Menopause is a natural phase every woman goes through in her life. It marks the end of the reproductive cycle and can bring about various physical and emotional bodily changes. One of the most common issues women face during menopause is weight gain. Hormonal changes and a slower metabolism can cause weight gain, especially around the belly area. While various medical treatments are available for menopause-related weight gain, some natural remedies can also help. Here we will explore some natural remedies for menopause weight gain and get an expert’s take on this topic.
Exercise Routine
Regular exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy weight during menopause. It helps to increase metabolism, which can slow down during menopause and burn extra calories. Strength training exercises such as weights or push-ups can help build muscle mass, increase metabolism, and burn more calories even when you are not exercising. Aerobic exercises like walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming can help burn calories and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Get 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 3-4 days a week.
Balanced Diet
Eating a balanced diet with healthy nutrients and low calories can help with menopause weight gain. Include plenty of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats. Avoid sugary snacks, processed foods, and drinks, and limit your intake of alcohol. Staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water daily is also essential.
Increase Your Fiber Intake
Fiber is an essential nutrient that can help with weight loss during menopause. It helps to keep you full for longer, reduce cravings, and regulate bowel movements. Include plenty of high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Take a fiber supplement if you do not get enough fiber from your diet.
Reduce Stress
Stress can contribute to menopause weight gain by increasing cortisol production, a stress hormone that can cause fat to accumulate around the belly area. It’s essential to find ways to reduce stress in your life. Try relaxation techniques (think yoga, meditation, and deep breathing). Engage in other activities you enjoy, such as spending time with friends and family, reading, dancing, or listening to music.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is critical for maintaining a healthy weight during menopause. Sleep can disrupt hormones controlling hunger and metabolism, leading to weight gain. Aim for at least 7-8 hours of sleep and establish a regular sleep schedule to improve the quality of your sleep.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
This treatment involves administering hormones, typically estrogen and progesterone, to replace those the body no longer produces after menopause. HRT can be administered in different forms, such as pills, patches, and creams. HRT effectively reduces hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness, common symptoms of menopause. Additionally, HRT can help reduce bone loss and lower the risk of fractures.
See: Natural remedies for hot flashes
However, some women may not want to undergo HRT due to potential side effects, such as the higher risk of breast cancer, blood clots, and stroke. Furthermore, HRT may not be suitable for women with a history of certain medical conditions, such as breast cancer or heart disease.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient Indian medical system that aims to promote health and prevent diseases through natural remedies, lifestyle changes, and herbal medicines. Ayurveda recognizes that menopause is a natural transition and offers natural solutions to manage the symptoms. Ayurvedic remedies focus on balancing the body’s doshas, or energies, on restoring overall health and well-being.
Ayurvedic remedies for menopause symptoms, including weight gain, include:
- Diet: Ayurveda recommends a diet high in plant-based foods, including fruits, veggies, and whole grains. These foods are loaded with vitamins and fiber, which can help reduce inflammation, improve gut health, and promote weight loss. Ayurveda also recommends avoiding spicy, sour, and fried foods and caffeine and alcohol, which can aggravate menopause symptoms.
- Herbs: Ayurveda uses herbs to manage menopause symptoms, including weight gain. Some herbs, such as ashwagandha and Shatavari, are believed to balance hormones, reduce stress, and improve energy levels. Other herbs, such as Guggulu and Triphala, can aid in weight loss by boosting metabolism, improving digestion, and reducing inflammation.
- Lifestyle changes: Ayurveda recommends several changes to alleviate menopause symptoms, including weight gain. These changes include regular exercise, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, and meditation, and getting enough sleep. Ayurveda also recommends reducing exposure to toxins, such as smoking and environmental pollutants, which can disrupt hormone balance and exacerbate menopause symptoms.
Use Herbal Supplements
Herbal supplements can be effective in reducing menopause-related weight gain. Some herbs commonly used for this purpose include black cohosh, red clover, and soy isoflavones. Black cohosh can help reduce hot flashes and night sweats, which can contribute to weight gain during menopause. Red clover can help regulate hormones and improve bone health, while soy isoflavones can reduce hot flashes and improve cardiovascular health. However, talking to your doctor before taking herbal supplements is important, as they can interact with medications or have side effects.
