What To Eat In Menopause

What to eat in menopause? Find out how mid-life women should eat during the transition from peri-menopause to menopause to lose weight permamently!

I work with women over 35 in my nutrition practice focusing on permanent weight loss and these women are in perimenopause and menopause.

The common misconception these women have is that their hormones are somehow layering on fat in their bodies and many of them feel like they've gained weight overnight.

The truth is the symptoms from hormonal fluctuations and lifestyle factors make it very easy to gain weight and be in a caloric suprlus during this phase of life without even realizing it.

I have never worked with a woman in my practice who was doing everything right and being consistent for 3 to 6 months and nothing happened.

I stress to my clients the importance of not being perfect and letting go of perfectionism because that is often what leads to all or nothing mindset with habits, inconsistency and lack of results.

I have observed in the last 10 years in my nutrition practice women not being consistent because of things going on in their lives outside of their control. Then they blow themselves up thinking they can't handle taking care of themselves.

Change is hard. Life is hard and I have immense compassion for anyone trying to improve their health as it is not easy with the demands of life and often mid-life comes with a lot of lifestyle factors that make things harder.

Weight loss often is slower in this phase of life. Primarily due to less activity.

When you were in your 20's you probably couldn't afford as much food and you were probably on the go more. You may have even had a job on your feet that meant you were expending more energy.

At the time, you could eat whatever you wanted and lose weight. Or losing weight was just easier because all you had to do was cut back on food slightly.

In your 20's and 30's you may have had small children you were carrying and chasing around. Getting 10,000 steps a day is easy when you have small children, but as they grow up you become less active.

This impacts your weight especially if you are eating the same way and women in perimenpause and menoapuse are often eating more and drinking more alcohol because of stress and other lifestyle factors.

Less activity as you age, less muscle mass as you age, eating the same or eating more as well as the symptoms of menopause can easily result in weight gain if you are not paying attention.

In this podcast episode, I share more about the common myths regarding weight gain for women during mid-life, how hormones impact your eating and exercise behavior, whether or not calorie deficits still work, the importance of tracking consistency with data and what to eat during menopause.

Listen to the episode for more details or read the transcript below!

In this Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episode, You Will Hear:

• Common Myths Regarding Menopausal Weight Gain
• How Hormonal Fluctuations Impact Your Eating Behavior & Consistency
• If Calorie Deficits Still Apply To Lose Weight In Menopause
• Whether Cortisol Makes You Fat
• Do Carbs Create Fat Gain In Menopausal Women
• A Study On What Sleep Deprivation Does To Hunger & Calories
• Should You Drink Alcohol
• A Study On Menopausal Weight Gain
• What To Eat During Menopause
• Importance Of Tracking Data
• Red Flag Diets & Social Media Trends Targeting Menopausal Women

Never Miss An Episode! Subscribe to the Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast on Apple, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotifyor Amazon Music

Related Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episodes

• Fix Your Hormones To Lose Weight
• Losing The Menopause Belly: Deb's Transformation
• 8 Fat Loss Myths Holding You Hostage
• Can You Not Lose Weight In A Calorie Deficit
• Speed Up Menopause Weight Loss
• 4 Secrets To Menopause Weight Loss

What To Eat In Menopause Podcast Transcript

Hello friends! Today we’re talking about menopause and what to eat in menopause.

I received a message recently from a woman saying "I have noticed on Instagram lately that women over 45 shouldn't be eating rice going into perimenopause or menopause stage. Because rice gets you bloated and it's hard for us women to be losing belly fat. They are saying even though you have been working out for so many years you will gain weight because of your hormone changes. I'm so confused."

Well, we are going to break this topic down today because there's always more nuance with these topics.

But first, before we dive into today’s topic, I want to share the winner for the April cookbook giveaway. Remember from April through December of 2024 I’m doing a cookbook giveaway.

In order to be entered to win, leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple podcasts. April’s cookbook winner is…. app_me_up.

Please email me at megan@skinnyfitalicious.com to claim your prize.

Okay, so let’s get into today’s topic. I want to first define menopause. Menopause is defined as 12 consecutive months without a menstrual cycle.

Perimenopause is the timeframe leading up to menopause when hormones are fluctuating and there are many symptoms that can occur during this transition.

Some women may experience increased anxiety and depression, sleep disturbances, hot flashes, increased hunger, intolerance to stress and increased emotions, brain fog, joint pain. Those are just a few common symptoms.

There are approximately 40 symptoms related to menopause. And we will discuss this in a few minutes, but often these symptoms related to menopause are influencing how we eat and how we exercise.

