Latest / Joyful Menopause / Episode 32: The Metabolism Myth: What Nobody Told You About Weight, Blood Sugar, and Midlife Hormones

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Episode 32: The Metabolism Myth: What Nobody Told You About Weight, Blood Sugar, and Midlife Hormones · Joyful Menopause

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If you have ever felt like your body has completely changed on you, like someone quietly swapped out your metabolism without telling you, this episode is for you.
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Today we are talking about weight, blood sugar, and the hormonal shifts that make everything feel harder after 40.
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And I promise you, by the end of this episode, you're going to understand exactly what is going on and what you can actually do about it.
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So let's get started.
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Menopause doesn't have to feel like you are living in someone else's body.
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Your host, Lynda Enright, has spent the last 25 years helping women to thrive in midlife.
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Here you'll find science-based practical advice that you can start using today to get real results for your health.
0:39
Welcome to Joyful Menopause.
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You are eating the same way you always have.
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You're still moving your body and somehow the scale keeps creeping up, especially around your middle.
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I want to tell you something important right now: that you are not doing anything wrong.
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Your body has changed, and the old rules simply don't apply the same anymore.
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So let's talk about three big shifts that happen to your metabolism in midlife: your hormones, your muscle mass, and your insulin sensitivity.
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Number one: hormones: as estrogen declines, which starts in perimenopause and then accelerates through menopause, it changes where your body stores fat.
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That fat that maybe used to sit on the hips and thighs starts to migrate to the belly.
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And this isn't just about how you look, that fat in the abdominal area is visceral fat.
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That's fat that actually sits around your organs and it's more metabolically active and more inflammatory.
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So this can be a real health issue, not just a necessarily an aesthetic one.
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It's not just how we look, but it actually is impacting our health as well.
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And it can be a vicious cycle because of then the increased inflammation, because of excess fat in that area.
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Muscle mass is number two.
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We also naturally lose muscle mass as we age.
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It's something called sarcopenia.
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Muscle is your metabolic engine, and it burns calories even at rest.
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So when you lose muscle, your resting metabolism can slow down a little bit.
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And this is why a lot of times women find that they might be eating exactly the same as they always have, but they're still gaining weight.
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The math has literally changed.
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It's not just all about math.
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There's so much more to weight loss than just calories and calories out.
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But that is one factor that can be changing.
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Another thing that's important is number three is insulin sensitivity, and that's again, something that changes separate from just calorie needs.
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Insulin sensitivity can shift in midlife too.
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Insulin is the hormone that moves sugar from your blood into your cells, so they have energy.
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So when your cells become less responsive to that insulin, which happens with age and happens because of declining estrogen, your body has to produce more of it and more insulin can then mean more fat storage, especially again, around that middle area.
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So take a moment and think about this.
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When you have struggled with your weight in the past, did you blame yourself?
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So many women I work with, do.
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They think they're doing something wrong.
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They think it's their fault, but here's what I want you to think about: was it possible that actually something that's happening is- so hormonal changes?
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Are those the things that are maybe at play here?
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So why this idea of eat less exercise more stops working?
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I mean, it doesn't, and maybe it wasn't working before, but it definitely can stop working at this time in life.
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So here's something important I want you to hear: the classic advice of eat less, exercise more is not just unhelpful in midlife, it can actually make things worse.
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When women restrict calories severely, three things are going on.
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First, you lose muscle along with fat, which further slows your metabolism.
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Second, your cortisol, that stress hormone, goes up, which drives belly fat storage.
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And three, your hunger hormones get disrupted.
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So the cravings and overeating that follow are not just because you're not having willpower; that's ridiculous.
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They're actually a biologic response to that restriction.
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So if that strategy eat less, exercise more has failed you, I want you to let go of the shame around that.
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That is not, the strategy is just not working.
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It is not you.
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It is just not the right thing to be doing, particularly at this time in life.
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So now I want to talk a little bit about something most women are never taught, not in school, not at the doctor's office, not really anywhere.
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And yet, you know, it might be really one of the most important things you can understand about your health in midlife.
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It's blood sugar and what's going on with your blood sugar.
