Lose Weight with Menopause By Staying Away From Chemicals in Food vs Taking Vitamin, Minerals and Supplements vs Making Specific Changes to Your Diet ... and 1 more
Edited by Donna, Eng, Alma
4 Methods:
Weight gain is almost impossible to avoid during menopause.
Menopause weight gain, also has known as Middle Age Spread, can be reversed by adopting a healthy and active diet and lifestyle. You gain weight during menopause because:
- Hormonal changes cause diminishing muscle mass, which in turn causes the body to burn calories at a much slower pace, which in turn means that you need to increase your physical activity and eat less
- Your body over produces a hormone called leptin, a hormone that tells you to stop eating because you feel full, which in turn malfunctions and makes you consume more calories than usual because you always feel hungry
- Your body begins to overproduce cortisol, which encourages the conversion of blood sugar into fat, which in turn adds inches and pounds to your frame
- Raises in levels of estrogen causes your body to produce glucose \and send fat to tissues, expanding them by as much as four times to accommodate the storage of glucose
- Rising estrogen levels cause your body to become insulin resistant, meaning that it no longer recognizes insulin or absorbs and the result is that your body packs on even more fat because carbs and fats are no longer recognized as fuel
- Raises in levels of estrogen in the body combine with the estrogens, antibiotics and toxins in food (especially from eating meat) and make them doubly potent, making it even harder to lose weight
- There are non-organic estrogens in plastics, food, and pollution of all kinds that cause the body to stop producing testosterone, which the body especially needs during menopause and sabotages muscle growth and cell repair, leading to a very flabby, aged appearance
- Menopause can cause women to suffer from a low-functioning thyroid, which in turn can create a feeling of fatigue or depression that can make it difficult to exercise
Method 1: By Staying Away From Chemicals in Food
Food sprayed with chemicals causes further hormonal disruption in menopausal women.
Certain common chemicals that are added to food to preserve them or improve their flavor are known hormone disruptors. Hormone disruptors are disastrous for the menopausal body because they cause havoc with your metabolism. Fake messages sent from chemical imposters cause estrogen levels to skyrocket and the body refuses to recognize food as energy and sends it directly to tissues to be stored as fat. Furthermore, these toxic substances also interfere with the body's gut biome (the environment in your intestines), causing an increase in fat storage and a feeling of constant hunger that can never be satiated.
Here are some steps you can take to avoid ingesting hormone disrupting chemicals that are known to make weight gain in menopausal women worse.
- 1It is now well known that BPA disrupts pancreatic function and causes the insulin resistance that leads to obesity. In order to avoid this chemical avoid buying plastic bottles made of BPA and opt to buy BPA-free. Plastics with BPA will have a #7 marked in the embedded slightly raised recycling triangle stamped right into the plastic. Avoid canned foods whenever possible, especially canned tomatoes and tuna fish, which are known for having high levels of BPA.Avoid plastic food and drink containers that domain Biphenyl-A (BPA).
Look for plastic containers and bottles with the BPA-Free label. - 2This is a fungicide commonly used on many food crops, especially leafy greens, This toxin is known to cause hormonal disruption, weight gain, and cancer. This means that the non-organic salad you are eating might be promoting fat storage and sabotaging the body's ability to build lean muscle.Avoid eating non-organic produce as it is mostly like sprayed with Triflumizole.
Only eat produce that is 100% organic. - 3These are chemicals used in processed foods like mayonnaise and salad dressing that are known hormonal disrupters. They lead to metabolic system and interfere with the balance of your gut bacteria, causing obesity and many gut diseases such as IBS and colitis. Eating raw and clean is recommended for menopausal women because emulsifiers are in almost everything and often described on a food label as polysorbate or sorbitan monostearate.Avoid eating food that contains emulsifiers.
Avoid foods that contain emulsifiers, such as mayonnaise. - 4If you must eat meat choose meat and dairy products that have organic, free range and grass-fed description on the label. Otherwise, the antibiotics and hormones in these foods are transferred to the already overloaded system or the menopausal woman. The result is hormonal disruption, insulin resistance, obesity and a lowered immune system that causes severe inflammation.Avoid eating meat and dairy that have been raised with antibiotics and hormones.
Grass fed beef raised without antibiotics or hormones. - 5The PFOA in Teflon cookware and microwavable bags transfers to the menopausal body and causes obesity. PFOA is also found in the metallic bag that contains microwavable popcorn or meals that cook inside a metallic bag in a microwave. To avoid absorbing PFOA do not microwave your food at all.Avoid using cookware, food bags and microwaveable bags that contain Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as Teflon.
