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Chapter 3 The Meno-Positive Approach to a Trimmer Transition

After a few months of making phone calls in hopes of finding a weight management programme designed specifically for menopausal women, Michelle rang me. She began by giving me a detailed history of her weight, eating habits and lifestyle, and explaining that she had kept her weight perfectly stable until two years ago. I sat back in my chair listening sympathetically, ready to take my turn to explain her menopausal weight gain. But Michelle immediately went into her list of 10 specific questions for me to answer on my approach and philosophies.

I was impressed with her level of organization and commitment to finding a programme that was right for both her life and her body. She was impressed with my honest answers and knowledge about women’s health and weight loss. At the end of our conversation, she said that she thought she wanted to work with me, but had one last question: ‘What do you call your positive approach to helping women control their weight during the menopause?’ I responded, ‘I call it The Meno-Positive Approach to a Trimmer Transition.’

Michelle loved the name of my programme, but more important, she felt that this approach made complete sense from a physiological standpoint. Menopausal fat cells are undergoing enormous changes, so eating and exercise habits have to change with them.

I asked Michelle to share her list of 10 questions, because they may be the same questions you have, and answering them now will prepare you for The Meno-Positive Approach.

1 What’s the most important change I can make during the transition to lose weight? Without hesitation, the answer is exercise. Aerobic exercise combined with strength-building is the only way to stimulate the release of fat from your fat cells. During the menopause, your fat cells are storing more, but the right exercise programme can counteract at least half of that storage. That’s why we’ll first focus on tailoring your exercise programme to work for the menopause.

2 How many menopausal women have you worked with? Over 2,000 at various stages of the transition. Through their experiences and my own research, I’ve discovered what works and what doesn’t. But it’s important to keep in mind that we are all different physiologically and psychologically, and the changes we make must realistically fit into our day-to-day lifestyles.

3 What is your success rate? 100 per cent if the measure of success is a greater understanding and acceptance of our bodies during the transition – which for me is the most important measurement. If I help you to change your attitudes and habits to enhance your body image, fitness and well-being, then I have accomplished my primary goals. Most women, however, evaluate success by the numbers on the scales. I cannot guarantee that you’ll reach your preconceived weight goal (which may not be realistic), but I can guarantee that you’ll reach a healthy weight, lose your preoccupation with dieting and gain muscle, stamina and strength from your exercise programme.

4 How much weight can I expect to lose? It’s impossible to give you a single answer because it depends on where you are when you start the programme. If you’ve been moderate with eating and committed to exercise and have still gained weight, then at a minimum you’ll prevent any additional weight gain and may lose a few pounds of fat. If you’ve already gained too much body fat because of repeated dieting and overeating, then you’ll lose that excess amount – it may be 3 pounds or 3 stone. Since most perimenopausal women are gaining more weight than they need to, nearly all of my clients lose some fat.

5 How do you measure results? Not by the scales. I don’t have them in my office – or in my home, for that matter. Your own perceptions of body changes – such as how your clothes fit and how you feel – are most important. I do, however, recommend and use body composition analysis so that we can measure pounds of muscle gained and pounds of fat lost over time. For example, if you gain 3 pounds of muscle and lose 3 pounds of fat, the numbers on the scales won’t have changed, but your body will have. It will be leaner and smaller because muscle is more compact than fat.

6 Do you have weekly meal plans for me to follow? No, structured meal plans work only for as long as you’re following them, which is often only two weeks or a month at best. Instead, I’ll help you to follow your body’s optimal meal plan by getting in touch with your menopausal food needs and responding to your signals of hunger and fullness.

7 Will you have me count calories and grams of fat? No, if counting calories and grammes of fat were the secret to weight loss, your search would have been over years ago. What you eat is less important than why, when and how much you eat.

8 Do I have to give up any of my favourite foods? Absolutely not! In fact, I recommend the opposite: incorporating your favourite foods into a healthy lifestyle. As you know all too well, restriction only cries out for overindulgence. Whatever you resist, persists. But the more satisfied you are with what you’re eating, the less you’ll need to eat, and the better you’ll feel.

9 Do you sell any products like fat-burning supplements or prepackaged foods? I never have and never will. For those who do sell weight-loss products, profit is often the underlying motive.

10 How does your approach differ from other programmes? A variety of other programmes also focus on behaviour change and the lifestyle approach, but I am not aware of any designed specifically for menopausal women. The Meno-Positive Approach combines education with action by recommending eating and exercise strategies that work with your changing body. With a body-centred and person-centred approach, you make the decisions based on your understanding of the facts, what makes the most sense to you, and what is most important to you.