In my nutrition practice, the majority of my clients are over 35 so they are either in perimenopause or menopause.

A very common question I get from clients and from women is what should I eat in menopause or perimenopause?

What should I eat for breakfast? Tell me what I should be eating? Do you have a meal plan you can give me? They tell me they don’t know how to eat.  

These women I speak to are very frustrated. They feel like they have gained weight overnight. They don’t understand what’s changed with their body. They feel confused about food.

They often have the mindset that certain foods like carbs such as rice, beans, quinoa, bread, even fruit are the culprits of their weight gain. A lot of these women tell me they’re eating the same way.

They haven’t changed anything, yet they have gain weight. Some of these women have never dieted, but many have been dieting on and off for years, often decades.

And these women are trying so many things but spinning their wheels and feeling helpless.

So, first I think we need to put a few myths to bed about this phase of life and weight gain because I hear a lot of my clients tell me these things and if they think these things, chances are you do too.

One myth is that weight gain is just inevitable in menopause. There are a lot of people out there telling women they’re going to gain weight and there’s nothing they can do about it. First, this isn’t true at all and second, this is not helpful.

All this does is create fear of weight gain and there was a study looking at perimenopausal women (which is in the show notes for you) and a key risk factor for gaining weight in menopause was fear of weight gain and body dissatisfaction.

So, this fear mongering and the messaging about weight gain in menopause is doing the opposite for women.

Another myth is that carbs and sugars create fat gain. That is scientifically not a fact. We need to stop demonizing foods. Fat gain is a result of eating in a calorie surplus – eating more than your body needs.

Your body does not just layer on additional fat from eating rice, beans, quinoa, whole grain bread and fruits. And I have never met someone who was binging on grapes, binging on rice, binging on bread, binging on apples. I also guarantee you are not binging on spoonsful of table sugar.

Healthy complex carbohydrates along with fruits and vegetables are things we actually need more of in perimenopause, and I cannot stress this enough. Adding these healthy foods to your diet. Stop taking them away.

The other myth we need to clarify is that hormonal changes in menopause do not directly cause fat gain. Energy balance is still the driver of fat gain, and this scientific fact does not change in menopause even though some people will try to convince your otherwise.

Hormone changes impact behaviors indirectly influencing your eating behavior, your exercise behavior, your consistency, and other lifestyle factors going on during this phase of life make it easier to be in a calorie surplus without realizing it.

Remember a calorie surplus or a positive energy balance is how body fat gain happens. I talked about this in podcast episode 111.

So, hormones don’t directly create fat. It is a scientific myth that hormones fluctuating create body fat. That is not how fat gain happens.

But… hormones DO influence your satiety, how full you feel, your energy levels, your behavior with food, how you eat, how much you eat, your digestion, your mood, how you exercise, how motivated you are and how consistent you are with taking care of your body overall.

Consistency is a problem for most women I see. I have rarely seen in my nutrition practice a client who has been consistent with getting 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day, hitting their protein and fiber goals, exercising regularly, eating sufficient calories, tracking their food and doing those things consistently for the last 6 months.

Now I am not pointing this out to you to tell you everything you’ve been doing wrong and shame you.

I think a lot of women when they hear these things they immediately go – oh yeah, another person telling me all the things I’ve been doing wrong. How I’m the problem. That is in no way the intent here.

You probably did not know you needed to be doing these things. You had no idea because you’ve been distracted by all the diets you’ve done that were nothing more than short term weight loss.

They didn’t teach you about taking care of your body and creating sustainable habits or how to change your mindset or get rid of your all or nothing thinking.

And you never learned in school about nutrition. It is not your fault if you did not know these things so do not interpret the message that way.

You have also been distracted by people telling you these other things like it’s your cortisol, it’s your gut, you need to take these expensive supplements, do this gut protocol, do this detox.

I’m here to tell you today that none of those things will move the needle for you.

They are just distractions and no, your cortisol is not making you fat. This is one of the latest trends on social media making me so angry. Cortisol does not directly cause fat gain. That is a myth.

Indirectly, you are eating more food because of stress and retaining more water if you are gaining weight and stressed. People who are in concentration camps I’m sure are pretty stressed out. Are they gaining weight? No, they are withering away and losing weight.

Last year when I lost my father and went through a bad breakup that stunned me, I lost some weight. I was under tremendous stress. You know what I was doing? Not eating dinner. I had no appetite.

