#66: How Our Bodies Change Fundamentally in Menopause
[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach. And what that means is that I've actually been studying how to train specifically women who are in perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, to work with their bodies, because our bodies actually undergo a fairly fundamental change as we go through this transition.
In fact, some would actually, uh, compare it to the change that happens in puberty. It is a big change. Of course, we're not changing sizes and we're not suddenly growing breasts or whatever that happens in puberty, but it is a fundamental change in the same way.
And it marks. actually a shift, right? It's not that it's just happening during menopause or however you want to, I'm putting air quotes during menopause. Menopause is a transition [00:01:00] and post menopause is you living in that new state for the rest of your life, right? And that can be decades of your life. In fact, that part may even be longer than the childbearing part of your life.
And one of the big things that you see women complaining about or noticing is that the things that worked in their twenties and thirties just Aren't working anymore and once you understand what the fundamental changes are that have happened to your body You understand why that actually is the case and why that makes sense That those things that worked for you in your 20s and 30s aren't working anymore So let's get into that.
So I just have to mention that very recently, so right here in the transition between April and May, I have gotten a ton of new followers [00:02:00] in Facebook. My Facebook account just blew up, which is amazing because clearly there is a need for women to get this information. My message that That was so powerful was about this transition, like things are different when you are in midlife and women who are very much like I was just a few years back, noticing huge changes in their bodies.
You know, muscle tone disappearing and the waist disappearing, not looking athletic anymore, not being toned anymore. And, and wondering like, what the heck's going on? Right? And even doubling down on the things that worked for you in your twenties and thirties is not doing anything. In fact, I had one listener who wrote to me who had gone through [00:03:00] this change and, and she found my podcast and, uh, and she had doubled down.
I mean, she had seriously doubled down. She was already doing a ton of cardio. She was definitely a cardio queen already quite strict in her dieting protocols and she had doubled down. And what ended up happening to her was her body just out and out rebelled and she got really, really sick. And it was when she realized that, hey, she needs to be working her body in a whole different way and she started weight training.
It really didn't take long for her body to start responding and once again, starting to look fit and toned in the way that she was used to and what she wanted. And now, of course, here I'm talking about looks, right? And well, that is probably the thing that most women notice and what gets them moving. So [00:04:00] yes, I am going to talk about the looks and it is certainly the thing that got me moving where I was like, Hey, I'm doing all this exercise and I don't look like I exercise at all.
Right. But what's wonderful about this is that if you turn things around. Even if your reason is that you want to look better, you want to look more toned, what you're going to find is that your body is healthier because muscle is an amazing tissue, which helps in so many ways. And the way you develop muscle, in other words, by weight training is something which is so good for your whole body, not just your muscles.
It's also good for other parts of your body. And. Your body is going to be in better shape to last you the rest of your life, right? Because your body actually is in decline. As you get older, it will decline if you don't do anything about it. And if you change what you're doing, [00:05:00] you actually strengthen your body and make it more functional, more capable of taking you through the next decades ahead.
All right. So that was a really, really long preamble. I think you guys are used to these things.
Okay. So there are two primary things that you need to be aware of fundamental changes that are going on as you go through menopause. And the first one is that the estrogen decline is not only affecting your menstrual cycle. It actually is a hormone that works all around your body. And that is the primary reason why you're seeing these kinds of changes.
Now, when estrogen is there, uh, when you're in your childbearing years, what it's doing is it is helping you to maintain your muscles, build muscles. It's also helping with your bones, keeping [00:06:00] them strong. Your tendons and your ligaments, keeping them nice and flexible so that you can move without any issues and a whole bunch of other things.
But now I'm focusing really on the physical, um, aspects of estrogen decline. And it also defines where on your body your fat is stored. And now, so when estrogen starts to decline, these things. Are no longer being supported by estrogen. And so what that means is that our muscles start to disappear. It becomes harder for us to build muscle.
And that's why we have to do like smarter things when we're lifting, we have to do it more correctly, right? We can't just a little bit. You know, do a little bit of something and expect to see results. You have to do it properly, right? And then our [00:07:00] tendons and our ligaments, they start to get more brittle and that's not good either.