Try Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves inserting very thin needles into specific points to balance energy flow and promote healing. It can effectively reduce menopause-related weight gain by regulating hormones and reducing stress. Several studies have shown that acupuncture can help reduce menopause symptoms, such as night sweats, hot flashes, and mood swings, which can contribute to weight gain.
NourishDoc: Hello, everyone. Well, we’ll talk about fad diets today with Michaela Shaffer. So what we’re going to talk about is how you can ditch the fad diets and destructive eating habits, and negative self-talk to live a healthy life and embody live confidently, so Michaela is going to join me; sorry, in the morning, we’ve been having some technical issues, but Michaela is going to join. We’re going to talk about different diets you should do, and there she is finally; hi, I’m so great; I’m so happy to see you.
Health Coach Michaela: Me too. I’m happy to be here.
NourishDoc: So, please let’s talk about how you help people ditch fad diets and tell us a little bit about yourself first, and then we can talk about the other things.
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, for sure. So I am a health coach who helps people ditch fad diets and negative views of their body and embraces a life of confidence, well-being, and health through mind, body, and spirit. I did the same for myself for a while. It was probably about eight years ago that I was very obsessed with wanting to lose weight, not that I needed to, but I felt to be accepted to be seen as pretty; you always see these magazines with the quote-unquote perfect beach body, and as a young girl and even just men and women, in general, you see that. Then you begin to believe that that’s what reality is and is not. So it got caught up in my head that I needed to look for a sure way to be accepted by people around me by society.
Forget The Yo-Yo Diet
So I began to try every diet in the book. I would go on yo-yo diets, google things, and it would just be all over the board; it ended up with me having eating disorders, and it went from binging to restricting. Then it transformed into orthorexia Nervosa, which for those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically when you are obsessed over the quality of the food that you’re eating. Hence, it’s not just the portion sizes. However, for me, if it was a carbohydrate or sugar dairy, things like that deemed bad by Google or whatever platform that I had read it on, I cut it out completely. If I ate something with a little bit of it in it I would beat myself up and say okay I have to restart and that’s kind of when the restricting came back in and then the binging.
See: Natural remedies for weight loss
So it was just this awful cycle. Through that, I got sick and had horrible cystic acne. My digestive system was all messed up. I had chronic migraines and was on prescriptions for some of them. However, it worsened the issues and added more issues, and I said enough is enough. I don’t want to be on pills for the rest of my life; there has to be a different way. So I went in researched and went the holistic route through food through holistic medicines, herbs, movement things like that, so through healing myself through body, mind, and spirit, I want to help others do the same.
NourishDoc: That’s a very inspiring story. So we have multiple sessions with you because I think you can inspire many other people with eating disorders. I didn’t know that you had a problem with yourself. So how can like if someone has a problem, how do you help them?
Health Coach Michaela: So it depends. I mean, every person is going to be different. But usually, I mean it when people first come to me or want to fix something, it’s very surface level, so usually, we hear people say, oh, I want to lose weight, I want to be a specific size, things like that, which is all okay but really what I do is I go deeper in saying okay well why do we want to lose the weight is it because of health reasons is it because you think that you should be ordered to fit in somewhere to be deemed beautiful or attractive or things like that.
So really digging into the underlying reasons why they want to make these changes and then finding protocols that fit their lifestyle best, so going through and saying, okay, what’s your diet like, what are you eating, what are you putting into your body going through those things. But then, on the other side, going a little bit deeper and saying, okay, well, how is your relationship with food? How like are you afraid of certain foods? Do you not know what it is that is good for your body?
Different things like that, so people it’s not just kind of it’s not saying okay here’s a list of foods that you have to eat and so does everybody else it’s saying okay well these foods are going to help you say you suffer from chronic migraines digestion issues sleep and getting a diet that kind of works for you so your body can heal but then also understanding what those foods are doing and not just sitting back and saying okay well I have to eat this fruit bowl because someone said to it’s like okay I have certain types of fruit in the bowl I know that this is going to help with migraines all of these have vitamins and minerals. So it’s a clear understanding of why you’re doing what you’re doing, not just doing it to have an end goal.
