JJ Virgin explains how rising cortisol and insulin during menopause drive weight gain, poor sleep, and hunger. She recommends four steps: improve sleep, reduce inflammation, build muscle, and eat more protein. Muscle contraction itself lowers inflammation and burns fat.
Hey JJ, is there anything women can do to avoid weight gain during menopause?
Boy, the weight gain during menopause is like this hot discussion of do you, do you not. Most of us are probably going to gain some weight during menopause, but there are a lot of things you can do to avoid it. The most important thing you're going to want to do is consider what's happening. Cortisol's coming up, insulin's coming up. So this is making you store fat better, hungrier, and also not sleep well. So we've got to tackle these things one by one, because if you're not sleeping well, you're going to be hungrier and more insulin resistant. If you're more insulin resistant, it's gonna be harder for you to build muscle and it's gonna be harder for you to burn fat. You're gonna be better at storing it and you're gonna be more inflamed. And when you're more inflamed, you can't work out hard. So focus on your sleep, focus on reducing inflammation, focus on building muscle because just contracting muscle will lower your inflammation and will help you burn more fat and focus on eating protein. Those things can go a long way in helping you not gain fat, especially around your middle during menopause.