In the period right around menopause, it has been measured that the decline of your bone density increases by 10 times. So your bones are getting significantly weaker during those years. And for that reason too, it is super important to be lifting heavy. So you're challenging your body because that will also help to add more bone density to your bones.
And that's been shown in studies, even with women who are post menopause and start strength training, that they will increase their bone density by doing that.
And then the other thing that estrogen does is it's defining where on your body your fat stores are. And as estrogen declines, those fat [00:08:00] stores start to, you know, migrate to around your belly.
And that is something that, , Most women will notice they lose their waist and they're kind of female figure, right? The fat will go away from like your chest and your butt and we'll go end up on your waist which is maybe not what we want aesthetically and Then it doesn't budge and for sure there are no exercises that you can do to target, you know that belly fat, no amount of sit ups is going to get rid of that belly fat.
Let me just disillusion you of that, you know, rumor. And that goes around on social media. There is no exercise that you can do to get rid of that belly fat specifically, right? You can't do more crunches or whatever. What that'll do is you'll get more muscle. Yes. Around your, um, in your abs, but [00:09:00] it won't take away that layer of fat that's covering your abs, but what will, and this is really interesting.
And I think something that doesn't get talked about very much is that heavy weight training. sets off a cascade of events in your body, which actually triggers your body to start using those fat stores. And that is one of the first things that I noticed, uh, when I started weight training, even though I didn't lose weight, Right.
That was not my goal in the beginning. I just wanted to start getting stronger. I wasn't worried about like, let me diet here. I was like, let me figure out this weight training thing and get some muscle back. So I had done some in body measurements so I would know my body composition and the thing that changed the most in that first period was that I was actually gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time, even though my weight didn't change at all, and the visceral fat so that Stuff there in the middle of your body.
[00:10:00] That was the one that was going in a positive direction the most. So that was really encouraging. Amazing, you know, without a diet, right? Just from switching from cardio and pump classes to weight training. I mean, I was almost doing no cardio at that point. I was just like, you know, blinders on, I am going to build muscle and doing that.
Oh, and one thing that I forgot to mention actually is that the other thing that declines as the estrogen declines is your muscles ability to actually produce power. So to really strongly contract, that's why things like opening jar lids gets harder.
And grabbing things. So your grip strength and your muscles ability to just contract. So, yeah, it decreases.
So all of these things that I listed above, so your strength, your muscle size, your [00:11:00] tendons and ligaments, your bone strength, and your visceral fat, and your belly fat, and your ability to really produce power, like so strong contractions with your muscles.
All of those things you can improve with strength training. There's no magic pill, but there is a magic exercise and it is strength training. And we're not talking about just picking up any dumbbells. I have another podcast episode which talks about the difference in the different kinds of exercising with dumbbells or with weights, which are effective and which aren't, but really want to do some progressive weight training.
So that was one part of the fundamental change is all this physical stuff that is going on with you. And then the other thing that I think you hear so much about, right? Stress, right? Stress. And you're like, yeah, yeah, stress. But the thing about [00:12:00] women in midlife is that our cortisol levels, like our base cortisol levels, and cortisol is the stress hormone, our base cortisol levels, they actually increase and our ability to handle stress gets worse.
This has been described as, , our stress bucket actually reducing in size. But so what's a stress bucket? So it's this kind of concept you can have, how to think about stress. So if you imagine a bucket and the bucket has like a little hole in the bottom of it where water can flow out of it, and then there are all kinds of, uh, contributors of water to the bucket.
And if you think about it, because you have that bucket, sometimes you may have more water flowing in. And so the bucket allows for some give in that because the level of water in the bucket can [00:13:00] rise without overflowing. And then sometimes there'll be less water coming into the bucket. So the level of water in the bucket can decline.
So that's kind of your resilience. And as long as the amount of water or stress coming into the bucket is less than the water going out, you're okay. You can stay in a balance. You can have a little bit more stressful day or week. You have this kind of give in that bucket. But when you hit midlife and you're going through the perimenopause, menopause change, your bucket actually gets smaller.
So your ability to handle stress is actually worse. And remember that stress can be good stresses and bad stresses. That's, this is an important thing to remember. So it can be worse. an upcoming kid's graduation, which is a wonderful thing, but you have to plan the party [00:14:00] or your kids are moving away, you know, going to college, yay, total celebration, but oh, so sad, right?
