WHY AM I EXERCISING & NOT GETTING RESULTS?
There are many great reasons for exercising. It’s a proven mood lifter and energy booster and you’ll sleep better after a workout. Plus we know we’re improving cardiovascular fitness which reduces our risk of many common health conditions (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and certain cancers including breast and colon cancer). Exercise builds muscle and bone, and given that both decline from our 40s onwards, this is another motivating factor.
Exercise is also known to improve body composition, which means increasing lean muscle mass and reducing body fat. But as we hit menopause, even regular and experience exercisers notice their body changing. However hard they work out, extra abdominal fat appears, which can be incredibly frustrating and demotivating. When this happens, it’s tempting to eat less and work out more, but this doesn’t work. It might have done when you were younger, but it certainly won’t as you hit your 40s and 50s.
So what’s going on?
We’re now starting to really understand the specific needs of menopausal women when it comes to exercise and nutrition, and the way hormonal changes affect fat storage and muscle growth. At this stage of our life, we need to work with our changing bodies if we want more muscle mass and less body fat.
Diet & Energy Availability
Eating too few calories doesn’t automatically mean that we tap into our fat stores. When we over-exercise and under-eat we go into a state known as Low Energy Availability. This is a state when our bodies are unable to perform all the functions they need to maintain optimal health, including growing new muscle. Our bodies regard this as a threat to survival. It breaks down muscle for essential repairs and energy and fat storage becomes a priority.
Exercise & FAT STORAGE
Exercise is well-known to be a source of stress. At this stage of our lives, stress levels can be especially high. Over-exercising when we are already stressed, low in energy or regularly tired can contribute to chronic stress.
Chronic stress (constant, low-level stress) is linked to an increase in abdominal fat (in men and women), so this is one reason exercise might not be having the results you want. When exercise triggers a stress response, the body will react by burning muscle whilst laying down extra fat supplies.
You may also have heard about fasted exercise, exercising before eating, usually in the morning, to burn extra body fat. Well, this is proven for men, but unfortunately, not for women. You’re simply making exercise more stressful on your body and creating the opposite of the results you are chasing.
MENOPAUSE & ABDOMINAL FAT
Declining estrogen levels also trigger abdominal fat storage because fat cells can produce a weak source of estrogen. Menopause, stress, over-exercising and under-eating (which includes not getting enough nutrition from what you are eating) all combine to promote excess abdominal fat.
THE FIGHT TO GROW MUSCLE
You may also be exercising and not seeing or feeling any strength gains. Female sex hormones have a role in building muscle, so as hormone levels decline, it becomes more difficult for our bodies to grow muscles. When menopausal women exercise, it can, frustratingly, have a catabolic effect (which means it breaks down muscle instead of building it), especially if we are not getting our nutrition right. Eating too few calories and too little protein are part of the problem. Other times, we’re simply not exercising hard enough to trigger muscle growth. We might be spending a lot of time working out, but unless we are doing the right things at the right intensity, our efforts may be wasted.
HOW TO EXERCISE EFFECTIVELY
If you are doing a lot of exercise, for example working out 4+ times per week and not seeing the results you want then there are some changes you can make to turn this around.
Make sure you are eating enough
If you have cut back hard on your calories then you need to start increasing them. Depending on your activity levels, you may need as many as 2000 calories a day. Up your protein so you are eating between 1.5g and 2g of protein per kg of body weight. So if you weigh 65kg this means around 130g of protein a day. Replace low-nutrition carbs (bread, pasta, noodles, rice) with more vegetables, pulses and wholegrains. If you are eating a lot of sugary carbs, cut back on these. Another raw deal that menopausal women get is the inability to cope with too many carbs, which end up being stored as extra fat.
Time your meals around your workouts
You want to plan your meals so that by the time your workout starts you are full of energy and well-hydrated. Your time is precious so you want to be able to get the most out of every session you do. The harder you work out, the stronger the message you send to your body that it must prioritise muscle growth.
Eat a small meal 30-60 minutes before you work out. Focus on carbs with smaller amounts of protein and fat, so that it is easier to digest and not sat in your stomach by the time your workout starts. Good options are bananas or peanut butter on toast.
Once your workout finishes have 30-40g of protein within 30 minutes. This is really important as it helps prevent the body from breaking down muscle and instead triggers the recovery process which includes building muscle and burning fat. Depending on the time of day you are working out, you may need to spread your meals out so you are eating 4-5 times a day. Women who are not exercising much and want to lose weight should eat 3 times a day, but hard exercisers need a different approach, and spreading out your protein allocation over several meals and snacks makes it easier for the body to absorb and ultimately use it.
Increase the intensity
If you are doing lots of middle-of-the-road workouts or have been doing the same routine for a long time, you need to switch it up if you want better results. HIIT sessions are very effective and can be a huge mood booster. The best news is that you don’t need to do HIIT sessions for long or very often, but it is important to push yourself hard when you do them. Hiit can be done on a bike, as hill sprints, boxing or bodyweight exercises like mountain climbers and star jumps. After a good warm-up go all out for 30 seconds. Rest for a minute then repeat 5-6 times to begin with. Doing this once a week is enough. As you get used to it you can build up to a slightly longer session and do 2 x per week max.
The best way to build muscle is with strength training, but you have to lift heavy, especially on full-body exercises like deadlifts, squats and chest presses. Master the techniques first to avoid injury and gradually build up until you are lifting heavy enough weights so you can only manage 3-6 reps, then repeat for 4-6 sets per exercise.
Strength training 2 x a week is recommended for best results.
If you are a runner, cyclist or swimmer, adding strength training and HIIT into your schedule will make you stronger, faster and more resilient to injury for your chosen sport and improve the enjoyment and satisfaction you get from it.
Get serious about recovery
It’s not the act of exercising that makes us stronger, that happens later. Having a recovery strategy is really important, which means eating a nutritious diet, having appropriate levels of carbs, keeping well hydrated and taking care of your muscles. Plan in a couple of rest days each week. Stretch after each workout and on recovery days, do gentle sessions like yoga, mobility sessions and easy pilates. I also recommend having regular massages to keep muscles supple and flexible and to ease tight, painful muscles which can cause muscle imbalances and lead to injury.
Focus on your sleep
Muscles repair and grow at night when we are asleep, especially between the hours of 11 pm and 1 am. Sleep is essential to give you the energy to work out effectively, reduce cravings and give you the willpower to make and eat a healthier, more nutritious diet.
Creating a sleep routine can be really effective. This means getting off your phone a couple of hours before bed and starting a wind-down routine. Having a cool shower (start warm and gradually turn down the heat) can help with hot sweats, as can keeping your room cool and choosing natural bedding like cotton and linen.
Getting outside early in the morning can also help. This resets your circadian rhythm making you feel sleepy later on in the day.
Cut back on caffeine, especially in the afternoon. Eating your evening meal 2-3 hours before bedtime can also help, just make sure it’s a balanced meal, ie with plenty of protein so you don’t experience a sugar crash in the night that can wake you up.
GET BETTER RESULTS FROM YOUR WORKOUT
If you are already dedicating a lot of time to exercising and are serious about your health and fitness, it’s certainly worth some extra to try out these simple changes that can make a huge difference to your body composition and fitness. This extra effort will only be short-lived because once you’ve switched up your routine, and are reaping the benefits, it will quickly become second nature and much easier to keep going.
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