Dr. Betty Murray explains why 80% of women gain about 15% of their body weight in perimenopause. Declining estrogen slows metabolism and causes gradual muscle loss each year, making standard diets and exercise routines less effective than before.
Why am I gaining weight when nothing in my life has changed? Because I was 35 pounds overweight for almost a decade because I couldn't figure out what was happening in my body. Because the things that normally work— high protein, low carb, muscle, you know, kind of focusing on weight training and high-intensity intervals and stress and sleep and all these other things— working the way they should, right? So my toolbox didn't work. But this is almost one of the most common questions. When you're going through perimenopause, 80% of women will gain 15% of their body weight. And here's how it happens. When estrogen declines, your body loses efficiency at multiple metabolic checkpoints. So think your body was a Lamborghini and now it is a total, total, like, 1980s Pacer or something. And everything slows down at a cellular level. And here's the thing. The other thing is, is we start losing muscle mass, a slow drizzle, right? So we lose a little bit each year. And our muscles is actually where we burn our fuel.