NourishDoc: I sometimes think people like nowadays all of us are home all right. Hence, it’s straightforward: all of us are feeling a little bit stressed out with anxiety issues. Then food is comforting. I should say that if you go into the refrigerator and eat something, you feel good. So that’s one of the issues many of us face when discussing the relationship with food. Many of us have this craving for maybe a sugar burst, some junk food, or something that gives us more comfort and happiness. I don’t know how to describe it. However, if I eat a salad, it’s not the same as if I eat a piece of chocolate, a piece of candy, or a cake. So how do you overcome this? All of us have these issues; it’s not just me; I think every one of us has these issues.
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, it’s a human thing, and I think through things I’ve noticed of myself and family members of different patterns, humans were just drawn to that food. I’m sure most of us, if not all, can think of a time when we were young, whether it was a family member or maybe a close friend or family someone cooking something.
See: Natural remedies for menopause
You get that feeling of a family of wholeness; you’re surrounded by people you love; it’s very comforting. So I understand where it comes from, especially with everyone being in quarantine and just kind of like, okay, we’re sitting at home; boarding also comes into play. Boredom can trick us into thinking that we might be hungry, so we reach for something that just gives us something to do.
Stay Hydrated
There are a couple of things so if you are bored and you’re going to the kitchen and looking for something, grab a glass of water first because if more often than not, we’re dehydrated, we don’t get enough fluids in our body, so drinking a glass of water will help because when we’re dehydrated, our body will send us signals that tell us that we’re hungry when maybe we aren’t.
So grab that glass of water, drink it, take a few moments, and then if you notice that you’re still hungry, you’re getting those cues from your body, go for the food feed your body; don’t ignore that, but if you notice that you drink the water and those hunger keys go away you’re probably dehydrated. Then you can maybe go to something else.
I also recommend chewing a piece of gum because I think a lot of it is like that mouth feel we want something to do, so chewing the gum gives us that feeling of doing something, and it kind of tricks our brains of help.
Emotions & Food Connection
But I also notice emotions often; they are connected with food and when we want something, especially when it comes to sweets, candy, sugar, desserts, and everything else. I was listening to a podcast at the very beginning of the year. They were talking about emotions, especially with sweets. Usually, if those two are related, motherly love is lacking. It’s not to say that your mother never loved you or anything because I’ve even noticed this in my life. I love my mother dearly, and she loves me, but there was a time when things were a little strained, and I tended to push her away.
So with that tendency to push her away, we weren’t as close; we weren’t communicating as often. I lacked that from her, but I craved chocolate chips every day during that time. I mean, it was like clockwork. I’m not even kidding; it was the same time of day. If I didn’t have the chocolate chips, I would become angry because I didn’t understand why I was craving them, and I didn’t understand that I just needed to talk to my mom.
But a lot of us kind of have that, whether it be a very strained relationship, maybe no relationship whatever it may be that’s also something to kind of look into and ask yourself, okay how are my relationships with everyone around me is that affecting how I feel, and with what I’m feeling am I going for something that I think might kind of fill the void, especially with candies and sugar that relates to the motherly love aspect some sweeter earthy herbs like ashwagandha’s slightly sweet so it kind of tricks your brain but also giving health benefits. So it reflects everything; it’s not just okay, I want sweets here it is; it’s everything encompassed into one.
NourishDoc: So what you’re saying is how your relationship is with your family, friends, and the community that correlates with the type of food you’re eating, and you could develop some kind of an eating disorder like in your case, and so I think it’s all interconnected you have to work on yourself so and that once you have an eating disorder or any disorder then this some ailment will stem from it or something will happen because you’re not eating right?
Health Coach Michaela: Correct, and with the kind of foods you eat, especially when people are upset or something goes towards a junk food that’s maybe processed or high sugar. Again those things trigger the pleasure center in your brain. So it’s kind of like, oh I like this; it’s kind of like uplifting and perfect, so you keep eating it and eating it, so you feel good, but then over time those things backfire a little bit, whether it be with fatigue or things that I’ve experienced like digestion or acne skin issues migraines. So again, it’s something, and it’s not saying that you can never have these things; it’s not saying restrict yourself from any of this.