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When you eat, especially carbohydrates or sugar, your blood sugar goes up.
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Your pancreas releases insulin to bring it back down.
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Ideally this is, you know, goes up a little bit and falls down, gentle rise and fall.
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But when we eat in ways that cause sharp spikes, sugary coffee, drinks, skipping meals, eating a lot of refined carbohydrates, that spike is then followed by a sharp crash and that crash can make us feel exhausted at three o'clock in the afternoon.
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It can make us crave sugar.
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It can give us mood swings or brain fog.
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Your pot of the, your body is essentially in a state of panic for more fuel, and it sends out this loud signal screaming, get me something sweet.
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Get me sugar.
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Get me energy really fast.
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So here's where it gets particularly interesting for women in midlife, is that estrogen actually helps to regulate insulin sensitivity.
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So as estrogen declines, is- insulin resistance tends to go up.
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So this can create this cycle.
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Lower estrogen leads to higher insulin.
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Higher insulin leads to more fat storage, especially belly fat, and that fat can affect hormone balance even more.
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So we all sort of talk about cortisol, though, because cortisol also directly, directly impacts blood sugar.
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When you are stressed, whether from work, relationships, not getting enough sleep or not eating enough, cortisol goes up- your stress hormone.
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And cortisol tells your liver to store glucose into your bloodstream, so it- it, want, your body's needing energy.
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When you're under stress, your body wants energy, so it's going to start using that glucose that's stored.
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So that's great when you're running from a threat.
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But when it happens chronically and for so many women in midlife and just everyone all the time, I think these days.
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We are not running from a wild animal, but we're having this low level of chronic high levels of cortisol that then can lead to higher blood sugar, more insulin, and again, more fat storage.
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So stress, blood sugar, and hormones are all interconnected.
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So you can't fully fix one without addressing the, addressing the others.
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So think about the last time you had a strong craving for sugar or carbs, especially in the afternoon or the evening.
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Was that also a day that you were particularly tired or stressed?
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That is not a coincidence.
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Here's something that surprises a lot of my clients: that blood sugar imbalance doesn't always show up on a lab test.
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Most women I work with, many women I work with have normal fasting glucose, and yet they're still having some of these symptoms.
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So I want you to just think about the list of these symptoms and notice how many feel familiar to you because it can sometimes be subclinical.
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It doesn't necessarily show up on a lab test, but we're starting to experience some of these symptoms, which might mean that we're starting to see some dysregulation.
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Afternoon energy crashes, especially like two to 4:00 PM mid-afternoon, strong sugar or carbohydrate cravings, brain fog, or just struggling to concentrate, especially after you eat.
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Feeling shaky, irritable, or maybe anxious when you haven't eaten for a while.
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Midsection weight gain that feels impossible to change.
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Waking up in the middle of the night- sometimes those blood sugar fluctuations actually can disrupt your sleep.
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Energy that depends on coffee or sugar to get through your day.
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You don't need all of these to have a blood sugar issue.
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Even if you have two or three, they can be a signal that your body might need some better fuel, might need some better support.
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So how many of those resonated with you?
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Take note of maybe like one or two that really like hits close to home because these are the signals that your body is trying to send you.
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I talk about this all the time.
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Everything we do is messages to our body and our body's trying to tell us something with the messages it's sending back.
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So I want to share something I, I say to every woman I work with.
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I want you to really like, let's let this land for you.
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Muscle is your metabolic superpower in midlife.
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Muscle tissue is more insulin sensitive, meaning that it absorbs glucose from your blood more efficiently, so it, it burns calories at rest.
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It also supports bone density and balance and strength.
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It's protective against nearly every chronic disease that increases just as we get older.
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So this is why the approach cannot just be cardio and calorie restriction, which is what I see a lot of women doing.
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You need to build and maintain muscle, and that means strength training.
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Many women also are not getting enough protein to fuel that need for muscle and that building of muscle with strength training, you've heard me talk about this before.
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The recommendations is somewhere around maybe 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal, which is a lot more than a lot of women are eating.
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It depends on your body, of course, it depends on your body size because protein is the one nutrient that we need to maintain our body at, at where it is.
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So we need to get, um, you know, again, it's based on body size.
