I recently listened to a Huberman Lab podcast that discussed weight loss concepts that you don’t typically hear about. Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, reviews a number of unique, evidence-based hacks for weight loss. Because we are all inundated with information about the “best” ways to lose weight - keto, intermittent fasting, pills, exercise regimes, etc.

In part one of this series about menopausal weight gain, we discussed the reasons why women tend to put on weight during perimenopause and menopause. Now let’s discuss what to do about it. Many of the variables that impact weight gain during this phase of life can be modified by focusing on what you eat, how you move your body and determining if medications and/or hormone therapy might be right for you.

According to Menopause.org, “...there is no scientific evidence that menopause or hormone therapy is responsible for midlife weight gain….Age and lifestyle are the main culprits.” WTF? If you ask any woman in America aged 48-52 - they might just disagree. In fact the majority of my patients are experiencing an unexplainable 10–25 pound weight gain around the age of perimenopause (40-51 on average) and menopause (52+ on average) - despite an increasingly strict focus on diet and exercise.

Unlike your bathroom scale, body composition analysis can tell you what percentage of your total body weight comes from fat, muscle, and bone - providing a much more accurate measurement of your overall health and fitness levels. You may have heard of BMI - which measures your weight against your height. But this can be very deceiving - for instance, people with more muscle mass can show up in the “obese” category on the BMI scale.

Cold exposure therapy is a brief to extended exposure to cold temperatures via different forms including cold showers, ice baths, cold plunges, etc. There are many well-documented benefits to cold-exposure therapy including a boosted immune system, enhanced mental clarity, anti-depressive benefits, building mental toughness, improved metabolism and metabolic detox.

As we discussed in our first blog of this series, losing weight and keeping it off can be challenging. Ideally, we like to start by focusing our patients on lifestyle changes - specifically diet and exercise. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition, in our experience, a plant or whole foods-heavy diet with at least some consciousness around carbohydrates and varying degrees of intermittent fasting can be the most effective for weight loss.

According to a 2018 CDC report, 56% of women and 42% of men in the U.S. tried to lose weight within the previous 12 months. And research suggests that approximately 80% of people who shed a significant portion of their body fat will not maintain that degree of weight loss for 12 months - and most dieters regain, on average, more than half of what they lose within two years.

As discussed in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series - intermittent fasting can be a powerful approach to weight loss. However, many people find the idea of fasting daunting. The idea of going hungry for extended periods is simply not appealing - and can even be frightening to some. So I believe it’s important to consider the myths and misconceptions surrounding intermittent fasting so you are well informed when considering this approach.

As discussed in Part 1 of this series on intermittent fasting, many popular approaches to weight loss, including low-fat and calorie-restricting diets, simply don’t work. According to researchers at UCLA,“ You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back...

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 71% of Americans are overweight. So it shouldn’t be surprising that it seems like a new diet comes along every day. For years, counting calories was thought to be one of the best solutions for weight loss: restrict your calories - and lose weight.