So, stress impacts people in different ways and this notion that cortisol somehow causes fat gain is ridiculous. If you see someone selling a cortisol supplement or calling themselves a cortisol coach, unfollow them immediately.

They are scammers and all they are doing is distracting you from the things that truly will help you manage your weight and live a vibrant life. So, cortisol causing fat gain is another myth but back let’s go back to consistency.

The bottom line is a lot of women think they’re doing everything right, but the symptoms happening in menopause are impacting their behaviors and consistency and often this is subtle if you are not tracking things.

For example, lack of sleep. There was a metanalysis done where participants were lacking sleep and they found that these individuals ate on average 270 calories more as a result of being sleep deprived.

This is just one example of where you may not realize how lack of sleep or poor sleep quality is impacting your behavior with food and causing you to consume more calories.

If you are not tracking your food, how would you know? Pretty easy to eat an extra 270 calories. A lot of us grab extra bites of food here and there and we think those little things won’t matter, but they do add up.

Also, poor emotional coping mechanisms. Emotions are heightened during this phase of life, so women are often leaning on these emotional coping behaviors like drinking more alcohol and eating more food to soothe their emotions.

Many women I have seen in practice are drinking alcohol and using food to cope with their emotions. Some think that losing weight will solve these emotions.

Losing weight does not fix your life or solve how you feel about things in your life. That is what therapy is for. If you use food and alcohol to cope with your emotions, that behavior won’t stop just because you lose weight.

And I do want to discuss alcohol for a minute. Alcohol is a class one carcinogen. A class one carcinogen is something that has significant scientific evidence that it causes cancer. Tobacco, asbestos, radiation and alcohol are all in this category.

If you are worried about eating fruit and carbs, but drinking alcohol I highly recommend you challenge your thinking on this topic.

It significantly increases your risk for cancer, diabetes and vascular diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Drinking alcohol is doing you no favors when it comes to fat loss either.

Losing weight and drinking alcohol regularly is like trying to run a marathon without legs. You are making it so much harder for yourself if you are doing that. In my opinion, alcohol has become way too normalized in our society and many people are coping with life using alcohol.

If you need a drink every night to unwind, you may have a dependency. If you are having 5 to 7 or more drinks a week as a female, I would really work on that behavior. There are a lot healthier coping mechanisms I can think of than using a class one carcinogen.

Go for a walk, read a book, join a bible study, take up a hobby. When it comes to the specific goal of fat loss, you can easily consume a lot of excess calories from alcohol and most people do eat more after drinking.

Alcohol also disrupts REM sleep.

There is all kind of research on that and if you are not getting good sleep, your energy will be lower, and you will eat more food and calories in response to that. It’s just a vicious cycle.

And now if you’re going through perimenopause, you are throwing fuel on the fire with all these symptoms by doing it. Like I said, it will make your fat loss journey harder.

Additionally, there are a lot of other lifestyle factors happening for women during this timeframe. Like aging parents, sick parents, loss, grief, young children, teenage children, kids leaving home, you’re being pulled in a million directions, you have a career to keep up with.

These lifestyle factors in combination with the symptoms of menopause are impacting your eating behavior and consistency and it’s very easy not to realize this.

These lifestyle factors are also impacting your ability to lose weight and make progress. Life is hard.

OMG, I have so much sympathy and compassion for any woman trying to improve their health and lose some body fat because there are a lot of life things that just happen and sometimes, they are come pouring down on you.

But these are reasons why women are inconsistent with habits and listen no fasting protocol, carb slashing diet or detox program will help you deal with these things.

Many women are also less active as they head towards menopause and don’t realize it. This was validated in a large 2021 study that came out showing that metabolism does not slow as individuals age and that actually individuals are moving less as they age meaning they are burning fewer calories.

So, when your kids were young, you were probably chasing them around and picking them up and getting close to 10,000 steps a day.

Now you’re maybe getting 3,000 or 4,000 steps not chasing kids. And you’re coping with stress with alcohol and food. You’re eating more calories than you realize potentially.

It’s not that your body’s broken. It’s not that your body can’t process carbs anymore and that it lays down carbs as fat.

But this phase of life does make it easier to be in a calorie surplus which creates fat gain and can make it harder for women to stay in a consistent calorie deficit to lose body fat.

Not impossible, just harder to be consistent with habits and a calorie deficit depending on what lifestyle factors you’re dealing with and the symptoms you’re experiencing.

In my opinion, it’s so disempowering to say to women that cortisol is the problem or carbs are the problem or sugar is the problem or calories don’t matter or you can’t eat fruits.  

