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Can Menopause and Weight Loss Really go Together? You Bet they Can!
SANE HealthMenopause and weight loss are terms that don’t often go together. There is a reason for that. Statistics show that 90 percent of women gain weight during menopause. But the good news is that menopausal weight gain is not inevitable, nor is the inability to lose weight after menopause. In fact, you can control menopausal weight gain rather than letting it control you. All you need to do is make a few SANE lifestyle changes.
The SANE lifestyle makes weight loss possible – even during menopause. But before learning about these changes, you might want to know why menopause causes weight gain.
Why Menopause Does Not Promote Weight Loss
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Menopause is the time in every woman’s life in which she reaches the end of her reproductive years. The ovaries stop making estrogen and progesterone, and her menstrual periods cease. If you have gone 12 consecutive months without a period, you have reached menopause. This means that your ovaries are no longer releasing eggs and not producing much estrogen. You are no longer able to become pregnant.
The transition into menopause causes tremendous hormonal fluctuations, which can contribute to weight gain. This process can also cause hormonal dysregulation, a problem that cannot be solved by exercising more and eating less. In fact, using this provably false calorie deficit theory of weight loss to try to reduce your menopause muffin top may backfire and result in weight gain. It definitely will result in frustration.
But the end of your period and beginning of postmenopause is just one small part of the hormonal journey toward this transition. And all of them may affect your weight.
Stages of Menopause
There are three states to menopause: perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
Perimenopause: This is the time leading up to your last period. How long you’ll experience perimenopause varies, but the average is four years. (The range is two to eight years.) Perimenopause typically begins in your late 40s, although some women can experience it much earlier.
During perimenopause, your ovaries are unpredictable in the amount of estrogen and progesterone they produce. Sometimes they produce too much, sometimes too little. In addition, your progesterone is likely to fluctuate more than it ever has. This can result in heavy menstrual periods.
At this time, too, your periods become irregular. Your flow will become heavier or lighter than usual, or you’ll miss a month her and there.
During perimenopause, you may experience a variety of other symptoms, including:
Menopause: Though your periods have ceased now that you’ve hit menopause, you may still experience many of the same symptoms you felt during perimenopause.
Postmenopause: As the term suggests, postmenopause refers to the years after menopause. The huge surges of hormones that characterized the first two stages no longer happen. As a result, the perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms aren’t much of a problem anymore, with one exception – weight gain.
Weight Gain and Weight Loss in Menopause: The Hormonal Link
The transition into menopause affects many hormones, and not just the ones associated with menopause, such as estrogen. In fact, some of the hormones impacted are normally not ones associated with menopause. But they do play a role weight gain and weight loss – during menopause and at other times.
Knowing the hormones responsible for weight gain in menopause will help you to devise SANE strategies to heal these hormones, leading to weight loss.
Hormones that Affect Weight Gain and Weight Loss during Menopause
These four main hormones can affect your weight during menopause.
Estrogen
Estrogen is the main female hormone. It is responsible for regulating the reproductive system and menstrual cycle, and is essential for the development of female sexual attributes, such as breasts. It also plays a role in fat metabolism.
Maintaining proper estrogen and progesterone balance is essential for weight loss and weight maintenance. Studies have shown that having too much estrogen can cause weight gain; in fact, estrogen dominance is a common cause of weight gain in menopause. It can also make weight loss impossible. How can you have estrogen dominance during menopause when your estrogen is supposed to be taking a nosedive?
Estrogen dominance does not mean that you have a significant amount of estrogen. It simply means that you have more estrogen relative to progesterone. Menopause has an effect on all your hormones, many of which will show declining levels, including progesterone. If your levels of progesterone decline faster than your levels of estrogen, you’ll have estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance causes you to gain weight, and this fat accumulates in your stomach area. Estrogen dominance is more common than you might think. Indeed, many experts believe that most women have an estrogen dominance, which could partly explain the trouble so many women have with weight loss.
Hormonal shifts in menopause are not the only thing that causes estrogen dominance. Exposure to estrogen-like compounds in foods that contain growth hormones, pesticides, and plastics is a huge contributor to this problem.
Balancing Estrogen for Weight Loss
The best way to balance your estrogen levels for weight loss is to eat a high-fiber diet, which which will help you excrete the excess estrogen from your system. This is a great way to not only balance estrogen, but to also balance your diet.
The SANE Solution to balancing estrogen for weight loss, is to eat at least 10 servings of non-starchy vegetables a day. Aim for at least three servings of vegetables at each meal. Your best choices are green leafy vegetables, and don’t worry if you hate veggies. You don’t have to eat them; you can drink them.
One of the easiest ways to get all your servings of vegetables is to make green smoothies. If you want to supercharge your smoothie’s estrogen-balancing, weight loss benefits, try adding two tablespoons of SANE Garden in my Glass to the mixture.
