How to eat to beat menopause (and shed those midlife pounds): These are the surprising reasons why chocolate will stop your snacking, fiber is like natural Ozempic, and cottage cheese will keep you calm

Should menopausal women eat like weightlifters? That is certainly what a new analysis suggests. Researchers from Semmelweis University in Budapest looked at 134 studies and found that certain eating habits, including high consumption of protein, could alleviate some of the most common symptoms of hormonal fluctuations in midlife – with weight gain a main concern for many women, among them.

We asked EMMA BARDWELL, a leading menopause nutritionist and co-author of The Perimenopause Solution, to give us an overview of what we really need to eat to avoid the average 10kg weight gain – or lose it if the menopausal muffin top has already set in – and sail through the hormonal changes.

Weighty matters

First the good news. You can eat your way through menopause – and feel significantly better for it. You don’t have to accept that spare tire, and you won’t be alone in wanting to change it.

Unfortunately, muscle mass declines with age, and this combined with being more sedentary due to menopausal symptoms such as joint pain and urinary incontinence, plus potentially emotional eating, can exacerbate weight gain.

Menopause can have other effects on weight and body shape. One hypothesis is that fat cells produce estrogen, which is why switching can be so difficult: your body clings to estrogen at all costs. We know that estrogen encourages fat to be stored, mainly around the bum, hips and thighs, so when levels drop, we become less pear-shaped and more apple-shaped.

Not sleeping, due to hot flashes or anxiety, also affects hunger hormones. Ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry, is higher and leptin, which is produced when you are full, responds more slowly. So you can see that you are in the perfect storm.

What’s worse, gaining weight not only contributes to bad moods, it can also worsen hot flashes and potentially increase the risk of chronic diseases down the line.

At its most basic level, weight gain is about consuming too many calories. It’s simple physics. So no matter what you eat, as long as you are in a caloric deficit, meaning take in fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight.

There was a very famous study done called the Twinkie Diet, where instead of eating meals, a professor in America ate only Twinkies (sponge cakes with cream filling) and other sugary snacks – and he lost almost 30 pounds.

However, I’m not suggesting you follow suit. It makes sense to eat healthy, nutritious foods at any age, but especially during menopause. This is where protein comes in, because it is very filling.

Then there is volumetry, where you load up on lots of nutrient-dense but low-calorie foods, such as vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

If weight loss is your goal, it’s important to be realistic, consistent, and patient. You might be able to shave between 300 and 500 calories from your current food intake.

This could come from drinks such as lattes, juices and alcohol, or the frequent snacking and grazing that make up so much of our diets. It does not have to mean deprivation or restriction.

An interesting fact, given the buzz surrounding weight loss injections such as Ozempic and Wegovy, is that fiber works in a similar way.

The injections send signals to the brain to tell it to turn off your appetite hormones – and when fiber fills your stomach, it does the same.

It’s not quite as much of an overnight success as the jabs, but it’s the same path – and certainly cheaper.

Nature’s Ozempic, if you will.

How much protein?

So how much protein do you need? If you are on a diet but want to minimize muscle loss, or are trying to build muscle, I would aim for 1.6g of protein per serving. kg lean body weight. (If you are currently overweight, use your goal weight instead when training this.)

It must be consumed fairly regularly to stimulate what is called muscle protein synthesis, which is the mechanism for converting it from food into muscle.

Eating protein first will help you stop eating later. At least try to end your day with a protein-rich meal. It could be Greek yogurt for breakfast and a crispy tofu or minced chicken bread for dinner.

Mix up your protein sources for optimal nutrients and gut health. Animal sources like chicken, fish, and eggs are fine, but tofu, soy, yogurt, cottage cheese, edamame, and other beans, chickpeas, or lentils are also excellent. What’s more, combining plant sources of protein means you get all the amino acids you need.

Many people think that eggs are protein powerhouses, but keep in mind that they only contain about six or seven grams of protein each, so you can fill your breakfast with some egg whites. Two Chicks Free Range Egg White (twochicks.co.uk) comes in a carton, ready to add to your omelettes, protein pancakes or frittatas. I throw a good slug, approx. 150 ml, in my two-egg scramble.