These things are just distractions because it removes you from the fundamental solution to the problem. It clouds your awareness and doesn’t allow you to self-reflect and think what has changed over the last few years?

When I work with a client, I’m looking at the overall dietary pattern and this is what a lot of people don’t realize. Isolating one food, one ingredient or one food group doesn’t tell you a whole lot.

It’s so important to hammer this home that no one food is detrimental to your health. What are you eating and how are you eating most of the time? And how does that way of eating make you feel?

When a woman asks me what they should be eating in menopause, you know what I say? More lean protein, more fruits and vegetables, more fiber, more complex carbs like whole grains, bean, lentils, rice, quinoa and limiting refined sugars and ultra-processed foods.

Stop focusing on what to cut out and start focusing on what to add that’s healthy! I really think this is how most people try to approach weight loss by thinking about all the things they need to cut out. Stop doing that.

I promise if that approach was going to work for you it already would have. Start focusing on what to add and realize that you don’t have to eat perfectly healthy to lose weight. If that is something you think, this is a myth.

You do need to work on improving your food quality, but you do not need to eat perfectly clean and healthy to lose weight.

That is why I see so many women struggling is because they have that mindset with food so when they think they screwed up by eating something less nutritious, they get mad and give up. That one meal or food is not detrimental to your goals, I promise you.

Having this better approach and mindset puts you back in the driver’s seat of figuring out what you enjoy eating and what makes you feel your best.

Having someone just tell you eat these foods and cut these foods out is just another version of a restrictive diet. Honestly, I think some women want that because they like diet rules.

A lot of women are rule followers and want rules because they do not trust themselves with food. Think about this. You do not trust yourself around food. That is crazy!

I literally have women ask me if grapes have too much sugar or if they should cut beans out of their chili. That is ridiculous. Eat the beans. Eat the grapes. I promise they are not why you are overweight!

All of you who think these things and question these things, you really need to stop and ask yourself what the diet industry has done to you. What has diet culture done to your mindset and relationship with food?

Because I want you to recognize how disempowering this is and how silly it sounds to be scared of some of these health promoting foods.

I want you to recognize you are in the driver’s seating and you DO have power here. You DO have control. And you DO need to stop fearing food. No one food makes you fat. No one food group makes you fat. Not even sugar makes you fat.

What are you eating most of the time? How are you fueling your body? How much protein are you eating? How much fiber are you eating?

How many calories do you aim for in your meals and snacks? If you don’t know those things, then that’s what you truly have to work on.

Restricting foods just leads to overeating. People can restrict and cut things out for a period of time, but the more you restrict the more obsessed you become and fear food.

Every time you buy into one of these quacks on social media telling you not to eat grapes or whatever food they’re demonizing these days; you are feeding into that binge restrict cycle that many people fall into when dieting and worsening your relationship with food.

You are creating more disordered eating patterns for yourself when you listen to these people scaring you about food. Stop listening to them.

Cut them out of your life. It’s so sad the number of women I see scared of food. Scared of healthy foods! They don’t trust themselves anymore and it’s really, really sad.

You probably have years and years and years confirming your own beliefs that you can’t be trusted around food. You have to work on breaking down these beliefs by practicing eating all foods mindfully.

And eating mindfully is not restricting. It’s giving yourself unconditional permission to eat foods you enjoy but slowing down and eating them bite by bite.

Really focusing on what you’re doing because I think some women have food amnesia too.

They eat over the sink in a rush or overeat sometime in the afternoon or late at night and they’re so distracted and out of their bodies they don’t recognize or remember what they’re doing.

This why some women are like I don’t understand I’m barely eating and gaining weight. Well, you don’t gain weight without a calorie surplus.

Excess calories are coming in somewhere and sometimes we have food amnesia about what we’re eating. Not everyone, but I’ve seen this with some women I’ve worked with. People are not mindful when they’re eating.

They’re not sitting, they’re not paying attention, they’re on their phones, they’re working so it’s almost like eating the food didn’t happen. It doesn’t register in their mind that they were overeating.

You have to work on giving yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods and slowing down when you eat because no one food is good or bad all by itself.

It’s your overall dietary pattern that matters and where our focus goes, our habits flow. This is why I always say focus on what you can add that’s healthy not what you need to take away.

Can you add protein, can you add fruits and veggies? What health promoting habits can you add? Can you add a walk? Can you add a nap? Can you add a strength training session?

Also recognize it is normal to overeat from time to time. You are human and humans will overeat. Everyone does. Even I do!

I overate pirates’ booty last weekend. I’m not doing it every day, but yes it happens from time to time.