Cortisol
Levels of the stress hormone cortisol, secreted by the adrenal glands, can become dysregulated during perimenopause and menopause. This is because the adrenal glands take over estrogen production. In addition, the hormonal shifts of menopause can trigger higher stress levels, leading to higher cortisol levels in the blood. Elevated cortisol levels have been shown to lead to weight gain, especially in the belly area.
Lowering Cortisol Levels for Long-term Weight Loss
There are many ways to lower your cortisol levels. Here are just a few of them.
Reduce or remove the source(s) of stress in your life.
This is not an easy step, but it is essential for lowering your cortisol levels for long-term weight loss. Examine your daily routine for unnecessary or almost unbearable sources of stress.
You will likely find stress in several areas of your life. For instance, you may have stressful job and a stressful medical condition that takes a lot of your time and attention to manage. Or you may have several competing commitments in your home life that stresses you out. All of this stress can also interfere with sleep, which also raises your cortisol levels.
To reduce stress and your cortisol levels, take time every day to relax. Meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, has proven to be an excellent way to reduce stress. Yoga, Tai Chi, and Pilates are physical and meditative ways to reduce cortisol levels for long-term weight loss.
Try to find SANEity in all areas of your life, not just in diet. Find things you enjoy doing; find a way to relax; get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. All of these things have been proven to help reduce cortisol levels. And they will lead to long-term weight loss, even during menopause.
Do not participate in high intensity exercising that continues for a long time.
Although exercise is good for the body, studies show that as the intensity of exercise increases, cortisol increases. High intensity exercise puts stress on the body, which triggers a release of the stress hormone. So if you are trying to bring your cortisol levels back in balance, lay off the extreme 30-minute P90X or Insanity workouts in favor of more moderate exercise. Studies show that low low intensity exercise does not seem to have a significant effect on cortisol secretion.
The SANE way to exercise for weight loss is performing eccentric exercises once a week. Eccentric exercises focus on the extended part of the movement. For instance, if you’re doing a bicep curl, the concentric part of the exercise is when you curl the weight up toward your chest. The eccentric part is when you lower the weight back down.
Slowly performing the eccentric part of the movement works deep muscle fibers that you have seldom – or never – used with traditional exercises. It creates an immediate metabolic response that burns fat. The reason you do them for only 10-20 minutes a week is because that’s all the exercise you need to do to burn fat, and because your body needs time to heal. Although intense, eccentric exercises are performed for such a short time that they don’t drive up your cortisol.
Avoid calorie restriction.
Though you may be tempted to try to crash diet those excess pounds away during menopause, this is never a good idea. Cutting calories puts stress on your body, which is the wrong thing to do if you want to decrease your cortisol levels. Research has shown that going on a restricted calorie diet for a few weeks damages the metabolism, increases cortisol and impacts thyroid function (which reduces your metabolism even more.)
The negative effects crash dieting can have on your hormones and your metabolism is considerable, and it will result in still more weight gain, the exact opposite of what you want. Instead of cutting calories, it is essential that you give your body the energy it needs. One way to do that is to eat whole foods, as this will take stress off your body and lower your cortisol levels.
When you go SANE, you will eat whole foods that will heal all your hormones and promote weight loss. Consuming at least 10 servings of non-starchy vegetables a day, 3-5 servings of nutrient-dense protein, and 3-5 servings of whole-food fats has been proven to fill you up faster and keep you full longer. (For best results, eat non-starchy vegetables, protein and whole-food fats at every meal.)
Thyroid
And then there’s the thyroid. Chronic stress has been shown to interfere with proper thyroid function. It works like this: when you’re under an extended period of stress, your adrenal glands release cortisol. If this stress goes on too long, it becomes chronic and results in a high cortisol level. Studies show that cortisol may interfere with the conversion of thyroid hormone into the form that regulates metabolism.
Nutritional deficiencies and estrogen dominance or progesterone deficiency, as often occurs in menopause, can also inhibit thyroid function and lead to weight gain or prevent weight loss.
Balancing the Thyroid Hormone for Long-Term Weight Loss in Menopause
There are some easy steps you can take to improve your thyroid function.
Eating nutrient-rich meals are a central component of the SANE eating plan. The standard SANE plate includes several servings of non-starchy vegetables, a serving of nutrient-dense protein, and a serving of whole-food fats. Eating this way at every meal ensures you’ll get all the nutrients your body needs to regulate your thyroid function.
There is no SANEr way to balance your hormones for weight loss during menopause than the SANE Solution. Why don’t you give it a try? What have you got to lose except maybe 20 or 30 pounds of stubborn menopausal belly fat that you have been unable to shed.
Next Step: Manage Menopause Weight Loss with SANE
There is much more to the SANE lifestyle. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, reducing stress, staying hydrated, and performing eccentric exercises are other important factors in lowering your setpoint.
Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster that can lead to diabesity? By balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s set-point weight, SANE is the solution you’ve been dreaming of.
Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?
Begin your exciting journey to lasting, healthy weight loss today. Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by
How To Live Intentionally with Brian Johnson
Motivation7 Amazing Ways to Treat High Blood Pressure with Diet
SANE HealthAccording to the Centers for Disease Control, one in three people in the U.S. have high blood pressure. That’s an estimated 75 million individuals, a little over half of whom are not properly managing this condition with diet, medication or a number of other lifestyle modifications. This puts these individuals at high risk of heart disease or stroke.
Slow, Easy Changes in Diet are Key to Lowering High Blood Pressure
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High Blood Pressure Causes and Symptoms
High blood pressure occurs when the pressure of blood moving through your arteries from your heart increases. If this increased pressure becomes chronic, it wears down your arteries, increasing your risk for stroke, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and diabetes. It can even damage your kidneys.
The Centers for Disease Control refers to high blood pressures as “the silent killer” because there are usually no symptoms. Your blood pressure could be rising and rising and rising without your body alerting you that anything is wrong. Then, suddenly, you could have a heart attack or stroke.
There are many reasons why you may have developed high blood pressure. Some of the risk factors include:
Although you cannot do anything about genetics or your age, you can do something – a lot, actually – about your diet that will lower your high blood pressure.
Here are seven easy ways to treat high blood pressure with diet.
Eat a SANE, High Quality Diet to Lower High Blood Pressure Naturally
Non-starchy Vegetables
Eating a minimum of 10 servings a day of non-starchy vegetables is the most important change you can make in your diet. Vegetables are chock-full of anti-oxidants, which protect your cells from free radical damage. (Research indicates free radical damage to be the cause of many diseases, including arteriosclerosis and cancer.)
Vegetables also contain vitamins and electrolytes. Plus, they are loaded with fiber, which has been found to lower high blood pressure. Although you should eat a variety of non-starchy vegetables, in a variety of colors, be sure to include plenty of green, leafy vegetables in your diet. Spinach, collard greens, kale, and similar leafy green vegetables contain healthy amounts of potassium, which has been shown to lower high blood pressure.
If you’re not really a veggie eater – particularly not a green, leafy veggie eater – you have options. The best way to handle this situation is to make green smoothies. Simply put two or three handfuls of spinach or other leafy green vegetables in a high-speed blender, add a low-fructose fruit (see below) and water, and blend. Though the drink will be green, you won’t taste the spinach.
Low-Fructose Fruits
Fruits are also great sources of fiber, which is a great treatment for high blood pressure. However, they can still contain a lot of sugar – in the form of fructose – which can cause inflammation that makes high blood pressure worse. The solution? Opt for berries and citrus, which are low-fructose fruits. Stay away from high sugar fruits such as apples and bananas.
Like vegetables, fruits also have potassium, vitamins and antioxidants. Eating up to three servings a day of low-fructose fruits will help treat or prevent high blood pressure.
Nutrient-Dense Protein
Studies have shown that eating protein fills you up fast, and keeps you full for a longer period. It also stabilizes your blood sugar, is inefficient at being stored as fat, and tastes delicious. What more could you ask for?
Your best choices are wild-caught salmon, and halibut, and other fatty fish because they have high amounts of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, which are great for your arteries. Grass fed beef and cage-free eggs are also great, as are plain nonfat Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Eating 30-60 ounces of nutrient-dense protein with every meal with help lower your high blood pressure, and help you maintain proper muscle mass.
Whole-Food Fats
Like protein, whole-food fats are important for satiety. They help balance your blood sugar levels so that you stay full longer. Coconut, avocado, flax seeds, macadamia nuts, and olives are excellent whole-food fats.
Be sure to eat the whole food and not just the oil. The whole food contains fiber and all the other nutrients that make whole-food fats the SANE choice.
Water
To treat high blood pressure, and for your health in general, it is important that you drink plenty of water. Being well-hydrated balances your fluids, prevents dehydration, and improves your mood. Have several glasses of water a day, and don’t be tempted to replace this water with a sugary soda. Besides causing inflammation, sugar inhibits proper hydration.
If the thought of drinking glasses and glasses of plain old boring water depresses you, there are some tasty SANE options here, too. Squeeze a lemon or orange and add the juice to your water. Or put water and a few berries in your blender and – voila – instant flavored water! You can also replace much of your water intake with fat-burning green tea, just be sure to use a natural sweetener like Stevia.
Unprocessed Foods
Eat a diet of unprocessed foods as much as possible. Almost all processed foods have high amounts of salt – which is very bad for high blood pressure. Do most of your shopping on the perimeter of the grocery stores. That’s where the produce and the meat departments are. All the packaged and processed foods are in the middle of the store.