So that's a stressor. Maybe you're on a diet. That's a stressor. Cardio exercises that you're doing, that's a stressor. So lack of sleep, stressor. So there are a lot of things that can stress you. And when you are stressed, When cortisol levels are high, that cortisol is breaking down muscle, okay? Because in your body, you are constantly having this kind of balancing act going on.
There are forces at work breaking down your muscle. And then when you're exercising, forces at work building your muscle back up. And if your stress bucket gets smaller. And midlife is stressful, you know, you've got those teenagers who are sometimes enough to like, you know, [00:15:00] drive you a little bit crazy.
I'm thinking of my 15 year old. And then you've got aging parents, you have your whole life, you know, going on, you're getting older yourself, you're a little bit worried about that, realizing the end of, you know, your life is done. coming or there isn't into your life, you're not feeling like you're going to be around for anymore.
There are so many stressors in midlife that it's no wonder our stress buckets are a bit full and maybe even overflowing. So I do think it is important for you to just know that it is a different ballgame stress wise as well. I know I always thought like, Hey, I'm somebody who's handled the dress forever.
You know, I went to a very competitive high school. I went to one of the top colleges, played lacrosse, did the toughest major there was there, which was biochemistry and molecular biology at that point. And, you know, was active, um, social life, did a [00:16:00] honors thesis at the med school all at the same time and managed it all beautifully.
And, uh, so I've always thought like, yeah, stress shmess, you know what I mean? And well, now I have to actually manage it. And that can be a big factor. All right, so if you think about what is going on fundamentally when you go through menopause, which may be affecting the fact that, hey, you're losing muscle tone and you're gaining that belly fat.
The first and the most important one is of course, the changes in your estrogen levels. Those are really doing a number on your body. It is something that when I read about this stuff the first time, I was like, oh my God, it will like our bodies. honestly are going into decline when the estrogen goes away.
I mean, thank goodness, there is a solution like weight training, which can help to alleviate that. And even, you know, [00:17:00] I consider it like anti aging properties in the sense that if you weren't doing the weight training, you'd continue to lose muscle, which is an aging factor. Your, uh, tendons and ligaments would get more brittle, which is aging.
you know, all these things. And when you start weight training, you are stopping that and even reversing it. So in that sense, anti aging. And then the other fundamental change is this stress, your ability to handle stress. So your resilience and it not only, you know, it has to do with like, okay, it affects so many things, right?
How well you sleep, how well you can manage, like even thinking about being, eating nutritious food and all that kind of thing. But then the stress levels can also do a number on whether your muscles are being maintained and at the rate, the rate at which they are being broken down. So [00:18:00] yeah. But please, I don't want this to sound like it's all gloom and doom.
, if you are. feeling like, Hey, , I'm not happy, I'm noticing these changes and I'm not happy, then I'm just letting you know that there is something you can do about it. At least try it, you know, try it for six months because weight training does not work overnight, you know, because There's the ramp up time, a couple of episodes backwards, I talked about how to start weight training safely.
So listen to that one if you're interested, but there's the ramp up time. And then you start really building the strength. But I'll tell you with the women that I've been working with, people are surprised at how quickly they start feeling stronger. Like they actually feel stronger. And I think that It's so interesting.
And then they notice themselves that, Hey, they are like looking more defined. It may not be something that you can capture in a picture. You know what I mean? But they see [00:19:00] it when they look at themselves in the mirror. I am not, by the way, um, coaching very many of these women on diet at the same time.
We've taken the approach in the most part, I'm trying to think like in almost all cases of starting with the weight training and then later. thinking about dieting. So these kinds of changes you can get just from starting on the weight training.
All right. That became a lot longer than I expected, but that's part for the course when you're listening to my. episodes. And if you are, by the way, not on my mailing list yet, then please hop on there because I do send out a weekly email with some tips and the key takeaways from these podcasts. Plus, if you're interested in lifting or joining one of my webinars and those kinds of things, I'll be sending out, , all the [00:20:00] information on those as well.
So. link in the show notes to join the newsletter. And with that, I will talk to you next week. Happy training.
