Menopause Belly

Weight gain during perimenopause and menopause isn’t a failure—it’s biology. We break down why hormonal shifts lead to belly fat, why dieting harder often backfires, and what actually helps. Real talk, validation, and practical mindset shifts for this stage of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hot Flash and Sassy, a podcast with hot takes, hotter flashes, and a whole lot of sass.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Holly, let's talk about something that feels personal, but actually is not. You're eating the same, you're moving the same, living your life, and suddenly your jeans say, mm-mm, absolutely not. What do you think about that? Well, no one warned us.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

No memo, no group text, no group. Just boom. Welcome to Menopause Belly.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

If you've ever stood in front of the mirror thinking, what did I do wrong? Today's episode is for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Because, spoiler alert, this is not a discipline issue. It's hormones, and they are doing the most. They're always doing the most.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

They are.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

If you don't know that everything's gonna lead to hormones on this podcast, you must not have listened to all the episodes.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I think you say spoiler alert in each episode. Do I? I love it. Well, let's start with the basics. During perimenopause and menopause, your hormones aren't gently declining. They're all over the effing place. Yep. Um, estrogen goes up, down, sideways, and disappears, and then just shows up whenever the hell it wants to. Progesterone drops, which affects sleep, anxiety, and your ability to feel calm. So we're already dealing with estrogen and progesterone. And then here comes your favorite.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

My favorite hormone, cortisol, the stress hormone, is often elevated because your body is under constant internal stress and insulin sensitivity changes, meaning your body doesn't process carbs and sugar the same way it used to. So if weight feels harder to manage, it's because your internal chemistry has changed. Not because you suddenly forgot how to be healthy. Oh, well, sometimes I forget how to be healthy.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Let's put that out there. That Snickers does call my name. I'm not gonna lie. But not all the time. Not all the time. And generally, I try to lead a pretty healthy life. Um, so something important that doesn't get talked about enough is not always weight gain. And I love this wording. Yeah, it's weight redistribution. So the fat that may have sat on your hips has now migrated. It's in a new location.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yay! Okay. Um, that's because estrogen helps regulate where fat is stored. When estrogen declines, your body prioritizes protect protecting your vital organs, which lives in your abdomen. Adom. I'm like abdomen.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Abdomen. Is that where it is? Is it ironic that it ends with men? Abdice. Men. Yes. Men did it. It's all men's fault. So your body, just kidding. Well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Are we? So your body isn't portraying you, it's trying to keep you alive. Unfortunately, it does it without asking your permission.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Hormones pretty much does everything without asking my permission.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Mind of its own. All right. So let's talk about cortisol because it's huge. It's it's such an important hormone. Um, midlife stress plus hormone changes equals chronically elevated cortisol. And cortisol loves to store fat right in the belly.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So when we respond by undereating, over-exercising, and stressing harder, what are we doing? We're just telling cortisol to say, okay, go ahead and freak out because I'm gonna hold you to this. So hold on to everything. We're in danger. We're in the fight or flight mode. So just keep everything right there where it's at. Um, that's why doing more cardio and eating less often backfires in midlife. Holly, did you know I was doing it the right way all along? I'm doing nothing. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Get rid of them diets. No diets here, just some pellets.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah, I do think it's important. I think people naturally go to that and they're like struggling, they're on all these diets, and it's like, it's not even your fault.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, starving themselves, poor things. Eat. Eat some food, eat some protein. Eat yourself some food, okay. If you're thinking, but this used to work for me, yes, it did. Yep. When you were in your 20s, yeah, okay, nothing works for you anymore because hormones are now in charge. Um, so you're definitely not the same person that you were, and extreme calorie uh restriction, it obviously slows down metabolism. We already know that, you know. I mean, the metabolism is what's burning the fat off of you. So you have to find ways to stimulate your metabolism.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah, need that for energy. Right. Too much cardio raises cortisol. That's great because my cardio is slacking. Um, not enough protein leads to muscle loss, and muscle is everything for metabolic health and menopause.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

