The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
Beware, this thread contains information that is NOT sexy so stick your fingers in your ears and cross your eyes for those timid folks!!!
I am going through full blown menopause (the test results are in) and in the throes of hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia and just being plain miserable. I am using the OPT program for exercise but wondering how well I am going to do with little sleep and screaming meemie hormones?
I'm on the other side of meno, and all I can say, is that continuing to exercise makes everything better. You will be even more miserable if you don't.
I never got hot flashes, but I did get soaking night sweats. As for the insomnia, well I never slept well to begin with. If I get 5 hours it's a good night for me. I sleep for about 3 hours straight, wake up, go to the bathroom, roll around for 45 minutes, and sleep fitfully until dawn. Hasn't killed me yet, and I'll be 55 next month.
I have nothing much to offer you, I am going through the same thing. I've been miserable with hot flashes since about August.
I am taking black cohosh, evening primrose oil, flax, and fish oil, all are supposed to help. I still wake up a couple times a night, but usually I can fall back asleep. Lately I've been taking benadryl if I really need a good nights sleep. I tried eating more soy and that seemed to make it worse.
After googling like crazy, I did buy some progesterone cream, and it helped somewhat. I am going in to have my hormones tested and I am seriously considering getting a script for "bio identical hormones" which Suzanne Somers is big on. I am so freaking miserable I will try just about anything (except for the low dose birth control pills my dr. offered).
I'm irritated that it's happening so early (I'm 46) but I guess those of us who have had health challenges in the past tend to go thru menopause early. On the bright side, I haven't had a period in a couple months which is ok with me.
THe oddest thing is that despite the fact that I've been sick with colds all month and having trouble recovering because of the sleep issue, I've still lost weight. I've only been able to work out a few times. Maybe hot flashes raise metabolism!!
You have my deepest sympathy, feel free to PM me to commiserate. : )
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Hey Luna and Elisabeth, thanx for the support. I am hoping to survive this without taking any hormones maybe some supplements that help support the hormonal system. Or maybe just increase my xanax :-) . . . . . just kidding!!
I am wondering if the poor sleep will interfere with muscle growth and fat loss?
Hi back at ya Bill, get out of here before you hurt yourself heee heee!
ToniL, just try to get through it the best way you can, HRT, xanax, supps, whatever. Menopause is different for every woman, so there is no "one size fits all" prescription. I didn't do any HRT because of a history of breast cancer. Also progesterone makes me feel nauseous, tired and bloated. I had to stop the birth control pill when I was younger because of this reaction. I never took any of the estrogen supporting supplements, either. Plenty of wine supplementation as needed was fine with me.
I can't tell you whether or not poor sleep will hinder your progress, since I don't sleep much myself, and never did. I think sleep is overrated, anyway. That's because I'm just jealous of anyone that can sleep for 6 or more hours at a time!
Take good care of yourself any way you can. Eating clean and working out already puts you a good step ahead of the health of most menopausal women, anyway.
Ah the evil hormonal beast has reared its ugly head.
In general the best things that you can do are the following...
-Stick to a confident caloric deficit and let that be more of your guide. Have the training be a supplemental effect and focus on a little more aerobic work and less intense volume till fat loss is over.
-Focus on vitamins/supplements. Keep calcium high, omega 3's high, D3 high, zinc/mag high. Cover all your bases with the supps sense your nutrition is going to be less functional for you.
-Rest and more rest-This includes sleep and just general relaxing. You are going to feel all over so do the best you can not to aggravate it with no sleep/stressed body.
-Eat a little cleaner-During this time focus a little better on your nutrients, don't skimp with half a day os weight watcher muffins.
Hope that helps. Basically this is a time to be best to your body possible while trying to lose the fat. I would focus more on diet and activity. IE I would not get into HIIT or superset style programing. Long rest times/lower volume.
I wish there was a time frame for menopause -- at least with pregnancy you know that by 9 monthes out your body will be relieved of it's little alienbeing :-0. I can only pray that I am not going through this for more than a year egads.
Your reply has made me rethink my way of exercising -- which has always been more a focus on weights as I really dislike aerobic. It's interesting as I took a 6 week vacation with no exercise except for walking and ate italian style (meaning lots of high carb snackies) and came back 8 pounds down. I have since put those 8 pounds back on in spite of (or maybe becuz of?) a dedicated weight lifting program. I'm hungry all the time too. So, perhaps I should back off the intensity of weights, do more circuit style training (I will do anything to avoid cardio at the gym). I purchased your FLTS and am begining to understand your concept of 'less is more'. It's not where I came from as I started 10 years ago with Body for Life and the goal ever since has been to 'lift heavier'.