Try to choose foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. For instance, are the vegetables you want to purchase ones you could pick and eat raw if you wanted to? Non-starchy vegetables are in this category, and you can purchase them fresh at the supermarket or farmers market, or frozen. Try to stay away from canned vegetables, as they are overly processed and loaded with sodium.
Lower Setpoint Weight
If you eat a diet of primarily non-starchy vegetables, nutrient-dense protein, whole-food fats, and low-fructose fruits, you will lower your setpoint weight. This is yet another way to lower high blood pressure.
When you lower your setpoint weight, you will remove the hormonal clog that has been preventing your metabolism from operating at its optimum performance. If you are overweight or obese, you will also start effortlessly losing weight. (Losing weight has been shown to lower high blood pressure.) What’s more, the weight you lose will stay lost for a change. That means no yo-yo dieting, and no re-occurrence of obesity-related high blood pressure.
BONUS: These 4 Superfoods Should be Part of Your High Blood Pressure Lowering Diet
Spinach: Studies have shown the antioxidants spinach contains lower blood pressure.
Dark Chocolate: Eating dark chocolate is a yummy way to lower your blood pressure, and research proves that it is, indeed, effective. Just make sure to purchase the type that isn’t loaded with sugar. Also, you need to eat the type with a high amount of flavonols, which act like antioxidants. To find the right type of dark chocolate, shop around for organic chocolate that lists around 80 percent cocoa solids on its label.
Flax Seed: This tiny seed has shown big results in lowering blood pressure. Flax seed contains a high amount of omega-3 fatty acids, which probably accounts of its positive effect on blood pressure. If you want to see if flax seed will treat your high blood pressure, consume it regularly for more than 12 weeks. Studies have shown that this time showed the most impressive results.
Tomatoes: Research has shown tomatoes to be highly effective at lowering high blood pressure. In fact, in some cases, tomatoes took the place of drugs in treating high blood pressure. By the way…the likely nutrient responsible for this benefit is lycopene, which is essential for heart health.
Only a Few Changes in Diet Needed, For Now
If you are becoming anxious, wondering how you’ll ever be able to make all these changes in your diet, calm down and take a deep breath.
Ready?
Okay. The truth is, you don’t need to make all these changes at once. All you need to do is start making substitutions here and there. Instead of having your regular pancakes and syrup for breakfast one morning, make a tasty omelet.
Keep making these substitutions, and celebrate your progress with each one. Know that each action is having a positive effect at lowering your high blood pressure. It’s all good!
Other Tips for Lowering High Blood Pressure
Besides diet, there are a few other things you can do to lower blood pressure. Here are a few of them.
Manage Stress
Though there is no proof that stress causes long-term high blood pressure, it is known to contribute to such high blood pressure risk factors as poor diet. It is important, therefore, that you make an effort to manage stress.
Try a few of these tips to manage stress:
Get Plenty of Sleep
Getting enough sleep enables you to handle stress better. You’ll feel better, too. Try to get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night and see how great you’ll feel.
Increase your Potassium Intake
Potassium is important for lowering your high blood pressure. Several studies have shown that a low-potassium diet raises blood pressure and increases the risk of stroke. Conversely, it has been shown that eating a diet with adequate amounts of potassium can lower high blood pressure. Leafy green vegetables are excellent sources of potassium, and they provide many other vitamins and minerals.
Lower sodium in your Diet
Eating a diet high in sodium has been proven to cause high blood pressure. That’s because sodium is one of three electrolytes – the others being potassium and magnesium – that needs to be balanced by the other two. The typical American diet, however, consists of far too much salt, and far too little potassium and magnesium. The result is an electrolyte imbalance, which causes high blood pressure.
The American Heart Association recommends that we consume less than 1,500 mg of sodium per day, up to a maximum of 2,300 mg. The average intake of sodium is around 3,400 mg, and it’s not coming from salt shakers at home. Rather, most of our sodium intake comes from processed foods.
So, if you want to lower your high blood pressure, you need to eat SANEly, and avoid these foods:
This Way to Having SANEr Blood Pressure
Eating a SANE diet is one of the best ways to treat high blood pressure. You’ll eat plenty of tasty foods that contain nutrients that lower high blood pressure. Fiber. Potassium. Omega-3 fatty acids. You’ll be satisfied after every meal. No grumbellies! And you’ll have more energy than you ever thought possible.
Are you ready to lower your high blood pressure with SANE?
Next Step: Treat High Blood Pressure with Diet by Joining SANE
There is much more to the SANE lifestyle. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, reducing stress, staying hydrated, and performing eccentric exercises are other important factors in lowering your setpoint.
Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster that can lead to diabesity? By balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s set-point weight, SANE is the solution you’ve been dreaming of.
Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?
Begin your exciting journey to lasting, healthy weight loss today. Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by
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