Protein powder can also be handy. Put it in a smoothie with lots of greens. And protein bars can be OK in a pinch. Look for bars that contain around 20g of protein and no added sugar. If you’re pressed for time, you can have one for breakfast, and they’re better than chocolate bars as snacks.

Reduce hot flashes

To reduce menopausal symptoms, it is generally recommended that women follow a Mediterranean diet that includes healthy fats, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Not only can this help your weight, it can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers.

A Mediterranean diet is also rich in foods that contain phytoestrogens – compounds that act a bit like estrogen in the body.

Phytoestrogens include soy, nuts and flaxseeds, barley and oats, and apples and berries, and research suggests that regularly eating these can help reduce the frequency of hot flashes and night sweats.

But this only works for 50 percent of women. It has everything to do with a metabolite called equol: some of us produce it when we eat phytoestrogens, and some of us don’t.

If you’re worried about breast cancer, studies show that phytoestrogens are fine to eat: just avoid the supplement forms if you’re taking drugs like tamoxifen, as they’re highly concentrated and haven’t been well studied.

Food in high spirits

Often the first sign of perimenopause can be anxiety and low mood, and low blood sugar has a huge impact on how you feel.

Menopause and getting older can lower insulin sensitivity. This means the body is less efficient at regulating blood sugar, which can make you feel irritable and hungry.

Research shows that we are more insulin sensitive in the morning, so you should eat a bigger breakfast that contains protein – Greek yogurt, scrambled eggs, frittatas, chia puddings with cottage cheese mixed through them (don’t knock it ’til you try it! ).

Avoid simple carbohydrates such as cereals and pastries for breakfast. It can put you on a blood sugar roller coaster for the rest of the day.

At lunchtime you should have another fairly substantial meal, then a smaller meal in the evening.

If you must eat chocolate, do so after a balanced meal, when protein, fat and carbohydrates help slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.

Having a few squares of chocolate for pudding can also help you stop eating at night. If you don’t eat after dinner, it will be a “fast” enough to have a big impact on blood sugar, wakefulness at night, mood and gut health.

Better bones

In the years after menopause, when estrogen production has declined, you can lose as much as 20 percent of your bone mass, and you’ll want to do as much as you can to maintain this through both diet and exercise.

You need to consume a significant amount of calcium, especially if you are over 50 – about 1200 mg a day (equivalent to 1 liter of milk).

Fortified plant milk is also a good source, as are yogurt, cheese, almonds, sardines, tofu, broccoli, white beans, oranges and figs. It is clear that weight-bearing exercise and weight training also have a huge beneficial effect on bone health.

Sleep easy

Poor sleep affects at least 60 percent of menopausal women. Lower progesterone can affect GABA production (this is a hormone that helps us relax) and fluctuating estrogen often means you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep.

I suggest two or three hours between the last meal of the day and going to bed. Eating raises your temperature, and to get a good night’s sleep your core temperature needs to drop.

It’s also important to keep blood sugar levels nice and steady throughout the day – and this is especially important with your last meal – as dips can wake you up with a start and often precede night sweats.

As tempting as an evening glass of wine is, I recommend avoiding alcohol as much as possible – it disrupts deep sleep, meaning you wake up much easier.

Certain foods, such as cherries, poultry, bananas, oats and milk contain tryptophan, a precursor to melatonin – a hormone that regulates sleep.

Caffeine, on the other hand, blocks adenosine, the chemical that makes you feel sleepy. Try to keep caffeine to the morning only.

Boost the brain

One of the most common complaints during menopause is brain fog, although this tends to be a short-term problem. Many of us are dehydrated without realizing it – and the moment you start to become dehydrated, the brain stops working as well. Aim for two liters of water a day.

Choline and Omega 3, which you can get from eggs and fatty fish respectively, are also important for brain function, while exercise also has great benefits. It increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which has been compared to MiracleGro for the gray matter. It literally increases brain volume.