Instead, it understands what foods you might be going for again, looking at those emotions, is there an emotional tie to when you reach for those chocolate chips or something like that, and asking yourself and your body, okay, what is it that I need right now do I need some food to heal or to fuel me or do I need something more do I need a hug from a loved one do I need to talk to someone do I need to move my body around and let go of some energy?
We can go so many different routes, but taking the time to tune into yourself takes practice. I know it’s not just a one-and-done type of thing. But over time, you begin to it’s like building muscle; you have to be able to practice it and build it up and strengthen it, and then you can say, oh what, I’m feeling sad. I would have reached for that candy bar, but instead, I might go and maybe light a candle and write a journal and get all my emotions down on paper.
NourishDoc: Yeah, or maybe do some yoga poses, meditation, or something else to divert your mind from eating that and go like that; it’s very interesting. You’re welcome to put any comments, feedback, or anything from anyone joining us in the chat; as I said, we would continue these discussions bite-size. Anything else you would like to add for this session? I’m sure we’ll continue these sessions more, but is there anything else you’d like to add for today’s session?
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, I mean, if anything, I would say remember to not don’t beat yourself up if you are going for that type of food. I mean, we are human; we do sometimes make maybe the not best choices for ourselves in a moment, but it’s okay; you can always go back, you can always try again and do better; it’s a learning process and doesn’t think of the quote-unquote wrong choices as bad or as horrible, horrible mistakes but rather just a different step in an in the right direction those are the types of learning lessons to say okay well maybe I thought that it was going to be the right choice. However, I ended up feeling worse and maybe having a stomachache or something like that. So really, it’s just a learning lesson to say, okay, well, the next time I feel like this, I know not to make this choice, but instead, I have three other choices I can make.
NourishDoc: I think one session that would be amazing would be we can talk about substitutes if you have and I don’t know if you want to eat chocolate; chocolate is not an example then what else can you eat, that would be an excellent session for most of the people to have what are the substitutes.
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, I think that’d be great because I mean, I know that when I was going through my journey and helping other people, they always say well, I think that I have to get rid of it, but that might not be the case you might be able to have it in small amounts here and there, or you might find something that kind of replicates the flavor the sensation or anything like that but it actually might be healing your body as well. So it’s not the end of the road to take things out. However, instead, it opens many other doors, opportunities, and unique things to help heal yourself.
NourishDoc: That’s amazing, and how much did you lose weight? You said you wanted to lose weight and were a little bit more. I mean, were you, I think, or what was it just like you wanted to be from size photo size too, right?
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, it was more. I mean, health-wise and everything, I did not need to lose weight in my mind; it was a body image. I thought I needed to be much thinner than I was, but I lost weight. However, I never kept track because that was a trigger; if I saw a specific number, it would make me spiral downward. But looking back at old pictures, I didn’t realize the fluctuation of my weight, so again, you have to be mindful of why we want to lose weight. Is it for health reasons, or is it because you feel that you aren’t good enough as you are?
NourishDoc: Got it. It’s about the image; if someone is obese, of course, that’s different.
Health Coach Michaela: Again, it’s all you have to approach these things and ask these questions. Again there’s nothing wrong with improving yourself, but you have to do it for your wants. I always say that because I vote, I used to always change for other people, and that’s not the way to go because that’s going to trip you up. You’re going to lose parts of yourself but ask yourself, okay, what is it that I want? Why do I want it, and how can I make those steps forward?
NourishDoc: That’s an excellent thought. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Next session, we would love to do the substitutes so that you’re welcome to put any other comments or feedback from anyone in the chat window or comment after the session. Again, apologies for the first two times. However, finally, we got it, so I’m so happy. With that, should we wrap up the session for today?
Health Coach Michaela: Yeah, that’s perfect. Suppose anyone wants to follow my page or ask me any questions personally. In that case, my direct messages are always open so feel free.
NourishDoc: Absolutely, and thank you so much, Michaela, for joining us; thank you so much, bye.
