Menopause, defined as going a full year without a menstrual period, typically occurs around age 51 and marks a significant transition in a woman's life. The years leading up to menopause, known as perimenopause, can be a time of considerable change, with hormonal fluctuations often leading to various symptoms, including weight gain, hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and mood swings.
Weight gain during menopause is a common concern, impacting 60-70% of women. This weight gain is often associated with a decline in muscle mass due to hormonal changes and a redistribution of fat to the abdominal area. This increased belly fat can pose health risks, including impaired insulin sensitivity and an increased risk of certain cancers and cardiac risk factors.
Fortunately, lifestyle and dietary changes can help manage menopausal weight gain and improve overall health. This article explores various diet plans and strategies to combat menopause-related belly fat and promote well-being.
Understanding the Galveston Diet
The Galveston Diet is a structured eating plan designed to combat inflammation and encourage fat burning, particularly beneficial for women experiencing menopausal weight gain. It comprises three major actions: avoiding inflammatory foods, practicing intermittent fasting, and increasing fat intake.
Avoiding Inflammatory Foods
The Galveston Diet restricts foods believed to promote inflammation in the body, including sugars, processed grains, fried foods, processed lunch meats, saturated fats, and soda. Instead, the diet emphasizes whole foods with lots of nonstarchy vegetables and fruits, such as fatty fish, berries, garlic, nuts, tomatoes, and olive oil.
Read also: Comprehensive Review: Hormones & Weight
Practicing Intermittent Fasting
The Galveston Diet incorporates intermittent fasting (IF), specifically the 16/8 method, which involves fasting for 16 hours and eating during an 8-hour window each day. This approach aims to make cells more adaptive to stressors and initiate cellular repair.
Upping Your Fat Intake
Compared with the typical American diet, the Galveston diet slashes carbs dramatically. The Galveston Diet significantly reduces carbohydrate intake, shifting the bulk of calories (around 70% initially) to come from healthy fats. This "fuel refocusing" encourages fat burning. Proteins make up the next largest part of the diet, with nutrient-dense carbohydrates the smallest component.
A 5-Step Diet to Reduce Belly Fat and Improve Health in Menopause
These are some of the diet changes I put in place (and have advised my patients to consider) that have worked for me in combating menopause-related belly fat. However, it has taken time and hard work and an attention to multiple components of lifestyle beyond diet (like sleep, for example).
Choose Foods That Take Longer to Digest
A low-glycemic index (GI) diet may be beneficial for managing weight and blood-sugar levels associated with menopause. Focus on a low-GI, Mediterranean approach that emphasizes lean meats such as fatty fish and poultry, healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocado and extra virgin olive oil, moderate amounts of beans, lentils and intact grains, and abundant consumption of low-GI fruits and vegetables.
Get to Know Isoflavones
Consider soy, a low-GI food that may benefit menopausal women due to the presence of isoflavones. Isoflavones are phytoestrogens (acting like estrogen in the body) associated in studies with reducing menopausal symptoms, especially hot flashes.
Read also: Hormone and Weight Loss Clinic in the Rockies
Eat More Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber slows gastric emptying, keeping you fuller longer. Soluble fiber is found in cruciferous vegetables, beans, avocados, oats, nuts, and seeds.
Promote Protein
Observational studies have linked higher protein intake with increased lean body mass in postmenopausal women. Consuming protein throughout the day will help ensure you’re hitting the daily recommendation.
Lose the Booze
Limiting alcohol intake can significantly improve weight. Limiting alcohol to a few days per week and no more than 5 ounces daily may assist with weight management.
The Hormone Diet
Written by naturopathic doctor Natasha Turner, "The Hormone Diet" explains how fluctuations in certain hormone levels may contribute to stubborn belly fat, weight gain, sluggishness, stress, a lagging libido, sugar cravings, and health problems. Her plan calls for lifestyle changes, doing a 2-week "detox," and adopting a Mediterranean-style diet that includes certain supplements.
Key Components of The Hormone Diet
- Glyci-Med Approach: A mix of foods low on the glycemic index (GI) and a traditional Mediterranean diet.
- Food Choices: Emphasizes lean protein, vegetables, most fruits, chia seeds, flaxseeds, most nuts, olive oil and some other unsaturated oils and fats, and whole grains like buckwheat, brown rice, and quinoa.
- Foods to Avoid: Caffeine, alcohol, fried foods, processed meat, peanuts, saturated fat, full-fat dairy, artificial sweeteners, and simple high-GI carbs like white bread.
- Eating Frequency: Eat often -- every 3-4 hours -- making healthy food choices at least 80% of the time, with one to two “cheat meals” a week.
- Detox Phase: Quit caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, gluten, and most oils for 2 weeks.