I just think as we age, it's so important to keep that as a front runner. Keeping the muscle on your body is going to obviously make you stronger and healthier. It is, absolutely. Yes, yes, yes. Um, so let's be clear. Weight loss is still possible. It just requires a different approach. So, what actually helps, Holly, is prioritizing protein, strength training, walking instead of punishing cardio. Excellent. Managing your stress, sleeping whenever possible. Okay, those to me, they sound like the obvious, but you really put a lot of focus on a couple of those. I did.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I when after I had my hysterectomy, um, I started actually running for I guess punishment purposes. I hate it, but I I needed a goal. So I did a 5k. But I will tell you, I was still carrying this weight in my stomach. And I will be transparent, I historically do not carry weight in my stomach before my hysterectomy. Um but I I could not get rid of it. And I'm like, I'm running, I'm burning all these calories. Plus, I was weight training. It did not matter. And that was the first time um I think I complained to Judy about it. She's like, it's menopause belly. And I'm like, what? So then that took me down the path to research. And that's where essentially my takeaway is more protein, less sugar. I'm not getting rid of sugar. I do make a conscious effort to consume less. Um and I have increased my protein, which is not the easiest for me. I don't like a lot of natural protein-rich foods. Um I've had to find those in candy, just so you know. You can't find them in candy. We can make a protein candy. Um but yeah, so that has been huge, is is kind of changing and shaping my diet that way. I have seen major results from doing that. Um, and I'm not perfect on that is it. I do not try to not eat chips. I don't try, I like I still eat what I want to. I just really try to focus on those things.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

The other you also come up with some really great snacks that are high in protein. I feel like it's uh once a month, you're like, hey, have you tried this? It's got 10 grams of protein in it.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah, I'm looking for all the things. I love like the drinkable yogurts and stuff. I'm like, it's easy and they're it's good. I'm not little. They're not really big. They're not. I I'm not big on those Greek yogurts, like just like a like the texture of just like a cup of Greek yogurt. I'm like, I'm and people are like, you can put granola, it's great. I don't give a crap about your granola. It's not helping me. It doesn't, it's not good. But those drinkable ones, I think that you can get those with very low sugar. And yeah, you can get those little shots that are like 10 grams of protein. So just trying to think that way. That's helped me a bunch. Um, my other thing is I will say walking. I I have to, there has been something weighing on me that I keep forgetting to bring up.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Oh boy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Oh Lord, here we go. Our first episode, I said that I walked every day. I would like to say at that time I did.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Because true confession. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Well, I did though, because we recorded this, like we recorded that in fall. It took us a while to actually get it out. I'm not walking. The winter kills me. I I want to walk outside. I cannot walk on a treadmill for a long. You're kind of human.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

My walk happens to a lot of us.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

It's just non-existent. But when I do, I do like to go for a long walk. I enjoy it. I enjoy that way more than doing cardio. I do feel like I need to step up my cardio some. It's been slacking, but I like to read this. This is gives me my reason. I don't really need to do that. I'm doing my strength training. Right. I'm doing Pilates. Right. And I'm doing my walk-in. I mean, you're checking a lot of boxes. It's a lot of boxes.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

And you're eating your protein. I'm eating my protein. I think you're doing a lot of stuff. I'm sure. But there is something else that you do.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Right. I have two other things that changes I've made. One, I don't know if it's as impactful, but I do feel like I have like my arms are kind of toned, and I feel like that might be why, which is creatine. So I've only been doing that a few months, but I take that in the morning. You are giving creatine the credit here, not your weightlifting. Well, no, I'm also doing my weightlifting. I am, but I still given the weightlift. I felt like I was like kind of stuck, and that helped a little bit with tone, if you will. It's supposed to help with focus, but I I don't know. How do you take it? I put it in my pro my after-workout protein usually, or I put it in my smoothie. The biggest thing, the biggest thing that I have done outside of the hormone replacement therapy is I start taking colostrum. Arm rar, I think. A-R-M-R-A. There's other ones, but that's the one. How's that spelled? A-R-M-R-A. Got it. There are other brands, but that's the one that was recommended to me. My my brother-in-law took it, and I actually originally started taking it for my hair growth. And I will be honest, if you were trying to take it for hair growth, I wouldn't necessarily say that's what it did. I the reason I start it and why I still take it are two different things. So you first off, if you have any stomach issues, it clears it up. I'm telling you, it is fantastic. It takes away your bloat in the afternoon. Um, it will help you with weight loss. It is supposed to be like good for your skin. I don't know if it is. Um I will say you have to ease into it. Otherwise, I think it can upset your stomach. I never had that, but if you start it, you do one scoop for like a week and then two scoops, then three. You can take up to four. I don't think more. What are we scooping? So you have to put in something cold. You can mix it into like a smoothie or something. Um a lot of people just take the powder stuff. That's a I know job. I did that once and I was like, Is it like the cinnamon challenge?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, it's not it.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