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So that, but that 25 to 30 grams is, is a good ballpark for a lot of us.
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Protein does a lot of really important things.
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It keeps you full.
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It digests slowly, so it just fills you up longer.
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It helps to stabilize blood sugar.
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It provides the building blocks for muscles to repair and grow.
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So when you're doing strength training, but if you're not fueling that exercise, like any exercise, if you're not fueling it, it's not going to be as effective.
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Protein also has a higher, something called thermic effect.
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So your body actually burns more calories just using up protein than it does carbohydrates.
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So just thinking again about what that 30 grams might look like.
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A chicken breast is about 30 grams.
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Three eggs are about 18 grams.
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A Greek yogurt might be 15 to 20.
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So a lot of women I see are, you know, maybe getting 15 at breakfast and you know, then wondering why they're super hungry at 10 o'clock in the morning.
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You just, you gotta start out by getting the fuel that you need.
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I.
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So here's also something that might feel a little bit counterintuitive.
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More exercise is not always better: over training without having time for adequate recovery raises that cortisol; your stress hormone goes up.
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So now that increases inflammation I talked about and actually can impair, it can limit the breakdown of fat.
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So your body actually needs rest to build muscle.
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It actually needs sleep when a lot of that repair happens.
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So recovery is not an option.
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It is actually, it's, it should be strategic.
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It should be part of your strategy around your strength training and exercise and nutrition and all of these things.
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If you feel like you're doing everything right, you're eating well, you're exercising consistently, but not overdoing it, and you're still not seeing results, I want you to now think about this question.
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Are you actually getting enough?
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Are you getting enough protein?
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Are you giving your body enough recovery?
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So the last thing, now let's, let's get a little bit practical about this.
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So this is the, the basic combination that I teach all of my clients, and it's what I find to be the most effective way to build meals that support your metabolism and midlife.
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It's more of a, a balanced plate approach.
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It's not a diet, it's not about counting calories, it's about building meals that keep your blood sugar stable and give your body what it actually needs.
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So number one, the foundation is protein.
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Every meal and every snack should be built around protein and, and I think that's just, it's a good place to start.
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We want to have all this other good stuff I'm going to talk about, too, but that kind of is an easy place to just think about where are we starting.
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So you know, for breakfast it might be eggs, it could be, and breakfast doesn't have to look breakfasty.
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You could have leftovers from dinner the night before for breakfast.
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Could be chicken or fish for other meals, but breakfast you can do that, too.
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Greek yogurt, things like legumes for plant-based sources of protein.
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Cottage cheese is a great source.
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So there's a lot of ways to get good protein.
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Animal sources tend to be a little bit higher, a little more digestible, but also great plant sources with beans and legumes and soy as well.
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Number two is fiber.
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Fiber is our blood sugar stabilizer.
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So fiber helps to slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream, which can prevent again, those big ups and downs I talked about- those spikes and crashes.
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So thinking about vegetables, leafy greens, beans, legumes, and whole grains.
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The goal is one to two cups of vegetables per meal would be amazing.
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So that's, you know, again, just an easy thing to think about.
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25 to 30 grams of protein, one to two cups of vegetables would be a great way to start each meal.
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Then healthy fats.
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Fats are, are sort of our satiety signal, so they help to fill us up because they digest the most slowly.
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Fat often gets a bad reputation, but healthy fats are crucial in midlife.
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I mean, they're crucial all the time, but they're so important for brain health, for hormone production, and for satiety to help us feel full.
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Things like avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds, fatty fish, salmon, tuna.
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These are all great choices.
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Fat doesn't raise your blood sugar and pairing fat with carbohydrates can help to slow that glucose response, so you just don't get those spikes and crashes.
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And then let's talk about carbohydrates, colorful carbohydrates.
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I'm not telling you to avoid carbs, and of course that's often the message people take away from when we're talking about blood sugar is, carbs are bad.
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Carbs are not bad; we just need to get the good ones.
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Your body needs them.
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Your brain absolutely needs them.
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The type of carbs and the timing of when you eat them matters too.
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So we want colorful foods.
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We want things that are rich in fiber, already talked about.