- Supplementation: Recommends multivitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and calcium-magnesium-vitamin D3.
- Exercise: Roughly 30 minutes of exercise 6 days a week in a mix of strength training, cardio, interval training, and yoga.
Key Components of a Healthy Menopause Diet
A menopause diet isn't all that different from most healthy, balanced diets you'll hear about today-but it involves key food choices that can help manage menopause symptoms and maintain your health. The best foods for menopause include plenty of nutrient-dense options and avoid processed items, added sugars, and refined carbs.
Read also: The Divinity Hormone Explained
Healthy Balance of Nutrients and Foods
A diet that contains a balance of all three of the macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fats. The key is to make nutrient-rich choices within each of these categories.
Avoid Sugar, Highly Processed Foods, and Fast Foods
Foods with lower overall sugar and slower absorption make it easier to maintain healthy blood sugar and energy levels, avoiding cravings and fatigue. Highly processed foods are typically high in sodium, sugar, saturated fats, and calories. That not only prompts weight gain, but an overreliance on these in the diet also increases the odds of developing high cholesterol and blood pressure, risk factors for heart disease.
Drink Plenty of Water
Adequate fluids also maintain metabolic function, keep your digestion running smoothly (bye-bye bloat), and help maintain healthy skin. There’s some evidence that drinking water before meals may increase satiety, leading to a small amount of weight loss.
Focus on Foods That Address Menopause Symptoms
Low-fat dairy is packed with calcium and vitamin D that help fortify your bones against osteopenia and osteoporosis. Soy-containing foods provide plant estrogens that can turn down the heat on hot flashes. Eating ample protein can keep your hair healthy to decrease hair loss. And when it comes to digestive symptoms like bloating, adding ginger to your diet can help your belly deflate.
Creating a Personalized Menopause Diet Plan
Although there’s no one-size-fits-all diet for menopause, there are certain elements that you should make sure you get in.
Reduce Calories If You Aim to Lose Weight, But Make Sure You’re Eating Enough
You can reduce calories by reducing your intake of processed foods, decreasing portion sizes, and eating foods that are lower in calories.
Amp Up Your Protein
Lean protein like poultry, fish, tofu, and legumes is key for preserving lean body mass (essentially, your muscles and bones). Aim to consume 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal.
Aim for a Balanced Diet
As you bump up protein, don’t forget about maintaining a healthy mix of nutrients that includes carbohydrates and fat. When it comes to the fats you eat, heart-healthy choices include monounsaturated fatty acids like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds, and omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish like salmon. In terms of carbs, try to emphasize whole grains, legumes (i.e. beans, lentils), starchy vegetables (i.e. peas, sweet potatoes)
Eat More Fiber
Fruits and vegetables, whole grains also supply fiber, a filling nutrient that can help keep us satiated throughout the day.
Foods That Support Hormone Balance
A hormone-balancing diet doesn’t leave anything out-you don’t have to worry about feeling deprived. The following foods not only support reproductive hormones like estrogen, but they also help your body maintain healthy levels of thyroid hormones, insulin (for blood sugar balance), cortisol (your stress hormone), hunger and appetite hormones, and more:
- Whole soy foods
- Protein-rich foods
- Beans and lentils
- Whole grains
- Fruits like berries
- Vegetables like dark leafy greens and cruciferous veggies
- Seeds
- Low-fat and nonfat dairy
- Healthy sources of fat like olive oil, fatty fish, avocados
Foods That Provide Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B
Whole grains supply ample B vitamins, which is needed for cognitive health. Along with fruits and vegetables, whole grains also supply fiber, a filling nutrient that can help keep us satiated throughout the day.
Foods That Provide Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish, walnuts, and chia and flax seeds
Vegetables and Fruits
Experts recommend 3-4 servings of vegetables per day and 1-2 servings of fruit per day
Eating Beans, Peas, Lentils, Chickpeas, or Soy
It is recommended to eat beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, or soy at least once per week
Limiting Red Meat
It is recommended to limit red meat to a few times per week (choose lean cuts)
Nuts and Seeds
Experts recommend about 1 ounce of unsalted nuts or seeds per day
Fiber
Experts recommend at least 25-30 grams of fiber per day, although some experts recommend 30-45 g per day
The Benefits of a Menopause Diet
The goal of a menopause diet is 3-fold: help ease menopause symptoms, decrease the risk of health problems in menopause, and aid in weight management. A healthy, balanced diet filled with nutrient-rich foods that keep you full makes it easier to reach a healthy weight and stay there.
Additional Lifestyle Habits for Menopausal Weight Gain
Diet is not the only solution to reducing menopausal belly fat. Studies show that managing stress, improving sleep quality, and increasing aerobic activity and resistance training may also help. Discussing hormone replacement therapy with your physician is another option.