more. Research has shown that people who can’t sit still burn an extra 350 calories a day so tap your feet and wriggle more in your chair.

 

You’ll also need to drink plenty of water to keep your metabolism boosted, especially if you are doing a lot of exercise. Drinking at least 6 to 8 glasses of water a day can help boost your metabolism by at least 30 per cent according to scientists. 

 

2)       Don’t go on a diet

 

Although this feature is called the peri-menopause diet it isn’t really a diet but a healthy eating plan to transform the way you eat so that you can enjoy healthy, delicious food that will keep you looking and feeling younger and slimmer. You may have spent years focusing on losing weight but if you can change the focus to healthy eating your whole relationship with food will change and weight loss will be a natural result.

 

Healthy eating does mean cutting out sugary and fatty foods but thinking about sugary and fatty foods as major causes of weight gain, wrinkles, diabetes, weight gain and heart disease is a fantastic motivator. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat any of these foods it just means following my 80/20 rule. If you eat healthily 80 per cent of the time you can let go for the other 20 per cent.

 

3)       Eat more often

 

You should be eating five to six times a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a mid morning and mid afternoon snack in between. If your mum told you not to snack between meals, she was wrong.

 

Snacking can help you lose weight because it reminds your body that you are not starving and there is a regular supply of food. If you go for long periods without a meal (over three hours) your body will slow down your metabolism because it thinks starvation is around the corner. Snacking can also keep your blood sugar levels steady – unstable blood sugar levels cause many symptoms of the peri-menopause such as mood swings and irregular periods. If your blood sugar levels are stable this will keep your hormone levels balanced, your periods regular, your mood stable and your weight down.

 

When I say snack I don’t mean chocolate or cake or a cup of coffee as sugar and fatty food and caffeine are peri-menopause diet no nos. Try healthy snacking instead with, for example, some antioxidant rich fruit with a few mood balancing nuts and seeds or a hormone regulating humus on a craving busting oat cake.

 

4)       Forget low fat

 

Eating a low fat diet can speed up the age4ing process. Fats and oils provide essential anti-inflammatory protection, which is crucial for wrinkle free skin. They also help keep your blood sugar and your hormones balanced which is essential for regular periods and weight loss.

 

Fat is crucial for your health and for smooth skin over the age of 40 but it must be the right kind of fat. Saturated and trans fats increase your risk of heart disease – which already goes up at the menopause – and some cancers. But healthy essential fats like omega 3 and 6 found in nuts, seeds and oily fish will give you healthy hair, skin, joint, heart and hormone balance.

 

I would strongly advise you to ditch low fat diet foods as they are often packed with sugar, salt or artificial sweeteners to replace the flavour and texture of the fat. And lots of sugar means blood sugar lows that spark cravings, give you wrinkles (sugar disrupts skin’s collagen production and makes you age faster) and up your risk of health problems like obesity (sugar that isn’t burned off is stored as fat) and diabetes.

 

5)       Slow down the sugar release

 

Eating foods that release their energy content slowly gives you a sustained release of energy and helps balance your blood sugar levels to stop you feeling hungry and to protect you against food cravings. Steady blood sugar levels can also encourage hormone balance, which is crucial for easing symptoms of the peri-menopause and encouraging weight loss.

 

Foods high in sugar or white flour enter your blood stream far too quickly and can cause wild blood sugar swings and food cravings so you need to go for foods that give you a sustained energy release. You can use complicated GI tables to help you work out the impact of certain foods on your blood sugar levels but a good rule of thumb is to go for whole grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and other foods that are natural and unprocessed. In general the more refined a food is the more likely it is to cause blood sugar swings.

 

Eating protein with every meal or snack will also help slow down the release of sugar so that you don’t get food cravings. So have a few nuts with a piece of fruit, beans with rice (go for brown rice where possible) or potatos, an egg or cottage cheese with wholemeal toast. Another great way to slow down the sugar release is to choose higher fibre options whenever you can so always go for wholemeal bread and pasta and brown rice instead of white.

 

6)       Get your phytoestrogens

 

Eat lots of phytoestrogen rich beans e.g. soya, chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans etc. which can help balance your hormones which in turn will help ease your symptoms and encourage weight loss. Phytoestrogens can have a dramatic effect on the symptoms of the peri-menopause and every woman over 40 should ensure she is getting enough.

 

Phytoestrogens are substances found in foods that have a similar chemical structure to the oestrogen your body produces, and this may explain their hormone balancing effect. Studies show that they can not only take the place of natural oestrogens and increase oestrogen levels when they are too low but they can also reduce them when they are too high. Although research has tended to focus on soya, which is a fine source of phytoestrogen there are plenty of other forms such as linseeds, wholegrains such as brown rice, oats and legumes such as chickpeas and lentils. Fennel, garlic, celery, parsley and hops are also phytoestrogens. Vegetables, in particular green leafy or cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts have been shown to have hormone balancing and anti-cancer properties, are another great source of phytoestrogens. Other sources of phytoestrogen include herbs such as cinnamon, sage, hops, fennel and parsley and seeds including linseeds, sesame, pumpkin, poppy, caraway and sunflower.

 

If you are avoiding processed and refined foods, eating a whole food diet with plenty of vegetables and fruit and making sure you are getting enough healthy fat and protein, the chances are you’ll be getting a good amount of antioxidants, phytoestrogens and all the other good things you need to help balance your hormones at the peri-menopause, beat your symptoms and lose weight.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 3:00 am and is filed under Menopause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.