AI-generatedYou eat much as before, yet feel different in your body. Weight and fat distribution may change during menopause. This is not a personal failure, and cannot usefully be reduced to one hormone.
Why does the body change?
Hormonal changes, increasing age, muscle mass, activity and sleep interact. Stress, medicines and medical conditions may also play a role. Weight alone does not show which factor is decisive for you.
A changed waist circumference proves neither oestrogen dominance nor progesterone deficiency. A check should not derive such a diagnosis from it either.
How can nutrition help?
A practical diet should provide sufficient nutrients and fit your needs. Protein sources, vegetables, pulses and other fibre-rich foods can be important elements. This does not mean banning carbohydrates or making every meal perfect.
For individual advice, a specific food record is more useful than the general statement “I eat healthily”. In the practice, we use three documented days: two weekdays and one weekend day within a two-week period.
Why strength training?
Muscles matter for everyday function and physical capacity. Adapted strength training can help maintain strength and muscle mass. Starting points depend on experience, symptoms and physical condition. Endurance exercise and regular everyday activity complement this approach.
In the planned HER offering, an individual training component with Junia Keutel can complement medical advice. A training plan provides support, rather than a promise of a particular weight.
What role do sleep and symptoms play?
Someone woken by hot flushes often has less daytime energy for activity and meal planning. Treating troublesome symptoms is therefore worthwhile. This differs from using hormones solely for weight loss.
HRT or weight-loss injections?
Hormone therapy is not purely a weight-loss treatment. Observational data on HRT and GLP-1 medicines cannot establish a promise of additional weight loss for an individual woman either. Medical obesity treatment has its own requirements and needs individual medical assessment.
What is a useful first step?
Consider weight history, waist circumference, diet, activity, sleep and possible health-related causes together. Nutritional medicine and medical weight treatment are different services that may complement one another with a suitable indication.
Discuss your symptoms at your own pace
Would you like a medical assessment of your changes? At Praxis Jona in Berlin-Mitte, we discuss your questions and suitable next steps.
Enquire about menopause advice
Read more
- Supplements in perimenopause: what makes sense?
- Brain fog and fatigue in perimenopause
- Hormone therapy in perimenopause: while still having periods?