Avoid microwaved food, such as microwaved popcorn to keep your hormones in balance. - 6Sweeteners to avoid are Aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet) Saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet'N'Low), Acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One), Sucralose (Splenda), Neotame and Advantame. Artificial sweeteners are hormone disrupters and they may cause bloating, weight gain and eventually irreversible obesityEliminate all artificial sweeteners from your diet and substitute Stevia, Truvia, Xylitol, honey or molasses instead..
- 7It is commonly contaminated with insecticide and pesticides and only buy organic versions of them. The hormonal disrupting residue left on and inside the produce causes weight gain in menopausal women. To avoid this issue only buy organic versions of apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, potatoes, leafy greens and hot peppers. These foods are common grocery store fare that are known to be particularly contaminated with pesticides and it is best to avoid them.Be aware of produce that is not labeled as organic.
- 8The foods that are the least likely to be contaminated with hormone disrupting chemicals as of 2016 are avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbage, sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangos, papayas, kiwi, eggplant, honeydew melon, grapefruit, cantaloupe, and cauliflower. These are also the foods that a menopausal woman does not necessarily have to buy organic because they have not likely been treated with pesticides.Try to eat mostly from the Clean Fifteen List, which is an annual list of produce that is the least contaminated with pesticides and insecticides.
Avocados are one of the fruits on the Clean Fifteen List.
Method 2: By Taking Vitamin, Minerals and Supplements
Taking supplements can help prevent weight gain in menopausal women.
Menopause is a condition that improves with therapeutic doses of vitamins, minerals, and supplements. To manage the hormonal imbalances that cause the weight gain that is associated with menopause, try taking the following supplements.
- 1Evening primrose oil contains an essential fatty acid called GLA that helps influence hormone synthesis and moderate the weight gain associated with menopausal symptoms. The Vitamin E works synergistically with the oil, so that is more effective, reducing menopausal symptoms. You can also take either supplement by itself if you wish, but they are more powerful if taken together.Take 400 IUs of Natural Vitamin E a day along with 400 Ius of Evening Primrose Oil.
Evening primrose oil. - 2This is an antioxidant and amino acid that is used to increase glutathione levels in the body. Glutathione is a substance that helps protect and repair insulin receptors that have been damaged by escalating hormone levels. This supplement also helps remove toxic hormonally disruptive environmental pollutants from the body as well as reduce cholesterol and inflammation.Take 400 grams of N-Acetyl Cysteine acid, also known as NAC three times a day with meals.
N-A-C helps with bronchitis, but it also keeps escalating hormone levels and weight gain in check. - 3Inositol is a form of glucose that helps defy hormone disruptions and assist the body accepting insulin.Take 4 grams of inositol per day with 400 mcg of folic acid to boost your metabolism and reduce feelings of hunger.
Inositol capsuls help boost your metabolism. - 4Menopausal women need extra amounts of Vitamin C daily to fight the inflammation that is caused by fluctuating hormonal levels and exposure to toxins that causes inflammation.Be sure to take at least 1000 mg of Vitamin C a day and ideally 10,000 mg if your system tolerates it.
1000 mg of Vitamin C a day helps control the fluctuating hormone levels associated with menopause. - 5This helps menopausal women metabolize fat, expel water and fight inflammation. Vitamin D also helps deal with mood disorders.Take 1000 IU of Vitamin D3 a day or more up to 10,000 units.
Take 1000 IU o Vitmain D3 a day or more. - 6Chromium levels are chronically low in the general populace, but menopausal women are even in more need of it because their bodies are constantly fighting inflammation and insulin resistance.Take 200 mcg of chromium a day to help regulate your blood sugar levels.
Take 200 mcg of chromium a day.
Method 3: By Making Specific Changes to Your Diet
Eating foods that are low-fat and organic can help manage the hormone disruptions associated with menopause.
Consuming foods and drinks that supp can help prevent the weight gain and water retention associated with menopause. Here are some ways to make specific changes to your diet to help deal with the insulin resistance, fatigue, and hunger associated with it.
- 1Water helps your body flush out fat and toxins as well as remedy the bloating that is so much a part of hormonal disruption during menopause. Spring water can also be used as long as you are sure that it is from a pure source. Avoid drinking carbonated and flat mineral water, unless you are certain that it has a low sodium content. Some healthy mineral waters are very high in sodium and this can cause bloating and weight gain. Mineral waters with high potassium and lithium contents can be better choices because they can help you lose weight.Drink at least eight glasses of pure vapor distilled water a day to help cleanse your system and make you feel full.
Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
2
Eat two tablespoons of flax seed a day
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A spoonful of whole flax seeds.
3
Eat a diet that is very low in carbohydrates and high in fiber to keep your blood level sugars in check
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Stay away from starchy foods like mashed potatoes.
4
Eat or drink two to four servings of organic dairy products a day to ensure that you get at least 12,000 mg of calcium in your diet
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Menopausal women should drink a glass of low-fat milk.
