Why You’re Gaining Weight in Menopause—And How to STOP It!

If you're over 40 and suddenly gaining weight, it's not your fault. The truth is your doctor isn't telling you what's really going on. Most women are given the wrong advice when it comes to menopause and weight gain. But today we're going to expose the truth and show you exactly what works. By the way, I'm Dr. Tabitha, a triple board certified OB GYN. I run a virtual medical practice that sees women all over the country. If you're interested in losing weight in a sustainable way, I have a link in the description let's get into it. I'm constantly asked, why am I gaining weight during menopause? And I've wondered that myself when I was going through the transition, because my weight has been stable for a decade and all of a sudden it started to shift. Our body has amazing innate intelligence. God actually created us to be able to handle these transitions. And so when our ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone and testosterone like they naturally do when menopause happens, that lower estrogen triggers our fat cells to start being more metabolically active. I want to tell you about a patient I had. She came to me and she's actually not an uncommon scenario. I see this all the time. They come to me and they say everything I used to do no longer works. I used to want to lose five pounds to go on vacation. So I would just exercise for a couple weeks and it would shift. Why doesn't that work anymore? And here's the deal. Our body is a chemistry experiment and there are a lot processes happening. So it's not just calories in, calories out. We can't just eat less and exercise more to have that equal weight loss. It's way more complex than that. And so what I explain to women is you have this intricate body of hormones trying to keep you balanced. It's a symphony. But right now it sounds like a lot of noise, right? So what worked in your 20s and 30s just doesn't work in your 40s and 50s. So what I realized was we have to pay attention to the signals that our body is giving us. These so called symptoms that we complain about to doctors that doctors want to cover up with their band aid medicine. That is not the answer. The answer is to get your body back into homeostasis, get that symphony all playing together again. So we need to evaluate things like is your thyroid shifting during this transition because your sex hormones, hormones are shifting? Is your gut acting differently? Are you growing different bacteria in your gut? We need to Shift how we're showing up in our 40s and beyond. That is actually why I wrote Fast to Faith. Women need to know what is happening in their body. In just a minute, I'm going to teach you about the right approach to managing weight during menopause. But first I want to discuss what doctors aren't telling you. Most doctors are not talking about the role of hormones in weight management. And here's the thing. I was a so called women men's health expert as an OB gyn. But the truth is obgyns are surgeons. I did not study the hormone intricacies of your body and how the gut affects that and the immune system plays a role in the thyroid and the adrenals. That is not what we're taught as these so called women's health experts. So we're looking to the wrong person for help during this midlife transition. And I'm here to tell you that hormones play a significant role, but they are not everything. When I was an OB gyn, I was so stressed out. There is life and death scenarios happening all of the time. I'm performing surgery, sleep deprived and here I was completely burning my adrenals out, going into adrenal fatigue as an OB gyn telling women that the hormone transition is pretty basic and they just need to exercise more, eat less and they'll get through it. The those were all lies that I was trained to believe and that I was living with myself. And so here I was, frustrated, miserable, overweight, barely functioning and women were looking to me for answers. And here's what I didn't understand as an OB gyn, your adrenals are your backup ovaries. So your ovaries are making your sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. And, and they are very important to get you through your day, give you drive, give you energy, help you function. But your adrenal glands are also doing that job. And so if you burn out your adrenals and then you start to transition into menopause, you don't have your backup ovaries, you have burnt them out. After chronic stressful situations that go on for months and sometimes years, your body says we're not doing that anymore and it puts you in a timeout and it will stay. Stop producing the cortisol and the DHEA from your adrenal glands and you won't want to get out of bed. You will be struggling to function, you'll give up exercise, you will feel miserable. That is a struggle. And that's where I was so I lived through it. But I'm here to tell you that I am feeling the best I have ever felt. I just turned 50, and I have reversed all of that. And life is incredible again. I have my energy back. I'm excited, excited to wake up in the morning and exercise. You can shift and get through it, but you have to understand this dynamic that's going on between the adrenals and the ovaries. It's imperative as a midlife woman. All right, now, after years of re educating myself, I learned a better way to manage weight during menopause. So let's get into it. Dieting and excessive exercise is not the answer to weight loss, especially during midlife. So what should you be focusing on? Your gut health? I know it's crazy to think that, but your overall health is determined by your gut health. And healing your gut is actually way more simple than you would realize. One of the best ways to improve your gut health and get your hormones balanced is with fasting. When we fast, it changes the bacteria living in our gut. And we actually have something called the astrobolome. There's an entire species of microbes or bacteria that are responsive to levels of estrogen, and they actually make enzymes that cause us to reabsorb estrogen that our body is trying to excrete or get rid of in our stool. When we start to shift our hormone levels during midlife, the microbiome changes. And so women start coming to me with complaints of I feel bloated after I eat, or I feel tired after I eat, and it's because their estrogen levels have started to drop. So here's what happens. Our estrogen levels go down. Our body says, we like estrogen. We need the protective benefits of estrogen. And so it starts to produce more bacteria in your gut, and they produce an enzyme called beta glucuronidase. This enzyme cuts the garbage tag off that estrogen that you're trying to excrete so that you reabsorb it back into your body to keep that estrogen and recycle it and reuse it again. But it is necessary for menopausal life, so it actually helps us feel better. This can happen before menopause, when you're younger and have that reproductive level of hormones going on trying to make babies. You don't want that then. You don't want to be recycling your estrogen and bringing it back. So having all that beta glucuronidase is actually a bad thing when you're younger. And that can lead to estrogen dominance. But this same process can be beneficial in menopause if you're not on hormone replacement therapy. So I just want to remind you that your body is always working for your good. I promise you. God created you to thrive. Don't be mad at your body if you're starting to gain a little extra weight or you're starting to have some gut changes. Your body is trying to respond to this drop in your hormones and that is what is supposed to happen. But here's the deal. You have to just transition into menopause and live the next 50 years without your hormones. Your body is created to do that if you like, but it's also your prerogative to get hormone replacement therapy if that is what suits you. I am passionate about women having a voice and a choice and other options when it comes to their health. I didn't have that as a 17 year old teen mom. We are not educating women. We're not talking about the risks, benefits and alternatives in the doctor's office. So when I see women in my medical practice, which I do almost every day, they're going through menopause, their cholesterol goes up, their fasting insulin goes up, their blood sugar goes up, their weight goes up. And this is all a response to the drop in hormones. So there is a way to shift that back. If you're interested in learning more about fasting, check out this video right here. I'll see you in the next one.