But that's it, that's how they show all their ads. The people are just like popping this, and I'm like, no, no, get it. It can. You could put it, honestly, I could drink it in a tiny bit of water. It's clumpy, but it's is it's very small.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Oh my god, Joel, she said it's clumpy.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

The scoops are so small. The scoops are so small. You could put it like a little Gatorade. Um I put it in my protein and I shake it up and I don't you don't notice it then. So that are smoothies. You can find something. It does have to be cold. I do it all at one time. I don't take it throughout the day, I take it all in the morning. One at a time.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

How man scoops are you up to?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I do three.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Get out.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And if there's a lot of sickness going around, I do four. It's really good for your immunity. And my telling you, my immune system has been fantastic. All right. And guys, they are not a paid sponsor. They have not asked me to do this. They don't know who I am. That is the truth. It is the best thing that I've done. And I know two people that have started it and they all say the same things.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I love the idea. But is there a pill form? Is there something I don't just swallow? But you know what? It's funny that you bring it up because you see a lot of things advertising with colostrum in it. So a lot of supplements have that added to it. So I think I just need to pay more attention because I bet there's non-powder versions. There might be, you might be able to find something. Yeah. But I also don't mind protein powder. So maybe if I just make myself a protein shake and add that to it.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

You wouldn't notice it then.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah.

unknown 11:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

And sometimes I put it in my smoothies. I really don't notice it. I mean, it's blended in there. It's fine. It just has to be cold. Um that's not going in your hot coffee.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

That's not going in your hot coffee now. Um, so I think we should challenge our listeners out here, Team Holly or Team Renee, who's doing colostrum. Comment team Holly.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Or wants to try it, guys. Come on. I'm telling you, it's a game changer.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

I'm willing to try. And I'll tell you, I do the higher protein and I do the less sugar for my diet. Just naturally, it actually helps with my Hashimoto's. So it makes sense that it does have an effect on other hormones. Yeah. You know, my thyroid is kind of a giant hormone gland, so it I could see it. Yeah. If it works for my thyroid, it probably probably affects some of the other hormones differently too.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

So anyway.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

But I'm going to try the powder. I'm going to go. I'm going to try and be team Holly.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Okay. And try the powder. Just give it a try. I will.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

I will. I'll report back next episode. Yeah. Maybe in two episodes.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

I was just saying, you gotta give it a little time. All right. So, I mean, we kind of determined what is helpful for us in our our menopause belly here. So, strength training, core work, blood sugar balance, and hormone support when appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yes. You know what I saw recently? It says core work as one of the helpful things, obviously, for the belly, your core. You gotta strengthen your core. Right. But that's so good for you anyway, is the um strengthening your core. But I found a chair workout that I want to print and put like at my desk at work because I think I could do just a few of those throughout the day. You don't have to sit for 30 minutes and do a whole chair workout, but just doing a few of those to kind of break up the day while you're sitting anyway, I think that's really helpful. And some of the moves were kind of, I don't know, I wouldn't have thought about doing them. And one of the moves, he kind of put his um flat, his feet kind of flat together to do it. And I'm like, well, that makes sense because you have to balance your body a little bit more if your feet aren't stabilizing you. So you're using more of your abdomen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

I think that's what I like the most about the Pilates is, and you don't have to do that for long either, guys. Like, I use I'll give another shout out. Uh again, not a paid sponsor just to go get my pen out again. Well, it's just Apple Fitness. Oh, but I do the Pilates on there, and I'm gonna tell you a shout-out, Daryl, Apple Fitness Pilates. That's my guy. There's a couple of them that have it, but I really like his. But they have 10-minute videos.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

And I like there are days I don't feel like doing things, but sometimes I'll just do those 10 minutes, and that's great for your back. If you're someone that has back problems, definitely Pilates will because A that's just strengthening your core.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

