{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"3 Menopause Fitness Makeovers | Hormone Balancing Exercise ","description":"During this episode I\u2019m going to provide you with the insight on 3 menopause fitness makeovers. Without disclosing or intruding on client confidentiality these three represent unique situations not uncommon in the 25 years I\u2019ve been coaching midlife women. In the last decade, I\u2019ve grown far more knowledgeable about how to help and the science behind both the stuck and the tools to get unstuck.  00:00 05:00 First let\u2019s make it clear, exercise doesn\u2019t replace or create hormones where you\u2019re not making them at all.   However, a poorly planned or carried out exercise routine can: trash your hormone levels. A well-planned one can help optimize hormones. The collective \u201chormones\u201d is a term you should begin to run from, or ask pointedly, which hormone do you mean?  Because fiercely competitive yet vaguely educated trainers are using the blanket term themselves not knowing what it they mean.  For nearly a decade we\u2019ve been serving both women and the trainers and health coaches that serve them, about cortisol being the pivot point for many of the problems that exist for women in midlife including weight gain, lack of muscle tone, and specifically belly fat.   However, with hormones and exercise, you must consider the interplay of hormones, exercise, and lifestyle. Let\u2019s dive into these Menopause fitness makeovers.  09:31 Woman #1: It\u2019s Not Working on Her Own A woman comes to a trainer and wants to lose weight and fit into her clothes better. She\u2019s always tired. What she\u2019s doing isn\u2019t working.  Old Way: Trainer\u2019s response is to put her in a bootcamp or a bootcamp-like training routine. Likely solutions depending on the woman\u2019s budget were:  Either do a 4x a week bootcamp plus instructions for exercise on the weekend or meet with the trainer 3x a week for workouts and do the rest on her own.  The trainer suggests a caloric intake based on a formula from an online calculator. The trainer has the client use a food and exercise log to show once a week.   This is a calories-in-calories-out formula. A formula for disaster, I might add.   It\u2019s Like Flirting with Dieting: It Works for a While I can\u2019t deny for some women this works, for a few minutes. Maybe months. The high intensity workouts are an adrenalin rush, and the weight loss feels empowering. Until that moment when the lack of nutrition, ignoring ever-present micronutrient needs that increase with exercise, and the reliance on caffeine or giving in to cravings begins to take over.   The weight that came off, isn\u2019t sustained because fatigue, and injury tend to happen more than they don\u2019t. During times when a healthy athletic woman can have a disrupted schedule because of life and sustain a fitness level, someone with this underlying fatigue, will gain weight and realize there\u2019s less muscle now, more fat, and she\u2019s older, trying to gain muscle back.  New Way:  The trainer explores the reasons for the constant feelings of tired before adding exercise. There\u2019s a thorough review of lifestyle, food, and exercise. It\u2019s far beyond the health and activity history of trainers fresh from a certification or using the method they\u2019ve used for decades.   The trainer recognizes the signs and symptoms a woman is experiencing and uses them as a basis for modifying small yet effective habits that increase energy and feelings of rest first. Small exercise assignments that lay a foundation for good fitness are involved \u2026 without an overhaul of change.   Strength to muscle fatigue in as few days a week as possible is the goal. That\u2019s key\u2026 strength to muscular fatigue in as few days as possible is the goal. More muscle, less breakdown. Less soreness, less fatigue, less risk of injury and more overall caloric expenditure because of the increased strength and stamina.   Though there\u2019s a blueprint for menopause fitness, there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all approach.  1) There is first a process to arrive at the 2) apparently healthy midlife status before applying it. 3) For those that want more\u2026 performance, competition, there\u2019s an exchange of traditional \u201cvolume\u201d for quality and planned training to increase result with reduced volume of training.  This method determines the effect of calories eaten and calories burned on hormones.   Hormones, not calories, control whether your body burns or stores fat.  Are you burning calories or burning out? In midlife more than ever, it\u2019s about what the exercise does to your hormones.   21:45 Woman #2: Diet Didn\u2019t Work A woman follows the old way of reducing calories, and the health-touted plant-based diet along with walking. It works for months. She\u2019s losing weight. She feels euphoric. Until she doesn\u2019t.   She realizes after reading about why this would happen, she\u2019s lost lean muscle. Her metabolism is slower. She\u2019s postmenopause by now and has experienced the accelerated loss of muscle (and bone) that can happen during the menopause transition without adequate muscle protein synthesis to overcome muscle protein breakdown. She struggles to change her idea of \u201chealthy eating.\u201d She still sees a bagel and fruit as a healthy option for breakfast, not realizing that the spike in blood sugar and insulin put her in fat storage and determine a trajectory for the day. She\u2019ll experience more hunger, more cravings, and a need for more caffeine.  She even resorts to 5-hour energy to sustain the ability to focus and energy to finish projects.   Old Way:  She\u2019s commended for her goal to reach 10k steps daily, even though she doesn\u2019t quite reach it, she\u2019s conscious of her movement.  She\u2019s asked to increase her activity level so she\u2019s doing more jogging or interval training, and to start strength training three times a week.  