From the first two chapters, you have the education, understanding and facts. You know about the effects of changing hormones on your fat cells, muscle mass, body shape and metabolism. You also know the type of fat cells you have and the factors that have influenced your weight-gain experience. Now, it’s time to put that knowledge into action. It’s time to outsmart your midlife fat cells.

Teaching 35- to 55-year-old Fat Cells New Tricks

Whether you are just entering the transition or just completing it, whether you’ve been exercising for the past 20 years or have exercised only once for 20 minutes, whether you’ve spent your life dieting or have never dieted in your life (a handful of you do exist) – this programme will help you change the physiology of your menopausal fat cells so that you will not gain more weight than is necessary and healthy for you.

The overall goal is to alter the way your fat cells function – so that they store a bit less and release much more. This is the only way to manage midlife weight gain permanently. Permanently is the operative word. The changes you make as a result of reading this book will still be ingrained 10 years from now. And 20 years down the road, your fat cells will still be storing less and releasing more.

But let’s focus on today first. At this very moment, you may be doing everything to encourage fat storage. You are not doing this on purpose; years of dieting and society’s restrictive eating rules have caused most of us to be in a perpetual state of fat storage. You may be depriving your body of calories, restricting fat and sugar, skipping meals, overeating when you do eat, consuming the majority of your food intake at night, and avoiding exercise at all costs.

Through decades of practising these behaviours, your fat cells know only how to store. And through the last few years of also being perimenopausal, their storage power is turned up even more, and these habits are making your fat cells larger than ever.

With The Meno-Positive Approach, you’ll teach your fat cells that they can function differently by discouraging storage and encouraging the release of fat. Your fat cells expect you to diet; they are anxiously awaiting your next calorie-deprived Monday so that they can activate storage. But when you wake up Monday morning, bypass the bathroom scales and head directly into the kitchen for breakfast, your fat cells start deactivating their fat-storage enzymes. The most effective way to trick your midlife fat cells is never to diet again and eat instead – when you are hungry, frequently, moderately and guilt-free. Oh, and of course, to make exercise a part of your life for ever.

Don’t diet, eat! Don’t eat less, move more! Don’t eat less frequently, eat more often! And. your fat cells will become smaller over time with The Meno-Positive Approach to a Trimmer Transition.

I am usually philosophically against before and after photos – diets use them to lure you with the message ‘You, too, can lose 4 stone and have a complete transformation like the woman in these pictures if you make out a cheque today for £119.95 (or three easy installments of £39.95).’ What they don’t tell you is that the woman was told to find the worst ‘before’ snap she could, and prior to the ‘after’ snap, she had a complete body makeover with a new hairstyle, makeup and a crash course on accessorizing.

But, with the before and after photos of fat cells, it’s impossible to ‘doctor up’ the pictures. Fat cells can’t be made up or camouflaged to look smaller or larger. Real, measurable changes occur. Whether your fat cells get 5 per cent smaller or 50 per cent smaller, they will shrink when you follow the five principles of The Meno-Positive Approach:

1 Acquiring Meno-Positive Attitudes

2 Mastering Meno-Positive Fitness

3 Embracing Meno-Positive Eating Habits

4 Maximizing Meno-Positive Food Choices

5 Living a Meno-Positive Lifestyle

These principles are ordered to help you make stepwise changes for permanent weight control and enhanced well-being. Acquiring positive attitudes comes first because your attitudes set the scene for all the other changes in your exercise, eating and lifestyle habits. For example, if you don’t respect your body (and yourself), view the menopause as a loss of femininity or think exercise is only for mice on a treadmill, it will be difficult for you to take care of your food and fitness needs during this important time in your life.

Even if you have an exercise attitude like Joan Rivers, who said, ‘If God wanted us to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor,’ I’ll help you find your dangling carrot (or carat) to motivate you to move.

If you already have a positive exercise attitude and have been exercising for quite some time, your programme may have reached its expiry date. It’s no longer working, so you’ll have to make some adjustments for it to work for the menopause. You may have to exercise longer, add a different activity, or add some strength training.

Whether you’re just starting an exercise programme or are an exercise veteran, strength training will be a vital component because it’s the only way to prevent the half-pound of muscle loss a year. And by preventing muscle loss, you’ll automatically prevent fat gain. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories will go to the muscle cells to be burned and the fewer will go to the fat cells to be stored. This is why incorporating exercise is primary and changing eating habits is secondary – but a close second.