You know what I love about that is everybody's got really busy days. Let's face it. And you could say that you don't have 10 minutes in your day to do that. I could find an excuse all day long, but it's like those 10 minutes where you go outside and just take a quick walk to get some fresh air, do a 10-minute Pilates video just to decompress from all the crap that you're dealing with that day. I think those small things can make a really big difference. And that's where I like to focus. Right because you don't have to do the full Holly morning 5 a.m. work.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

But I'm not doing like I do a workout every morning, but sometimes it's 20 minutes. Yeah. Like I don't have, I don't have more than 30 ever. 30 is a good day for me. Yeah. I'm typically doing 25 minutes. It's not that's not a significant amount of time. But the other thing is like give yourself grace. If you can't do, do what you can do. Yeah. If you get 10 minutes three days a week, start there.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Hell, if you can get five minutes in, right? That's a great start. You've tried, you put the effort forth, and your body will thank you. Correct. Yeah. Or at least your belly fat will. I agree. Um, but one a couple of things that you should definitely not do. Starving. No. Obviously. Listen, we are not in our 20s anymore. And that whole starving thing may have worked then. You know, the water pills. Did you ever do the water pills just to like lose some weight to fit into that dress or whatever? Yeah, girl, we did it all. Um, but I'm a little bit older than you. Not that much. People are gonna think you're so much older than me. Not very much. Um, the over-exercising that actually can tax your body too much. It can hurt you and you're gonna do more damage than helping yourself. Yeah um, shaming your body. Listen, we should just wake up every morning and tell ourselves we're amazing and we're getting better every day. You know, like that's you just need to remind yourself that hormones have gifted you this madness and we are gonna deal with it, and you're not alone. Most importantly. And don't compare yourself to your younger self. So don't try to be that 20-year-old because she gone, honey, she gone.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

That is easier said than done. I will tell you, when I was turning 40, I was, I mean, 28. Um, I was I struggled, so I had like a serious midlife crisis, and I know it's I it was seriously just shaming or grief from because if I were to do the working out and eating that I do now, I back when I was 25, I would have a bang and bod peep. And I was like, what is happening? And then, you know, I live with a guy that I mean that's just he's just he's got amazing natural metabolism body, and I'm like, that must be nice. That must be so nice to just have that. I mean, he works out and he's well too, but like he also has the natural physical. He doesn't have to worry about it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

You know, he doesn't have hormones wrecking his hands.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

He doesn't have that, no. I'm like, you know, you don't know how well you have it.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

That's exactly right. But you know what? You also brought up grief. I think that's really important. I think we need to give a moment of grief.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yes, because it is a moment of grief where you're watching your body change. You know, you do, you miss that. You miss what you used to have so easily used to have.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yes. Like that size four that I didn't have to work for, and now I'm like, I don't even know that that's in my future ever again, you know. It's such a shift. It's I I think acknowledging it as grief is just as important because you have to mourn the loss of your old self. You're a new human, and this fabulous woman that you are has had to go through all of that crap to get to where you are today. So we have to, you know, get like you said, give it some grace, but also mourn the old you because she's gone. We have to say bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

She is, but the new you is still just as beautiful and just as powerful and just as all of these things. It's just it looks a little different, right? And that's so that's okay. We all just need to be okay with that. That's life.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

I don't know that I'm ever gonna be okay with it. But if you say so, I'm really gonna try to be okay with it.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

It's much easier said than done. I still am struggling so much.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And if you look at it as grief or as mourning, it's there's so many stages to that. Yeah. So you can't just say, okay, I've mourned it, I've moved on. I've you know celebrated my grief and now I'm moving on. That's not a day thing. That's gonna happen, and it's gonna happen over time. Right. So you just have to let yourself go through the process.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

And I think as we get older, there's more things for us to start mourning if we look at, right? Like there's something new, just I mean, that's life.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

That is life. My eyesight changed again.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I will tell everyone a tip of something I'm trying to do and I've done terrible at, but maybe I can do it. I saw like a little um, maybe it was a meme or something, like I don't know, some something, you know, on Facebook scrolling. And it was a woman that was like, anytime my kids my kids took a picture or showed me a picture of myself and would say, like, look at it, I would look at it and say, Oh my gosh, I look so pretty. And she was like, It didn't matter how I looked in it, half of them I hate it. And she's like, But I wanted the kids to hear that because I don't want them to worry so much. She was like, But the bigger impact was that I actually started to believe it. Like, I would see pictures of myself and thought that's a great picture. Oh, I love that. I need to try it because I used to, I mean, when I was young, you would take all these pictures, I'm like, look how good we look. And now I'm like, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