5
Be sure to eat a diet that contains healthy fats
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6
Eliminate all the sugar that you can from your daily diet and try not to eat foods that have more than 10 mg of sugar unless it is fresh fruit
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Eliminate all of the sugar that you can from your daily diet, including all candies.
7
Drastically lower your sodium intake to 1200 mg a day to reduce hormonally induced water retention
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Stop salting your food and you will lose weight.
- 1It is especially important for a woman with menopause to flush sodium out of their bodies by eating dandelions, nettles, bananas, squash, spinach, beans, lentils, raisins, papaya and cantaloupe.Eat more potassium- rich foods as this encourages the body to eliminate sodium.
Cantaloupe contains potassium which helps you lose weight. - 2Chinese food and many gravies and sauces are made with cornstarch, which converts straight to fat in your body and packs on the pounds. Inspect the labels of canned or boxed foods to make sure that cornstarch is not an ingredient. This issue is easily avoided if you eat raw and organically and avoid packaged foods altogether.Avoid all starchy foods, such as potatoes, corn and peas and anything that contains cornstarch.
Avoid foods like corn, which escalate insulin levels. - 3Inositol helps the body lose weight by decreasing insulin resistance and it also helps you deal with the irritability and insomnia associated with menopause The best sources of inositol are beef heart, beef liver, chicken livers, wheat germ, brown rice, whole grain bread, soy nuts, molasses, cantaloupe and citrus fruits. Including at least one of these foods with each of your three meals, a day helps boost your daily intake of inositol.Eat two to three foods a day that are rich in inositol.
Chicken livers are rich in inositol, which helps menopausal women lose weight. - 4Folic acid is depleted from the body as menopausal women age and this causes weight gain. The most diet-friendly sources are leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kale and dandelion, citrus fruits and beans. [Image:spinach in a bowl_66971.jpg|center|frame|Leafy green vegetables lie spinach are a good source of folic acid.]]Eat at least three foods a day that are a source of folic acid.
- 5Foods that are rich in chromium include Brazil nuts cacao, brewer's yeast, broccoli, eggs, grass fed beef, mussels, oysters, pears, grapes, garlic, parsley, and basil.Eat at least three foods a day that are rich in the mineral chromium.
Oysters are rich in the mineral chromium, which assists with weight loss. - 6Seaweed contains iodized salt and minerals that help keep your thyroid and pituitary gland in good shape. This is important because these two glands help regulate your metabolism and keep you feeling energetic. Seaweed also contains probiotics that help keep your guts healthy.Eat a half a cup of Japanese seaweed salad a day.
Eat seawee to help you lose weight.
Method 4: By Making Lifestyle Changes
Menopausal women will gain weight unless they are willing to make some basic changes to their lifestyle. Eating fewer calories, staying away from foods and substances that are hormone disrupters and getting active are crucial to avoiding any weight gain. Here are some basic lifestyle changes that are recommended for menopausal women who wish to resist insulin resistance, bloating and weight gain.
- 1Menopausal women can combat their tendency to overeat by eating smaller protons and serving their food on smaller plates. Cutting calories from your daily diet is also easier if you can make it a personal rule that you are never allowed seconds.Eat less by controlling your portion sizes.
Serving meals on smaller plates can help you eat less without really noticing. - 2Choose foods that are rich in essential fatty acids and hormones, regulating agents to create your smoothies such as flax seed, wheat germ, low-fat dairy, low-fat yogurt, raw organic cacao, pineapple, papaya, cantaloupe, citrus fruits, avocado, spinach, and kale. [Avoid sweetening these smoothies with anything but a bit a honey, as the sugars in the dairy products will be enough.Replace a meal with a smoothie every day and you will save about 500 calories.
A cantaloupe smoothie. - 3Aerobic exercise in fresh air is very important for menopausal women because the hormonal disturbances make it much harder to raise your metabolic rate and burn off the calories. If you can only fit in an hour of exercise a day, you are better off than sticking with no exercise at all.Take a walk, swim or run every day for at least two hours every day.
Taking a walk every day can help you expend calories and balance disrupted hormones. - 4It is absolutely essential for menopausal moment to build up their muscles as big muscles help the body burn fat even while it is at rest.Exercising with free weights or circuit training for twenty minutes at least three times a week.
Exercising with free weights helps build fat-burning muscles. - 5It is essential to get enough rest so that your body has a chance to deal with the toxic overload and fatigue caused by menopause. Getting enough rest helps your body cope better with environmental and emotional stresses that could help raise your cortisol levels and in turn raise your blood sugar.Get at least eight hours of sleep at night, if not more.
Getting plenty of rest is crucial to helping menopausal women adjust to hormonal changes. - 6Going to bed by 11:00 pm and rising by 8:00 am will help your body reestablish a set point for your metabolism so it can work more efficiently.Establish a routine of retiring for the evening and getting up at a time that is the same every day.
