I Am 51 and I'm in Full Menopause. I've Gained About 10 lbs and Can’t Seem to Lose It. Do You Have Any Advice?

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I'm 51 and I'm in full menopause. I've gained about 10 pounds and I can't seem to lose it. Do you have any advice? This is JJ Virgin, four time New.

York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert.

And fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions, and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Candy Smith Harris from Instagram asks. I love your protein powder. I use it every day. I count macros, carb cycle, and practice intermittent fasting daily using the 168 protocol. I I also strength train three days a week, hiit, train twice a week and do recovery walking two days. I'm 51 and I'm in full menopause. I've gained about 10 pounds and I can't seem to lose it. Do you have any advice? Oh boy. So the best way I can explain menopause is it's like you're on a really a lot of waves in the ocean and you're trying to stay up on top of them. And once you get through it, the waves will go away and the ocean will be flat. But right now there's a storm and, and there's a whole lot of stuff that you can do to help you stay on top. But things are changing all the time and I'll be right back to share some of those strategies.

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Okay, so the best time to prepare for menopause is before you get there. But sadly, most people don't really think about it until they get into the middle of it. And the biggest challenge is going to be in the middle. So just a heads up, Candy, you are in the biggest challenge place. If you're listening to this and you're in your 30s and 40s and this hasn't happened yet, really important right now to make sure that you are able to manage your stress well, that you're getting good sleep and that your thyroid's functioning super well and that you're maintaining the the ideal weight for you, that your body fat's where it should be because the better you are going into menopause, the easier this will all be. However, wherever you are, you're probably going to have a little struggle in the middle. And so let me give you some of the things that can work really well to help ease this. Because sometimes during this time you just feel like unzipping your body, stepping out and saying, I'll be back in a couple years. It's like I need to crawl out of my skin. So what are the things that can help? Number one, just recognizing that and that you are not crazy and that this will pass. One of the things that can really help if you are having hot flashes, two things that you can do. One's external. You can get something called a chili pad and you can put that on your side of the bed and it's really interesting. This chilipad will cool you down and then your partner isn't sitting there freezing. So it's an easy way for you to stay cool without having to bring anyone else into that mix. So that's great for hot flashes. Another thing that's showing some pretty interesting promise with hot flashes is a product called Annatto gg. You can get that from designs for health. And look up the research on Annatto tocotrienols and bone density and hot flashes and gg and how it can support good estrogen and testosterone production. Now, things you want to make sure that you're handling, the better your adrenals are going into menopause, the better you'll be able to go through menopause because you're. Your body's gonna start to rely on your adrenals to produce some of that estrogen. So ideally, you've got really good, really good adrenals going in. That means you're doing things you already have into regular practice, things to help you manage stress. And one of the ways you manage stress is to get good sleep. And again, if you're having issues with your sleep, try the chilipad. Make sure you're in a super dark room. Listen to my podcast that I talked sleep ad nauseam. I love my product Sleep Candy, that's got some L theanine and inositol and five HTP and melatonin to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. And next thing is, besides your adrenals and besides sleep is to make sure your thyroid's working well. You cannot balance your hormones if your thyroid's not where it needs to be. So make sure you're really clear on your numbers there. This is not where you want to be in the range. You want to be in the ideal range. And there's a huge difference. And a lot of people in the typical range by the doctor will still be very hypothyroid. So make sure you're working with a functional medicine doctor there. You get your entire thyroid panel tested. So not just TSH, but free T3 and T4, reverse T3 and your thyroid antibodies. Okay, Next thing, start to add in as much as you can some phytoestrogen rich foods. The ones I really like the most would be seeds, flax seeds and sesame seeds. Flaxseed especially gets a huge shout out. So you can add that into your smoothie every single day. A tablespoon or two is a great way to go. Other thing that you can do here, and this is really important, is one of the things can happen here is you'll start to throw off More of the, what we call the bad estrogens, the estrones that can have a higher risk. So dim, a product called Dimavail can help detoxify those. And more fiber. More cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli, can help break those down too. And then, of course, getting in some exercise. So I look at this and the one thing I want to make sure of is you want to really make sure you're leading with protein and you've got a good balance of protein, fat and fiber. You're getting in both your resistance training and your high intensity interval training. Some easy walking and some flexibility and mindful calming, that would all be important. Make sure that you're monitoring your body fat, your waist and your hips, not just your weight. But the other thing here, and this is what I would look at, Candy, is I'd have you check your thyroid and adrenals because you're doing a lot of stressful stuff on your body. And let's see how your body is handling that. It might be time to change things up a bit. So that's where I'd love to see you working too, is get your thyroid and adrenals checked and see how that's going for you too. And then realize you'll get through this and it's really easy to stabilize once you do. And if you are open to bioidentical hormones, go work with a super good functional medicine doctor to help you with balancing your hormones as you're going through it. Because again, it's a bit of a moving target. So you really have to do a lot of it based on how you feel since the lab tests are going to be a snapshot in time. So that's where you want to work with a really good functional medicine doc to help. All right, thanks for the question. And if you've got questions, I've got answers. And so all you need to do is jump on one of my social media platforms, JJ Virgin at Instagram, JJ Virgin official on Facebook and leave a message and we will grab it. Best is to DM me on Instagram. And if you've not yet subscribed to the show, subscribe to JJ.com so you don't miss your daily dose. This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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