And of course the diet . . . I know how to eat clean and to take my supplements, it's just a matter of doing it :-)
Its hard to judge sometimes you know. For some less is just less and isn't enough. For other, walking and just watching what they eat a little rules all. I DO believe in training and training hard, I just don't think it is for everyone at certain times and for some it has to be really specific. There are tons of women who can HIIT, Strength Train, and low carb while getting cut and lean as hell. However, it isn't for everyone. Not everyone can do it though. The more you have stacked against the SMARTER you need to train. Sometimes smarter means harder, sometimes smarter means not training at all. It just depends.
Usually, somewhere deep in our past, something worked. Whatever that was, look at it and ask yourself why you changed it and if it is something you should go back to.
Its hard to judge sometimes you know. For some less is just less and isn't enough. For other, walking and just watching what they eat a little rules all. I DO believe in training and training hard, I just don't think it is for everyone at certain times and for some it has to be really specific. There are tons of women who can HIIT, Strength Train, and low carb while getting cut and lean as hell. However, it isn't for everyone. Not everyone can do it though. The more you have stacked against the SMARTER you need to train. Sometimes smarter means harder, sometimes smarter means not training at all. It just depends.
This is one of the things I appreciate the most about you Leigh. You see the big picture and aren't afraid to change gears if things aren't going the direction you want. Too many people tend to jump on the latest bandwagon without really thinking about their goals and how to best accomplish them. Or they get so focused on the tree in front of them they never take a look at the whole forest.
Sorry not trying to hijack the menopause thread. One of those things I'll be dealing with soon enough.
My menopause lasted a long time: from 48 to 56. HOWEVER, it was wonderful; no more periods or cramps and all the nasty details that go with that!
I had no mood swings. The only down side was that my body thermostat broke and is still somewhat broken. During menopause, I got hot flashes, but not that bad, not intollerable. I'd just have a wet face and chest sometimes all of a sudden. Like, "hey, is it hot in here or is it just me?" Sweating at night. Did NOT keep me up. Haven't worn sweaters since. Couldn't buy/wear pullover sweatshirts any more, had to have a zipper for quick removal.
But compared to years of cramps, 7 day periods, hmmm 7 days x 12 months = 84, time 45 years = 3870 days = 10.4 years that I had my period. HA HA I'd MUCH rather have menopause.
For some it's worse, but I think it's a male myth to make us feel badly about aging.
Etana your attitude is great! Personally I'd take my poxy little period with no cramps and little bleeding until I was 90 rather than put up with mulitple daily power surges and nightly drenched sheets. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence eh? Anyhoo, it is a matter of making the best of the situation and one of the benefits of exercise is being able to get my sweater off in the car while driving haaa haaa -- that requires flexibility and quick response time.
Julie, I am going to look into the bio identical hormone info, but on that note . . . I read that IGH-1 (insulin growth hormone) helps with menopause symptoms. It is also used in the weight lifting world to increase muscle growth. Any thoughts on that?
And Shari you can't tell cuz my face is already red but I'm blushing!! Thank you darlin' :-)
No menopause here yet... but then again, my period has been gone for years now, thanks to a hysterectomy back in 1993. Still have the ovaries floating around in me somewhere, doing their thing. I figure I am heading for menopause in the near future, as my mom got it in her mid-50s.
I'm just gonna hope it is not too disagreeable. I never had PMS or cramps or mood swings much when I did have a period, but I had a ton of bleeding, so I sure never missed my period after the hysterectomy!
As for menopause, I guess I'll learn about it when I get there. Meanwhile, I'm hoping that I can lose a lot more weight before I do!
Good luck Toni, I hope it doesn't last long for you. It sure doesn't sound like fun what you are going through! You look great!
Well, I got my test results in the other day. This isn't perimenopause, I am now postmenopausal. I need to talk to my doctor, but it's good news I believe--now I just have to get used to the lower levels of hormones. It's better than perimenopause stretching along for years--my friend was perimenopausal for 10 years!
The odd thing is, in this whole perimenopausal stage, which was since July, I"ve lost 15 pounds with not much difficulty. Now, I have just 12 to go to reach my goal, so I'm not so worried about it being hard to lose weight because of menopause. In fact my body is responding much better to deficit than it ever did pre-menopause.
Maybe I"m an outlier, or maybe weights help? Who knows. Anyway, I am looking forward to these symptoms going away so I can get back to working out. For now I'm going to get Leigh's book and concentrate on getting the pounds off and after that hopefully I will be sleeping properly so I can get back to my regularly scheduled strenuous workouts.
Hope you're feeling better Toni. I finally slept well last night with the window open and the fan on. It was worth the cold feet.
Menopause
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