Dietary and Nutrition changes during perimenopause
There is lots of talk around the need for extra protein during perimenopause. While there is some truth to this and some women feel better with increasing protein, you don’t need to follow a high protein diet or reduce your carbohydrate intake.
We can show you some simple and tasty ways to increase your protein without radically changing your diet.
Some of the reasons women may need more protein are due to a possible increase in insulin resistance which can affect appetite and insulin resistance is one of the key drivers behind weight increases during perimenopause. There is also a natural loss of muscle mass as we age (sarcopenia) and ensuring you are eating enough protein is important to address this. For these reasons, your level of physical activity is also something to think about and something we can help you understand and address.
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Weight gain during perimenopause
It’s not unusual for women to gain weight during perimenopause. This may be due to a combination of reasons including, but not limited to:
- A drop off in physical activity (especially with kids and often working full-time – which is totally understandable)
- An increase in insulin resistance as hormones change (weight gain is a side-effect of insulin resistance)
- Dieting history (see below)
- A natural process of ageing where we lose muscle (sarcopenia) and increase fat stores (this can be protective as we age)
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Dieting to lose weight leads to muscle loss and is damaging
If you have ever tried to lose weight, you will know how difficult it is to keep the weight off and you will most likely have regained weight after each attempt and possibly even got heavier over the years. This has nothing to do with a lack of willpower and it is certainly not a failing on your part. Almost everyone who tries to lose weight through dieting or a “healthy lifestyle” program (which essentially means eating less), regains the weight and overtime and ends up a little (or much) heavier. Loss of muscle mass with dieting is part of this gradual increase over time.
As you lose weight, you are losing both fat and muscle, the less you eat or the faster you lose weight, the more muscle wasting occurs and this has damaging implications for your metabolism long-term; ie. it will be slower. So it is imperative you ensure you’re eating enough to minimise this effect, and that you also engage in some resistance/weight training to help maintain muscle mass. Significant under-eating will make it difficult to exercise, or prevent muscle gain even if you are active.
Dieting all has these consequences…
- Constantly thinking about food or questioning whether or not you should eat a particular food, or at all (aka food noise)
- Strong food cravings
- Feeling shame/guilt around certain food
- Feeling out of control around food
- Bingeing behaviour, or even just feeling you’ve eaten way too much
- Trying to be “good” during the day and eating less and then feeling famished in the evening (or after work)
- Hitting the wall at 3-4pm and needing a “sugar hit”
- Feeling “addicted” to sugar or carbs
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So how can we help you?
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Usual female protein requirements are ~0.75g per kg of body weight, so an 80kg women needs around 60g of protein daily. This is easy to achieve on a normal dietary intake and you don’t need to focus on protein. Research has shown some women during perimenopause and menopause may benefit from increasing this to 1.0g to 1.2g per kg of body weight. This can start to get a bit trickier, especially if you are “watching what you eat” or just super busy with kids and work and find yourself missing meals snacks or meals, or going for more convenience food which may be lower in protein.
We can help you meet your protein needs and ensure you’re eating as well as you can without having to follow complicated high protein diets or higher protein meal plans. We will check your total food and protein intake and provide strategies to help you increase your protein and other nutrients with easy to apply strategies.