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Root vegetables are great, like sweet potatoes and winter squash, berries, super powerhouse colorful foods.
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Um, quinoa is great.
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Again, leafy greens, I mean, some of the things I talked about with fiber, but all of those, you know, really fruits and vegetables, lots of colorful things can powerhouses for balancing this meal out in the right way.
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Skipping, limiting the things like refined white flour and added sugars, but always thinking again about like what does the big picture look like?
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We've got some protein, we've got some nourishing fats, and we've got some colorful carbs.
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So think about what you maybe typically eat for lunch or dinner, and which of these four components might be often more- missing the most often.
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That missing piece might be the reason that things aren't working exactly the way you want them to.
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And then also I want to talk about timing because something also important that is often overlooked in nutrition advice is not just what you eat, but it's when you eat too.
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Timing has a- can have a real measurable impact, particularly when we're talking about blood sugar and metabolism in midlife.
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So breakfast sets the tone for your blood sugar for the day.
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A high protein breakfast-eggs, maybe a smoothie with some protein, greek yogurt, berries can keep your blood sugar more stable through the morning.
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It can reduce your cravings in the afternoon, and it can kind of kickstart that, that muscle protein synthesis.
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So building of muscle with the strength training.
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Compare that of course, to like typical American breakfast: cereal, a bagel, a muffin juice- all high carb, low protein.
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You know, that's a fast track to a mid-morning crash and then cravings hitting you by noon.
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Intermittent fasting is of course really trendy and for some people in some stages of life it can really work.
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I, I get asked about intermittent fasting all the time, and I really think it's individual and I work with women individually to figure out what's best for them.
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But what we know is a lot of times for midlife, especially when women are in high stress, maybe having some thyroid issues or adrenal fatigue, skipping meals can elevate cortisol and then can be disruption- disruptive again for that blood sugar.
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So if you're skipping breakfast, you know, maybe cravings are worse later in the day, maybe you're feeling more tired, might be your body telling you it's not working very well for you.
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So a lot of times I find at this time in life, eating more regular balanced meals, you know, maybe every four or five hours can be more effective than fasting.
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Again, individual.
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But that's, that's what I see often.
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Evening is a lot of times where nutrition can fall apart.
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So you maybe had a really good day, and then at eight o'clock you have huge cravings, and this usually is a signal of one of a few things going on.
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Either you haven't nourished well during the day, your blood sugar is dropping in the evening, or maybe stress related emotional eating.
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So a balanced dinner with a lot of protein and fiber earlier in the evening can actually help to reduce those nighttime cravings.
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And then doing things in the, you know, getting some movement after, after you eat in the evening.
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Um, you know, just creating the best environment so you feel really good, you feel nourished, you feel energized, and you're not having those cravings.
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So I want to come back to movement for a minute because this connects to everything else that I've talked about.
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And there's one thing that women have not heard a lot before is, again, this I importance of muscle and, and I'm, I'm kind of bringing it back to that we talked about a little bit a co, some interesting things about this is every pound of muscle burns about six calories per day at rest.
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So that maybe doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're thinking about building muscle, all of- anytime you build mus- muscle, you're making your metabolic engine more active, so you're actually raising that metabolic rate.
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So strength training is just huge because, I mean, it makes you look good, too.
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It makes you stronger to get through your day with, you know, doing all the things that you want to do, but also it helps to increase your metabolic health.
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Something that your movement practice, you know, might be doing for you.
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Every time you engage your muscles, anytime you move, move your muscles, your cells become more responsive to glucose, so they absorb that glucose from your blood without needing insulin to do it.
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This is called non-insulin mediated glucose, mediated glucose update.
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So we're, we're not requiring that insulin, which, like I said, when you have excess insulin, then we get more abdominal fat storage.
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So if we can do that with exercise, then our body doesn't need to release all that insulin.
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So cons, consistent exercise is actually really therapeutic for the health of your metabolism- metabolic health overall.
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So, you know, this is just physiology, like this is just how it works.
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One really powerful and honestly kind of underrated strategy for blood sugar control is just moving after a meal.
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So going for even a 10 minute walk can really bring that blood sugar back down.
