Years ago, I wrote an article about a woman named Sharone, who was struggling with the side effects of weight gain during perimenopause and menopause. I ran into Sharone the other day. Although she has tried to make some diet changes to shed this extra weight, she still weighs more than 30 pounds than her typical adult weight and was interested in my thoughts on how she might shed those extra pounds.
If I had a dollar for every postmenopausal woman who has shared Sharone’s angst, I would be a wealthy person. As research demonstrates, her continued struggles with her weight are nothing new to the more than one million women worldwide who have experienced perimenopause and menopause weight fluctuations.
[READ: The Menopause Diet: The best diet plan for mitigating symptoms and weight gain.]
Menopause and Weight Gain
I decided to dig deeper in the potential root causes of this phenomenon. What I discovered is that Mother Nature doesn’t play fair when it comes to the aging process. As you age, your metabolic rate, which is the minimum number of calories that you need to consume to just breathe and stay alive, plummets after about age 60.
Why the decline? Your muscle mass, which needs more calories to fuel than fat mass, naturally decreases as you age so you need less fuel (calories) daily. If you don’t make the adjustment in your food intake, weight gain is inevitable. Also, your daily physical activity also likely declines as you age. You are no longer chasing children around the house while juggling a busy work schedule and an active family/social life. Aging is a double whammy.
As women age, there is also a change in how the body metabolizes or uses the nutrients in the foods that they eat. According to research that looked at post-and pre-menopausal women on identical diets, the post-menopausal women had higher fasting blood glucose levels, insulin levels and insulin insensitivity, all of which negatively affect body composition
This means that their metabolism isn’t working as sharply as in their younger years. The researchers concluded that the tweaking of their food choices towards consuming less refined carbohydrates and added sugars should be on their menu to better manage their weight.
[READ: How Many Calories Should You Eat A Day?]
Nutrisystem’s Complete 55 Program
Fascinated about these metabolic changes, I reached out to a colleague, Courtney McCormick at Nutrisystem, who is one of the registered dietitian nutritionists who spearheaded a program called Complete 55. This is a three-month eating program developed uniquely to address these metabolic changes that menopausal women experience. (For transparency, I am a consultant to Nutrisystem.)
Complete 55 is a science-based program geared specifically to woman experiencing unwanted weight gain during this period of life transition. The program is designed to outsmart Mother Nature by teaching you how to shift your food choices to reflect this shift in your body’s metabolism as it ages. It helps jump-start a person’s weight loss with a structured plan in the first month, and then allows you to add more flexibility during subsequent months.
[Read: Best Diet Plans for Women.]
Here are the science-based shifts that are key to the program:
Shift No. 1: Create a personalized goal
To fuel and energize your body, you need to gradually reduce your daily calorie consumption rather than go on a “one-size-fits-all” crash diet. For many women, an average daily calorie intake is about 1,400 to 1,700 calories. “This is important because we want to make sure that we are not restricting calories too much but are providing each woman with their own personalized calorie goal to meet their needs, while supporting a healthy weight loss,” states McCormick.
Calculate your calories
Shift No. 2: Spread out the protein
you consume, and even more importantly when you consume it, is key to maintaining your metabolically active muscle mass and to help stave off the “hungry horrors.”
Protein-rich foods tend to be more satiating and are digested more slowly than many carbohydrates, so you will feel fuller longer. The program is designed to provide at least 25% of your caloric intake from protein, meaning you will be chowing down an average of 80 to 140 grams of protein per day, spread throughout the day.
Shift No. 3: Pick smart carbs
Fiber-rich carbohydrates such as fruits, veggies and beans should be plentiful in the menopausal diet. Whole grains such as oats and brown rice are typically absorbed more slowly than refined grains so they are more satisfying and less likely to spike your blood sugar and insulin levels.
If you are a pasta fan, the program’s meals contain pasta made with durum wheat semolina, which research suggests won’t spike your blood sugar levels as quickly as pasta made from other wheat sources.
[See: High-Protein Breakfast Ideas.]
Shift No. 4: Front load your calories and carbs during the day
Some research suggests that the timing of when you eat during day may play an important role in weight management. Eating the majority of your calories later in the day puts your calorie consumption out of sync with the circadian rhythms in your body. Your body’s circadian rhythms, which are the 24-hour rhythms in your body, are driven by the master clock in your hypothalamus and coincide with your daily light and dark cycle.
There are also similar clocks in your peripheral organs, such as your liver and gut and in your muscle and fat tissue. Since these circadian clocks can influence the activity of enzymes and hormones, which are involved in metabolism, eating the majority of your calories later in the day, especially carbohydrate-rich meals, can promote more fat storage.
Try eating more of your calories earlier in the day when you are more active and then tapering them as the day progresses. This approach may not only help you feel less hungry during the day but will also be better for your metabolism. In other words, it is better to consume more calories during the day, when your body needs them as fuel rather than at night when you are less active and the fuel gets stored as fat.
The key to the Complete 55 program is that all of your fresh and/or frozen meals and snacks that you need to eat during this three-month journey can be delivered to you so that stressful planning and meal prep time are eliminated. Consider this similar to hiring a private sous chef at an affordable price.
“The flexibility is designed to teach women how to make food choice adjustments in their diet when they are not on the Complete 55 plan,” according to McCormick. “We want to teach women how to eat healthy balanced diets on their own to reach their long-term health goals.”
I told Sharone about Nutrisystem’s Complete 55 program and the science behind it. She decided it was worth a try and recently signed up for the program. She has already lost 6 pounds.
Menopause and Diet
There are a number of other diets geared toward women experiencing menopause, which help alleviate the symptoms of menopause. Research suggests that plant-based diets may help reduce hot flashes, for example. The Galveston diet is another menopause-specific diet that aims to reduce inflammation.
Menopause aside, as women get older their nutritional needs change. The best diets for women over 50 focus on key nutrients and vitamins older women need. These diets include the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet.
The author, Joan Salge Blake, is a consultant to Nutrisystem.
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Menopause and Weight: Nutrisystem’s Complete 55 Program originally appeared on usnews.com