The problem most individuals run into is they criticize themselves for every imperfect moment. Self-criticism only leads to a cycle of guilt and shame.

Imagine shaming your child for mispronouncing a word when they were learning to read.

Criticizing a child will shut them down and it will not motivate them to continue practicing and learning to read. This is no different with any behavior at any age. People’s behaviors do not change positively from self-criticism.

The opposite happens. You will faceplant in bucket of ice cream or eat an entire pizza once you go down the path of self-criticism.

You are no different than a child as you are learning new behaviors and habits. Imagine getting mad at an infant who’s 3 months old for not being able to walk and dress themselves yet. That is most of you!

You are an infant expecting yourself to be a toddler already. No one makes positive changes for the long-term being a jerk to themselves. I don’t care what your mother did to you when you were a child.

I don’t care how you were raised. You can learn new habits and behaviors at any age. You can change anytime you want to. Stop fighting for your past and start fighting for your future self!

Allowing self-compassion in these moments when you think you’ve screwed up or had an oops day, week or month allows you to self-reflect on the behavior, on what happened, what solutions you can try next time that situation occurs or if you just need to move on.

When you guilt and shame yourself, you are missing out on the self-reflection and potential solutions that will help you grow and change.

And… your expectations will feed into your behaviors. If you expect to gain weight in menopause, if you think there is nothing you can do about it, that is going to feed into how you show up for yourself. The actions you take.

How consistent you are with your actions. If you think, weight gain is inevitable in menopause you will be inconsistent with your behaviors and habits and you will get the opposite results that you want.

YOLO! I’m going to eat and drink whatever I want because I’m probably going to gain weight anyway. I can’t stress enough how much your mindset feeds into your habits and behaviors.

You really have to self-reflect on how you think about some of these things’ ladies, but your mindset can sabotage you so easily.

And you may need to adjust your expectations of what is realistic for you in this phase of life and how fast you will see change, how fast you see results, how fast you lose weight, etc.

Get your validation NOT from the scale but from your behaviors, your habits, how you show up for yourself, what you’re doing to support your body and health, your future you.

Ultimately, that is what drives whether you maintain results in the future. If you keep using the scale to validate yourself, then keeping weight off with always be a struggle no matter what diet you follow or how sustainable the diet was.

What do you want? Do you want long term weight loss? Do you want to improve your health? Are you looking for habits and behaviors that ADD value to your life? Or are you just looking to manipulate the number on the scale?

I’m not blaming or shaming anyone for getting their validation and self-worth from the scale. I was once just like that too.

Many women have been conditioned to do that from years of going to WW as an example.

They throw you on that scale and celebrate you each time you lose weight. Why wouldn’t you feel like you need validation from the scale?

Reflecting on that and recognizing how you’ve been conditioned to do that and how that’s holding you back right now and keeping you stuck is key.

You can want to improve your body composition, but you have to learn to validate yourself with habits not the scale.

Otherwise, you get to maintenance and you’re still having to get your steps, still having to strength train, still having to pay attention to eating high quality foods, eating your protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables to maintain your weight loss.

What’s going to motivate you if you don’t learn to get validation while you’re losing weight from your habits and not the scale? This is why some people regain weight.

The scale stops going down. Now where’s the gratification going to come from to keep up with your habits?

If you are not in the habit of praising yourself for how you show up for yourself, then it’s really easy to go back to food for validation. That’s something I really encourage you to think about.

Menopausal women have been targeted for years and decades with fad dieting, misinformation and this has resulted in a poor relationship with food and a poor relationship with their body for many women.

Many women are heading into menopause and their bodies are under muscled, under fed, bone density is low, they have a low basal metabolic rate so they’re not where they should be for going through this phase of life and these things compound over the years as you head towards menopause.

But then many women go back to the diet industry thinking that’s the solution.

Uh, that doesn’t make sense. I mean really think about this. How have you been taking care of your body the last 5, 10, 20, 30 years? Have you been getting your steps for the last 20 years? Have you been getting your protein and fiber?

Have you been building your meals with all foods and within the range of calories your body needs? Have you been consistently tracking your food and doing strength training? If you haven’t been, it’s ok.

You probably didn’t know to do these things! But this is why you have gained weight. Not because grapes and bananas are suddenly turning into fat when you eat them.

Now you know what you need to focus on and it’s never to late to start doing these things!

Now I speak to a lot of women over 35 who think they should have all this stuff with food figured out by now. They think they should have it altogether around food. And menopause by itself is loaded with a lot of shame.