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Research consistently shows that that can bring down that post meal spike.
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You know, it's a normal response to have your blood sugar go up after a meal.
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But we can actually bring it down by 30 to even 50% by even just going, spending 10 minutes doing some movement.
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You know, it doesn't have to be this huge workout.
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It just means move, walking around the block after dinner, going up and down the stairs.
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I had a client once that told me, her doctor said, do 30 squats after every meal.
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And I thought that was kind of an easy way to remember that, too.
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Like there's a lot of different ways you can do it.
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I think a 10 minute walk is easy, but maybe it's doing 30 squats or some pushups on the kitchen counter, whatever it might be.
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Have you ever tried that after meals?
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Have you ever gotten some consistency around it?
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That's a challenge I have for you is just to experiment and see if you can get into a routine of doing some movement after meals.
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It's just a habit, like so many other things.
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So we've covered a lot of different things, and I'm also going to give you a simple thing that you can start doing today.
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But first, I want to leave you with seven impactful shifts that you can start making right away.
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So not dramatic.
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They don't require a complete overhaul of your life or your diet.
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They're just things that my clients can do are doing every day that they're getting results.
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So, number one, eating enough protein, 25 to 30 grams a meal starting at breakfast.
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Number two, stop the crazy dieting.
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Chronic calorie restriction is raising cortisol and slowing metabolism.
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Build muscle.
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Commit to strength training at least two to three times per week is ideal.
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Pair your carbs, so don't eat carbs alone.
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Always add protein and fat with your carbs.
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Move after you eat, even just a 10 minute walk can make a big difference.
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Eat regularly.
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Don't skip your meal meals.
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Fuel your body, like consistently throughout your day really is important.
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And prioritize sleep.
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I understand sleep can be a challenge at this time in life, but at least try make it a priority.
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Keep working on the habits to have the best sleep hygiene you can because sleep deprivation raises cortisol, disrupts your hunger hormones, and drives more cravings.
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So here's what I want you to notice: today, you, you had some education.
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I hope you learned some things, and maybe you understand a little bit more about the why- the hormonal shifts, the blood sugar connection, the role of muscle, and that knowledge is generally really powerful.
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But the gap that a lot of women fall into is knowing what to do and actually doing it consistently in a way that fits into your life with your hormones of where they're at and with this specific stage of life.
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You know, these are two really important things.
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It has to fit for you, and that is where a lot of approaches break down, not because women don't have willpower or information, because the strategy has not been built for them.
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So that's why I work with my clients to really figure out what's going to work best for you.
22:47
And also a, a tool that I'm using in my programming now is called emotional brain training, which not only are we dealing with the blood sugar and the strength and like all the things that are helpful, but now we also have some really amazing tools that help deal with the stress response in your brain and how your body is, is processing this all in.
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Just such an additional great, important part of making this all work for you.
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So I'm super excited about that.
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I want to tell you about one of my clients.
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She came to me feeling really honestly demoralized.
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She'd been eating about 1200 calories a day, and she was working out six days a week and she was gaining weight.
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In eight weeks of just shifting this approach, getting more protein, strength training, stabilizing her blood sugar, she lost eight pounds.
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So she started consistently losing a pound a week.
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Her energy improved, and for the first time in a long time, she felt like she had some control of what was going on.
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She told me that she finally felt like herself again.
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And you hear me say that a lot, I hear that all the time from women is I just don't feel like myself anymore.
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This is what is possible when you work with your biology instead of against it, instead of fighting it.
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If anything we talked about today resonated with you, if you're tired of doing all the right things and still not feeling like yourself, I'd love to help you take the next step.
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I work with women one-on-one and in small groups to build a personalized roadmap for their health and midlife.
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The link to learn more and book a free discovery call is in the show notes.
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I would genuinely love to connect with you.
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And if you're not ready for that yet, the best thing you can do right now is subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode and share it with another woman in your life who needs to hear this.
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The most power thing, powerful thing we can do for each other is to say, you are not alone.
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You don't have to figure this out by yourself.
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I know it can be a frustrating time, but it is solvable.
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You can figure out how to have your best health.
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So thanks for being here today.
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Hope you have a great rest of your day.