The trainer asks her if she wants to continue plant-based diet and has her consciously adding protein to each meal using smart combinations.  New Way: She\u2019s asked to abort an emphasis on step count in favor of strength training to regain lean muscle and improve metabolism, as well as her energy level. There\u2019s a discussion about the need to use caffeine for energy. A healthy, vibrant woman with access to high quality food and options for activity should have energy. If that\u2019s not the case, there are a) several lifestyle factors to change b) tests to look at that could help compliance of those changes. She\u2019s asked where she\u2019d rather start.  Daily tracking of her energy level in response to her food and exercise begins asap.  Even in the presence of proof it\u2019s not working, we sometimes resist the very obvious need for change. We\u2019re used to thinking that in order to get what we want we have to cheat the system or have a short cut. The short cut is simple habits of the right nutrition and exercise for the phase of life you\u2019re in.   That\u2019s not suggesting you settle. You can have the energy and look and feel amazing at this age\u2026 not \u201cfor your age,\u201d just simply period.  29:24 Woman #3 Menopause Fitness Makeover: The Over Achiever A woman with discipline in spades and commitment to routine is gaining weight instead of losing. She\u2019s long past menopause but also a long slave to controlling calories, except when she doesn\u2019t. That is, she is still \u201cbeing good\u201d or associating good days with eating lower calorie, not \u201cblowing it\u201d and hasn\u2019t really adopted a lifestyle of eating that makes it possible to eat foods that agree with her no matter where she is or who she\u2019s with.   This is where we call this the difference between healthy eating habits and disordered patterns of eating. If we\u2019re talking about a continuum, on the far right then is disordered eating. That\u2019s where anorexia, bulimia (which includes purging via exercise), and compulsive overeating live). This is an area of distinction we make in the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist course. At midlife, we\u2019re back in a situational transition that is often the trigger for greater struggle with disordered eating patterns or eating disorders.   Old Way:  Commend client on the activity she\u2019s doing. Encourage more of it. Burning calories becomes the key. Monitoring food and counting calories becomes the focus. There\u2019s a projection made that if calories are reduced by X and activity is maintained, the weight loss will happen in a specific timeframe.  And\u2026 it backfires. The woman, already ultra-aware of the number of calories in ever food, now has a light shined on it and wants to accelerate progress. Thinking about food, planning meals, counting and logging every calorie becomes a part-time job.  There\u2019s very little focus on how she feels, how she\u2019s sleeping, whether she\u2019s gaining strength, getting faster or feeling a benchmark workout is easier.  Because meals are so focused on lower calories, between meals she\u2019s hungry and craving. She\u2019s resorting to either empty calories or then taking in high calorie snacks like nuts and seeds instead of eating meals that allow satiety. New Way:  The trainer\/coach is sensitive to signs of lifelong dysfunctional relationship with food. An agreement to completely abandon tracking and counting calories or points. Instead, the focus is on what to include, or begin to move toward.  There\u2019s no deprivation or gaming with the traditional low calorie diet foods like overuse of cabbage and grapefruit, so commonly included in diet culture.  A focus on building complete meals instead of cutting out things. Gamifying the number of servings of vegetables in a day and the amount of protein at each meal, is helpful. What\u2019s Hard About this Highly Motivated Active Enthusiast? It\u2019s a curse and a blessing.  The hardest  thing for an overachiever is cutting back on something they feel is part of their identity. If exercise is a form of escape. Not just a source of calorie burning and weight loss that it may have begun as, but thanks to or because of neurotransmitters there s more. There\u2019s a feel-good that comes or a relief of anxiety and lift of depression with exercise that isn\u2019t experienced otherwise. It\u2019s unique for each individual, but it\u2019s a source of control and stable source of calm for those that find this.  Removing any of that can leave someone feeling loss. Like any drug addiction, a negative addiction to exercise can occur. First there many only be the evidence you\u2019re tired, sore, not sleeping as well, or always hungry. There may be the withdrawal from activities with friends because it interferes with exercise or includes foods you don\u2019t eat.  That in itself isn\u2019t a sign of addiction. Because, selfcare may require you to skip breakfast with the family to do your strength training or to miss a dinner. Later, there\u2019s usually escalation. A 4-mile walk turns into 5, or a once-a-day walk turns into two. Sooner or later the pounding or repetitious use of joints or ligaments without adequate recovery \u2013 because rest is hard for someone in this cycle \u2013 leads to depressed immunity or injury.  Want Support? If this resonates, I\u2019ll link to the Flipping 50 Caf\u00e9. Enrollment is limited to twice yearly and at that time there is both a monthly and an annual option. Annual at the time of this post for first time first year members is a savings of $239.  There\u2019s no more comprehensive membership for menopause women in the world.  I hope this has been helpful! Leave a comment if you resonated with any of these.  Resources mentioned in this episode:  Flipping 50 Cafe Membership: https:\/\/www.flippingfifty.com\/cafe Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist: https:\/\/www.flippingfifty.com\/specialist ","author_name":"The Flipping 50 Show","author_url":"https:\/\/www.flippingfifty.com\/podcast","html":"