Recognizing you’ve been subjected to diet culture that’s been bombarded at you for decades is very important. Your behaviors and beliefs around food have been forming for a long period of time.

Why should you have figured it out by now? What makes you think that? Says who?  I mean we’ve all been raised with diet culture. How would you know any better unless you’ve gotten help? How are you supposed to know this stuff?

You’re not supposed to which is why I’m saying you need to have a lot of grace with yourself and do not interpret this message that you’ve been doing everything wrong. If you want to think that’s why I’m saying, you know what my response to that is?

How is that way of thinking moving you forward? It’s not. Don’t waste a second of your mental energy in that department.

You know what the worst part of all this is now? The diet industry has figured out they can capitalize on this vulnerable group of women going through menopause and that’s why you see things like women should fast or cut carbs or buy my menopause book or plan.

People are marketing these things to menopausal women to sell you their gut detox, their cortisol drinks, their supplements, their hair test, bootcamp, their 6-week program or book.

The sad thing is none of this stuff they are marketing as good for menopause fat loss is based in science. That’s why you see all this misinformation and rules targeting this vulnerable group.

I actually talked about this marketing towards menopausal women in podcast episode 108 - 8 fat loss myths holding you hostage.

There is one diet called the Galveston diet that is marketed as THE diet for menopausal women. I spoke about this diet and shared my concerns about this diet in that podcast episode. An OBGYN came up with this diet and she wrote a book.

Basically, the diet has you fasting and doing carb cycling. This doctor uses misleading claims in her book to support her theory that calorie deficits are outdated.

However, the citations she uses to support her claims in the book are from studies that say a calorie deficit works exactly the same as fasting.

Weight loss results with fasting are no better, yet she misleads people with citing these claims in her book. The general public is not versed in reading studies, whereas I am. I had to take courses in school about reading studies.

I’m sure if you read a book by a doctor like this one you would think oh wow! This is a great book.

She has all these citations to support her claims. Yet, her citations do not support her claim at all. You would never know this, and this is why she has been able to fool so many women into believing her plan is something groundbreaking.

She also tells women there’s specific fruits and vegetables they can’t eat. Not support by any randomized controlled trials. She claims there’s a specific macronutrient ratio all menopausal women need to follow.

Also, not supported by scientific studies. Yet, women are blindly following her advice. If you don’t think a doctor has the capability of misleading you to capitalize on your pain, you are very wrong and you need to open your eyes.

After I shared my podcast, I did a short reel on Instagram because on the Galveston diet sharing my concerns about this diet being so restrictive, not backed by science and the doctor’s citations being misleading.

Somehow this doctor got a hold of my reel and shared it on her Instagram, which led to hundreds of her followers attacking me. I didn’t care because I know the truth.

She’s scamming menopausal women with a restrictive diet. I ended up gaining a bunch of new clients who realized they couldn’t follow her diet and that it was way too crazy.

Some of them told me anytime someone challenges this doctor, she posts something to get her followers to attack them on social media. Now, you have to ask yourself this. Would a truly credible doctor do that? I don’t think so.

Maybe this doctor is doing great things for women in other ways, but in terms of this specific diet. It’s a no. It’s just another restrictive diet marketed to menopausal women with false claims. And oh by the way, she’s now selling supplements.

Anytime, I see someone selling their own supplements. I know they are just trying to make money off a vulnerable group and in this case, it’s menopausal women.

Like I always say, can you do that diet until you’re 85 years old? If you can and you enjoy it, great. I’m happy for you!

Another diet that has been targeted to women in perimenopause is faster way to fat loss. I get asked about this diet about once a week from followers on social media.

There are several red flags with this diet, and you see them immediately when you go to their website where it states lose up to 15 pounds of fat and gain lean muscle in just 6 weeks.

First, it is not possible to gain lean muscle and lose fat simultaneously. To lose fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit and to gain muscle you need to be at maintenance with your calories and/or in a caloric surplus.

Those are two separate nutritional phases that you absolutely, cannot do at the same time.

If you are completely new to exercise and eating healthy, that is about the only time you can gain lean muscle while losing fat.

Otherwise, you have to work them as two different phases which is something I work on with my clients. So, that is a misleading claim that is one red flag.

The other red flag is that it states lose up to 15 pounds in 6 weeks. If you are losing 15 pounds in 6 weeks, that is about a 2.5 pound loss per week. You have to be eating extremely low calories, very few calories to achieve that. A 1-pound loss per week means you’re eating about 500 calories less per day.