I do it. You know, Bodhi is learning how to take pictures and so forth and takes probably 6,000 of them every time he takes a picture. And he'll show it to me, and I'm like, oh good God, what's wrong with where'd that wrinkle come from? Or I'm making a funny face and I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

We try to change the narrative and then we'll start believing and we'll see it and be like, yes, because again, it's still beautiful. It's just a different, it just looks different.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

I also love the idea of them hearing it. Hearing it. They need to be encouraged to be able to look at themselves and say, I'm beautiful. Correct. Boy, girl, whatever. Anyway, yeah. All right, so there you go. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Okay. All right, so what are our main takeaways from this episode? Girl. Well, I got a lot of them.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I mean, I took notes. I busted the pen out. You know, I got this. I'm not, I'm a droid user, so that's another way to do it. If you go comment team Holly or Team Renee. If you're Holly's Apple, Renee's droid. Um, so I will probably take a look and see if there's any droid resources out there for that fitness app that you've got.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

That's a good idea. I'm sure I like that. I took that, and then, you know, the clostrum. I'm gonna do some research. I bet there's a pill. I bet there's a pillow for us. I am not opposed to taking in a supplement. And I think I love the idea of trying something new. And that's one thing that we want to note is sometimes trying something new can be really beneficial right away, or sometimes your body's got to get used to it. So don't be a naysayer right away. You know, if it doesn't work in the first week, give it a minute to see if it can take hold. And one other thing I did with my supplements, it came down to the cocktail. You know, not alcohol. This is legit the cocktail. I know I I saw you. I was like, Margarita. Like, you got that you got the drink that's gonna help us? Maybe I can come put my colostrum in my margarita. There you go. It's a cold beverage. You're gonna drink one of those every day. There you go. That's my noon prescription. Colostrum and a margarita every day. I'll start the day off.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

See you at home with Jane. Like Holly told me to.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I don't it's just a margarita, not coffee in my little thermos today. Um, but I do I did come down to the idea of maybe a recommendation was to take two of a certain supplement, two capsules of a certain supplement. Well, that didn't work for me. I needed to do one of that and two of another. And once I figured out how that all worked together for me, that's when I found the right thing. And we're all not made the same. You know, we talked about it, uh, Judy was saying, you know, there's certain ranges and it varies at different stages in your health and in your life cycle that you fall into those ranges, those medical norms. Right. Um, so we can be at different stages and not have to not be able to take the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Yeah, it's not a cookie cutter answer. There's not like some miracle thing that works for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

No, but I'm gonna try the colesterol.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Please try it. I'll report that. Let me know. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Okay. All right. Where are we at then? Okay. So end all be all. Your body's not broken. Where's the recap, Polly? Where's the recap?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

All right, this is hormonal, not moral. Oh, I love that. Hey, I'll take it. Belly fat is protective, not personal. Oh, okay. Yeah. Stress matters as much as food. Good luck figuring that out. Just let me know what works for you. To all those stress eaters out there. Strength matters more than restriction. Ooh, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

That's actually a good one. I'm gonna remember that. Strength matters more than restriction. Yep. It's doing its best in a brand new hormonal landscape, is what we need to think of. You know, we have to do our best with what the hormones have given us. That's right. Or whoever you whatever deity you believe in. Um, but I think it's keeping in mind that everybody is different and everybody's gifted a different hormonal stage and influx and time. So whether you're the almighty age of 29 or 28 like Holly, you just never know when it's gonna kick in. And like we kind of talked about, estrogen just says, I'm gonna show up whenever the hell I want to, anyway. So I think we have to take that all into consideration. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

All right. Well, I think we're gonna wrap it up. If this episode made you feel seen, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if no one warned you about menopause belly, now you know. And now you're not alone. Menopause belly. I'm gonna be traumatized. When I heard that, I mean it was traumatizing. I'm I will tell you that's stupid menopause. It is. So make sure that you follow us on Facebook, like and subscribe to our podcast, and uh we'll see you next time. Or listen, talk.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Talk to you next time. Well, hopefully they'll get to see us soon. Yes, yes. We're working on that. We're working on it. Anyway, this is Hot Flash and Sassy. Thanks for listening.