Rise at 8:00 every day and never change your routine to assist your metabolism with resetting itself. - 7Often this is due to a hormonal disruption of the thyroid or the pituitary or a blood sugar reaction to having too much glucose in your blood stream.Take at least one nap a day to help relieve the fatigue that can be part of going through menopause.
A nap every day can help your metabolism regulate itself so you do not gain weight. - 8This helps prevent blood sugar swings, cravings, and overeating. Good choices are oatmeal with fruit and low-fat milk, a whole grain low-fat bagel with cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit.Make sure that you eat breakfast every day.
Oatmeal and fruit with milk is an ideal high-protein hormonal regulating breakfast for menopausal women. - 9Too much distress can cause cortisol levels to rise, which in turn causes elevated blood sugar levels. This can result in chronic insulin resistance that leads to weight gain. Stay away from situations that cause you angst to prevent hormonal weight gain and also the self-medicating with food that can also accompany it.Avoid emotional drama and negative people.
Avoiding drama and negative people can help keep your cortisol levels from rising and causing weight gain. - 10Menopausal issues can cause fatigue, depression, and also mindless snacking. The best thing that you can do for menopausal weight gain is to drink lots of water and stay active.Avoid sitting down all day in front of a computer or a television or staying in bed all day.
Watching television all day causes weight gain. - 11Take up knitting, coloring or ceramics, whatever it takes to keep your mind off of gorging on food, as menopausal women often feel hungry.Avoid mindless snacking by taking up a hobby that allows you to do something with your hands.
Keeping your hands busy can keep you from mindlessly snacking, as menopause can cause cravings. - 12When the urge to overeat or do something that may hurt your health overcomes, you practice HALT, which is an acronym for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. The idea is to check to see if you are tempted to overeat for any of these for reasons. This helps you evaluate whether or not it is a good idea to pick up that snack food. If you are hungry, you may want to have a healthy meal, instead of the snack, if you are angry, you may want to write in a journal or go for a walk, and if you lonely, you might want to call a friend for company. Many menopausal women feel tempted to overeat because hormones make them feel tired and they feel that they will have more energy. It is better to have a nap instead.Practice HALT.
Many people eat for emotional reasons or because they are tired, not because they are hungry. - 13These drugs cause you to excrete B vitamins and other minerals through the urine as well and are well known for being the cause of non-fatty alcoholic liver disease.Avoid taking non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) such as Advil, Motrin, Aleve, Anaprox and Nuprison as they empty your body of chromium.
Taking Advil can deplete levels of chromium in your body and lead to inflammation and weight gain. - 14Smoking increases, your cortisol levels, depletes your body of Vitamin C, B vitamins and minerals and overloads your liver and kidneys with toxins. Menopausal women will develop a fatty liver as a result. It is also a good idea to stay away from second-hand cigarette smoke as well.Stop smoking any kind of cigarette.
Smoking causes weight gain in older women. - 15Drinking alcoholic beverages of any kind provoke hormonal and cortisol reactions in menopausal women that cause bloating, fatty liver and eventual obesity. Aside from avoiding recreational drinking, menopausal women should also avoid taking alcohol in drugs like cough syrup or even in homeopathic diluted remedies.Avoid drinking alcohol.
Menopausal women should avoid drinking alcohol as it is a hormone disruptor. - 16These substances contain varsols and chemicals that overload the liver and disrupt hormones, thus causing weight gain.Avoid getting acrylic nails, wearing nails polish and do not use nail polish remover.
Acrylic nails contain toxins that disturb your metabolism and cause weight gain. - 17Hair dye contains chemicals that can overload your liver and kidneys and cause inflammation, insulin resistance and weight gain. Many menopausal women already have issues with their thyroids, which are made worse by the heavy metals in hair dye.Stop dyeing or perming your hair.
Dying your hair is a cause of hormonal imbalance and weight gain. - 18Take a brush and starting from the edges of your extremities brush your skin towards the heart with large sweeping motions. This will help your body detox through the skin, necessary because menopausal women have systems that are so overloaded that they do not always eliminate toxins well through the digestive system or sweat glands.Give your body a dry scrub every day.
Dry skin brushing can help elimnate toxins and speed up your circulation and metabolism.
Tips and Tricks
Get a doctor to test your FSH levels to make sure you are in menopause before you start treating yourself for it.
- Get your doctor to test your FSH level to determine whether or not you are actually officially in menopause before trying any self-administered therapy or supplementation for menopausal issues
- Some women experience weight loss after being prescribed bio-identical hormone therapy
- Eating as raw, vegan and organic as possible is the only way for some menopausal women to stop gaining weight
- Keep in mind that supplements are meant to prevent deficiencies and should never be taken to replace nutrition
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