A 2-pound loss means 1,000 calories less a day. A 2.5-pound loss per week means 1,250 calories less per day. That is extreme!

If your maintenance calories are 2,000 then that means you are only eating 700 to 800 calories daily to lose 2.5 pounds a week.

This is just another crash diet being marketed to mid-life women and faster way to fat loss is doing this by having you carb cycle and fast. Two things that are completely unnecessary for weight loss.

When you see these type programs ladies, where the promises seem too good to be true, red flags should go off in your head. ½ pound a week is usually what I recommend to clients unless they have a lot of weight to lose and then 1 pound a week is reasonable for them. ½ pound a week means you get to eat more food.

You’re not starving, your energy is good and it’s very gentle on the body. It’s not extreme.

I actually had a consultation awhile back with a woman who did faster way to fat loss and she said she gained the weight back because she couldn’t keep up with all the strict rules. Right! Fast, carb cycling, count your macros. That’s insane!

You’re making weight loss harder than it needs to be. For what? To lose weight faster? It’s insane to me!

It’s also insane to me that people do this program and don’t realize it’s an MLM.

Anytime you see something that’s an MLM, that should always be a big red flag to you. Additionally, the coaches have no nutritional education from what I can see.

What are we doing? Why are we falling for these things?

Listen, I’m sure people can lose weight on diets like this. You’re only eating 700 to 800 calories, but can you do this to keep weight off until you are 85 years old?

What really makes me so angry is that these programs are marketed to you as if they came up with something magical for women 40 and up. They came up with this shortcut that no one else knows about.

C’mon! This is the biggest scam I keep seeing.

I saw a woman’s account on Instagram the other day claiming she was a cortisol coach and that by drinking her cortisol drink you can lose weight. There is no such thing as a cortisol coach, and I was flabbergasted by what I saw on her page.

She had thousands of views, comments and shares on her reels. One reel had 30,000 comments. 30,000 women commented to get her cortisol drink. 30,000 of you are gullible enough to fall for this.

We are in a time when people like this woman are spreading misinformation on social media and the algorithms are favoring the people who spread misinformation, not the people who share the scientific evidence.

It just makes me so angry for women.

We are up against enough in life without being up against all this information making it harder and more confusing to take care of our health. Cortisol doesn’t make you fat.

Most people when they’re stressed eat more calories and that is how they gain weight. Cortisol goes up when you exercise. Did you get fat from exercise? Please stop falling for this. Please. Please for your own sake, stop believing this nonsense.

Listen I get it. When you’re desperate for a quick solution and to feel better, it’s easy to fall for these things. It’s easy to blame your willpower and try another diet rather than to get curious about your habits and behaviors, your relationship with food, your relationship with your body.

Because that’s what you’ve always done - said it’s my willpower, I’m lazy, I’m useless. It’s easier going on another diet than to do the deeper work self-reflecting on your habits and behaviors.

What have I been doing the last 10, 20, 30 years? How have I been taking care of my body? It’s not easy to look at yourself and get honest with how you have been taking care of your health.

Doing this work is scary because you never went about it this way but what’s scarier? Staying the way you are now or getting help so you can move forward?

Having the courage to ask for help? What is your resistance to getting help? What are your beliefs around getting help? Are you ashamed to ask for help?

I feel so bad for the women I speak to because they’re just looking and trying and spinning their wheels. And there’s so many good people like me and others out there who can help you. Like why don’t you get help? It’s ok to ask for help.

You don’t need to do some crazy TikTok trend or another fad diet that’s restricting you of all the foods you enjoy. It’s ok to find a doctor who will actually listen to you. You do not need to suffer.

Social media makes women feel powerless. But there so much you can control. You are in control of your behaviors. You are in control of what doctor you see.

You are in control of what people you listen to on social media. You are in control here! Focus on what you CAN control during this phase of life!

So, when it comes to food. What to eat in menopause. I never, ever tell any of my clients what to eat.

If you’ve listened to any of my clients who’ve been on this podcast many of them have said this. With my clients, I give them nutritional guidelines and habit goals.

We talk about how much protein they need to eat and how to reach that goal if they’re not sure how to do that. We talk about how much fiber they need to be aiming for and how to reach that in their meals.

We talk about how to build balanced meals. We talk about what meals they already make and how to make tweaks to them. We talk about how many calories they need to aim for.

We talk about how to include less nutritious foods vs. restricting them, how to get their protein when they eat out, go to a friend’s house. What strategies to use on vacation and when traveling.

