Menopause Without Weight Gain: The 5 Step Solution to Challenge Your Changing Hormones. Debra Waterhouse

Lifestyle

       Live Today Less Stressed

       Mindful Menopause: New Age Medicine for Middle Age

       The Pursuit of Hormonal Happiness

       Your Midlife Checkup

       Lifestyles of the Relaxed and Fearless

       Chapter 9: It’s Not Over til the Fat Cell Sings

       What Does a Healthy Midlife Woman Look Like?

       Patience, Perseverance, Perspective

       When the Transition Is Over

       Thank You, Fat Cells

       Appendix A: Meno-Positive Eating Records

       Appendix B: Additional Resources

       Appendix C: Suggested Reading

       Biblography

       Index

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       Also by the Author

       Praise for Menopause without Weight Gain

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

      The advice in this book is not intended for persons with chronic illnesses or other conditions that may be worsened by an unsupervised eating and/or exercise programme. The recommendations are not intended to replace or conflict with advice given to you by your doctor or other health professional, and we recommend that you do consult with your doctor. The author and publisher cannot be held responsible for any results arising from use or application of the information in this book.

      Except for those who have given permission to appear in this book, all names in this book have been changed. In some cases, composite accounts have been created based on the author’s professional experience.

       Attention All 35- to 55-Year-Old Women: Why You Should Read This Book

      Menopausal weight gain – it’s real, it’s necessary and it’s the most stubborn weight gain you’ll ever experience. It’s more stubborn than the weight you gained during pregnancy, and it’s as essential as the weight you gained during puberty. It also starts when you’re younger than you’d ever imagine and lasts longer than you’d like.

      You may be in your mid-thirties when the first few pounds mysteriously appear regardless of how little you’ve eaten or how much you’ve exercised, in your mid-forties when you come to the disheartening realization that your waist is 2 inches wider and your body is a full size larger, or in your mid-fifties as you wonder if and when it’s ever going to stop. Whether your midlife weight gain is just beginning or finally tapering off, you are among the millions of frustrated women who are crying out for help with their expanding waistlines and changing bodies.

      This book is the answer to your universal cry for help – providing the knowledge, understanding and solutions necessary to manage this mysterious weight gain and outsmart your ‘midlife fat cells’.

      If you are in your mid-thirties to early forties, your initial reaction may be one of shock and resistance: ‘But I still have my periods and I don’t have hot flushes! I can’t possibly be in midlife! I’m too young to be menopausal!’ The average woman lives to be about 80 years old, so the midway point is age 40 – marking midlife. And, although you are probably too young to be menopausal, you’re not too young to be just entering the transition to the menopause – or, as it is called now, the perimenopause. The menopause is the clinical term used to mark the end of your menstrual cycles, but the perimenopause refers to the years surrounding that event. Not just a couple of years, or a few years, but up to 20 years beforehand. Research is finding that this transition starts in the mid-to late thirties for most women and ends in their mid-fifties. That’s one quarter of our lives!

      But most women still think that the menopause involves only a two-to four-year transition. While it’s true that the most intense part of our transition lasts a few years, the initial changes begin more than a decade earlier when ever-so-slight hormonal changes affect your periods, moods and weight. Your premenstrual symptoms begin to transform from moderate tension to ‘PMS from hell’, your mood swings start to become mood sweeps, and your body shape progressively changes from an hourglass to a beer glass. You may have struggled with your weight before, but now the pounds accumulate without any appreciable change in your eating or exercise habits. If you are experiencing a change in your body shape, then you are in the perimenopause and need to work with that reality.

      The truth is: Your body changes before you technically enter ‘the change’, and your 30 billion female fat cells enter the menopausal transition before you do.

      Each and every one of us has 30 billion fat cells, and a few years ago research finally validated what we had long suspected: fat cells have gender. A woman’s fat cells are physiologically different from a man’s. They are larger, more active and more resistant to dieting. And based on that long-awaited research, I wrote my first book, Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell, to provide a non-dieting solution to weight loss that works with a woman’s fat-storing physiology. At the end of Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell, I cautioned women that when they reach the perimenopause, they will most likely have to outsmart their fat cells again.

      Well, now you’ve reached that transition, and once again research is starting to surface to provide a physiological explanation for why female fat cells grow even larger and more stubborn during midlife.

      Here’s a brief explanation: As soon as your fat cells detect a slightly lower oestrogen level, they come to your aid to produce oestrogen for you. (Fat cells producing oestrogen? This may surprise you, but it’s one of their highly evolved functions.) They know that eventually your ovaries will stop producing oestrogen, so they start preparing to take over the ovaries’ job. They increase their size, number and ability to store fat. Interestingly enough, the fat cells in your waist grow the largest because they are better equipped to produce oestrogen than the fat cells in your buttocks, hips or thighs. The larger and more active your abdominal fat cells become, the more oestrogen will be produced, and the more benefits you will receive: fewer hot flushes, milder mood swings, less intense PMS, improved sleep, a reduced risk of osteoporosis and an overall easier transition. This is why larger women have always reported less menopausal stress, while leaner women have the most difficulty with the transition.

      Ironically, the very weight gain we abhor is actually beneficial for us. While we are waging war