Every woman knows that we can run but can’t hide from menopause. And if you’ve reached this life milestone, you know it can take a toll on your mood, sexual desire, sleep patterns, and… body shape. So, how can you achieve the right amount of weight loss after menopause?
Unfortunately, losing weight after menopause isn’t always easy, but a functional nutrition approach may be the key to improving your overall health and self-esteem – and achieving sustainable weight loss.
Keep reading to learn how functional nutrition and a medical weight loss program can help you:
- Discover the underlying causes of your weight gain
- Create a personalized plan to suit your needs
- Reach your weight goals.
What’s Happening with Weight After Menopause?
No matter how healthy you are and how balanced your diet is, have you found you just can’t lose weight? You’re not alone. This is a real conflict for many menopausal women.
The cause is this: Menopause directly impacts your hormones, metabolism, sleep patterns, and other body functions, leading to increased fat accumulation, especially in the abdomen area.
Here are some of the reasons why this problem is more common than you think:
1 Hormonal changes
During perimenopause, your ovaries decrease and, over time, completely stop producing estrogen – the sex hormone that regulates many body functions, including fat distribution. So, if the fat from your hips and thighs is now concentrated on your abdomen, blame it on the lack of estrogen!
2 Slower metabolism
Your metabolism tends to slow down naturally as you age. This decrease means your body burns fewer calories at rest, contributing to weight gain – and to the hard time you’re having losing those extra pounds.
3 Muscle loss
With aging, you gradually lose muscle mass. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, a decrease in muscle mass can reduce your body’s calorie-burning capacity, making it harder to lose weight.
4 Poor quality sleep and stress
Sleep disturbances and insomnia are quite common in menopause, which is often considered stressful. And stress can trigger hormonal imbalances and increase the production of cortisol – a hormone that contributes to weight gain, particularly around your abdomen.
Managing your stress and getting quality sleep helps regulate stress and appetite hormones. This will help with your weight loss journey.
5 Insulin Resistance
Hormonal changes during menopause can lead to insulin resistance. This increases the risk for many health conditions, promotes fat storage, and helps turn weight loss into a challenging goal!
So – not only do you need to cope with all the uncomfortable menopausal symptoms and body changes, but this stubborn fat is difficult to lose, so weight loss after menopause takes time and patience.
But don’t lose hope. With the help of a functional nutritionist and a medical weight loss program like the NavaRX, we can help you set realistic goals and focus on your overall health and wellbeing rather than just the number on the scale (this also relieves some of your stress about results!).
How Can Functional Nutrition Help with Weight Loss After Menopause?
Functional nutrition focuses on you, meaning there’s no such thing as the one-size-fits-all you find in traditional approaches to weight loss.
A functional nutritionist analyses your body as a whole because your overall health is the result of your unique biochemistry, lifestyle, and health history.
This individualized approach is efficient. It addresses weight loss after menopause because it targets your body’s specific needs with a tailored and comprehensive health plan. The Certified Nutritionist will create a plan especially for you, and it may include the following:
A Balanced and Personalized Diet
A balanced diet
- improves your overall health,
- boosts energy levels, and
- supports weight management.
But since your body is unique, functional nutrition doesn’t recommend standard or fad diets but instead adopts an individualized approach based on your body’s specific needs.
After analyzing what nutrients and micronutrients you’re missing, your functional nutritionist creates a tailored diet plan to meet your nutritional needs – including nutrient-dense foods that provide essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Your doctor can also identify and eliminate from your diet any food that might be causing inflammation or digestive issues, which could indirectly impact your weight loss efforts.
Lifestyle Adjustments
Besides dietary changes, functional nutrition also considers other lifestyle factors, such as sleep, exercise, and stress management, as they can all impact your hormonal balance and weight.
Your doctor will take an interest in your lifestyle, and may suggest some adjustments to help improve your wellbeing and allow you to lose weight sustainably. This might include physical activities, stress management techniques, or hormonal adjustments to improve your sleep patterns and regulate your appetite and cravings.
Gut Health Optimization
Your gut microbiome plays a vital role in many aspects of your health, including
- vitamin synthesis,
- hormone production,
- immune system regulation and communication with your neurological system,
- weight regulation, and
- metabolism.
For this reason, weight loss after menopause under the functional nutrition approach necessarily considers your gut microbiome. Your functional nutritionist will emphasize foods that promote a healthy gut, such as prebiotic-rich foods and probiotics, because these can positively impact your weight loss efforts.
At Nava Health, besides supporting your weight loss journey, our Gut Restore Program also allows us to uncover the underlying cause(s) of chronic illness and disease and address gut dysfunction. Based on your results, our functional nutritionist develops a personalized treatment to improve your health and help you achieve the sustainable weight loss you’re seeking.
BHRT
Hormonal balance is as essential as gut health, a balanced diet, and a healthy lifestyle for weight loss after menopause.
As you may have noticed, most of the underlying causes leading to weight gain and difficulty in losing weight after menopause are related to hormonal fluctuations and imbalances. For this reason, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is essential to improve your health and support weight loss.
Thus, functional nutrition includes using hormones (chemically identical to those naturally produced by your body) to address any hormone imbalances you have.
And although BHRT alone may not be a guaranteed solution for weight loss, as a component of a comprehensive and functional approach, it can help indirectly support your weight management during and after menopause by:
- Improving sleep patterns and energy
- Regulating appetite and cravings
- Preserving muscle mass
- Reducing menopausal symptoms
Ready to Lose Weight After Menopause?
Nava Health can help you improve your health and regain confidence in your body after menopause.
While functional nutrition may not be a quick-fix solution to losing weight after menopause, our individualized approach to health and wellbeing will certainly improve your quality of life and help you manage your weight after menopause.
Our NavaRX medical weight loss program may be just the help you need to regain your targeted weight. We support you with nutrition counseling, nutraceuticals, and other integrative treatments that optimize your weight loss after menopause and increase your chances of success.
Why delay? Schedule your consultation today and appreciate every stage of your life.
A Medical Director, and one of the first physicians to join the Nava Health & Vitality Center, Dr. Douglas Lord has made significant contributions to our Center and its founding principles. Dr. Lord has helped develop and implement the Nava Method™—Nava’s proprietary approach to total body wellness. He has also been instrumental in liaising with other expert practitioners to successfully implement Nava’s range of therapies, treatments, and products.