I would be doing anyone a disservice if I were to just tell them what to eat.

And anyone you are working with or following if they are just handing you a list of foods to avoid and a meal plan, telling you to fast or cut carbs, they are doing you a great disservice my dear.

There is no menopause food plan for weight loss that applies to every woman on the planet.

Each woman is different, and everyone has different likes and differences in lifestyles making their eating challenges all different. There is no one thing that fits all.

The focus in menopause is eating more lean protein, more fruits and vegetables and more complex carbohydrates and being mindful around refined sugars and ultra-processed foods.

Getting more NEAT or steps, doing some resistance training, being as active as you can, getting good sleep and cutting out alcohol.

Unfortunately, most Americans are eating what’s called the standard American diet which consists of a lot of highly processed foods and alcohol.

The focus for everyone, not just women in menopause, should be on adding more lean proteins, adding more fruits and veggies, adding more complex carbohydrates and fiber, making meals that are satisfying, adding more sleep, adding more steps or general movement, adding a little resistance training and exercise.

I know it feels like these things aren’t hard enough to really work and get you the results you want, which is a reason why many women avoid doing these things and continue searching for other solutions.

It’s also why you fall victim to these social media diet trends.

Truthfully, the women who say these things don’t work are the same women who are not being consistent with these things. They don’t have their average steps over the last 6 months, they haven’t tracked their food over the last 6 months, they don’t know their average protein, fiber and calories over the last 6 months.

The women who say these things do not work are the same women who do not have the data and have not been consistent with the basics. The basic things do work when you are consistent with them.

And in menopause, there will be ups and downs. Life is going to happen.

Sometimes you will be more dialed in with your habits than other times and you do need to recognize that lifestyle factors are going on for you.

That means you must have grace with yourself. You need to give yourself self-compassion and release this mindset that you have to be perfect 100% of the time to see results.

Taking imperfect action is always better than taking zero action and yes, it may be slower seeing results but aren’t slow results better than no results?

Aren’t slow results better than feeling frustrated, fearing food, and restricting foods you enjoy? Aren’t slow results better than losing weight fast only to regain it repeatedly? Aren’t slow results better than restricting all the foods you enjoy only to binge on them?

Aren’t slow results better than feeling confused, always questioning if what you’re doing is right and not trusting yourself around food? I’m just asking. Trying to give you some food for thought.

The bottom line is there are not right foods, best foods or a perfect meal plan or different way of eating for menopause. But there are certain guidelines like getting enough protein, getting enough fiber.

Getting MORE fruits and vegetables. Really flooding the body with these health promoting, nutrient-dense foods and also, adding more complex carbohydrates and fiber.

Less than 5% of Americans are meeting the fiber recommendation. That means there is a lot of opportunity to work on fiber. One of the most underrated nutrients that does not get talked about enough.

So, there is no right food plan for menopause. Carbs don’t just layer on fat in menopause. Your body can still process carbs just fine in menopause.

A calorie deficit still is required even in menopause to lose weight, but you may be burning fewer calories than you realize from lack of activity. And cortisol does not cause you to gain body fat.

This is all good news because now you can spot some of the people who are preying on you during this vulnerable phase of life. And I know it’s easy to fall victim to these things when you’re feeling a certain way about your body.

You’re desperate for answers, for a solution and to feel better, but I want you to also remember your body is going through a transition.

It's like reverse puberty. Can you imagine if you had a daughter going through puberty right now and you were criticizing her for gaining weight and needing to buy her new clothes as her body is changing? No!

You would never do that to you daughter, and I want you to have the same gentleness with yourself. I think sometimes we have this mindset that our bodies should still look like what they looked like when we were 20 or 30. Bodies change as they age.

That doesn’t mean you can want to look better, lose some body fat, build muscle, get stronger. You can simultaneously accept that your body is aging and changing and also want to improve your body composition.

 But I do think some women want the body they had when they were 20 before kids. Give yourself some gentleness. Your body has probably done a lot for you.

Taken you places, walked you through different seasons of life and even birthed children!

Have some gratitude for what your body has done for you and give back to it with adding in some healthy habits.

Like I mentioned to you earlier, instead of measuring the scale so much, start measuring your habits, start measuring how you show up for your future you. For your future self!

Okay, that’s all we have for today ladies. I hope this conversation was helpful for you. Talk to you soon!

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About Megan

Megan is a certified nutrition practitioner, author, freelance food photographer and fitness instructor living in Phoenix, Arizona. On her blog, Skinny Fitalicious she shares EASY, gluten free recipes for weight loss. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.