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Is Intermittent Fasting Good for Weight Loss during Menopause?

Joanne Fazel • Aug 11, 2022

Is Intermittent Fasting Good for Losing the Menopause Weight? 

Have you ever wondered whether intermittent fasting can help you tackle your menopause weight gain? 

Intermittent Fasting for weight loss is a hot topic and if you do a google search, you’ll find millions of pages extolling it’s virtues. But is it the ‘missing link’ that menopausal women struggling to lose the belly fat are looking for?

In this article I want to explain a little bit more about what intermittent fasting actually is, what it's reported to be good for and the different ways you can do it as well as delving a little deeper into the pros and cons of this way of eating so you can decide for yourself whether Intermittent Fasting is going to be good for weight loss during your menopause.  

What is Fasting?

What does fasting actually mean? All it really means is a situation where your body has digested its last meal. So, it usually takes somewhere between three and five hours to use up the glucose fuel from our last meal. After that your body will be fasting, before you eat again.  

Of course, your body still needs fuel whilst you are fasting just to keep you alive, but as it’s used up its glucose fuel from the bloodstream and within the cells, it needs another source of fuel. It does this by a process called gluconeogenesis whereby it converts glycogen stored in the liver back into glucose.  

Once this has run out the body will start breaking down fatty acids and amino acids for fuel and eventually (after around 18 hours) we enter a state of ketosis, where a compound called ketone bodies are produced to be used for fuel.  

Our bodies are programmed to prioritise using fat for fuel instead of muscle (protein) when we fast, which is good news for weight loss.

Now, most of us throughout the day will tend to eat regularly so that we rarely go that long without food. Our body doesn't really get a chance to have rest from digesting except for at night when we are sleeping which is a kind of enforced fast and intermittent fasting is carrying on with that idea of lengthening out that fast. 

Why Might Intermittent Fasting be Good For Menopause Weight Loss?

One of the most important benefits of intermittent fasting is related to it’s benefit on insulin regulation, so it can help with blood sugar balancing. It helps our cells stay sensitive to insulin so that we don’t have high levels of circulating insulin or glucose in the blood which can lead to fat storage.

This is really important when we're going through menopause because naturally through aging and as a result of hormone fluctuations, our bodies become less sensitive to insulin, leading to increased fat around the middle and a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

So intermittent fasting is really about forcing your body to use up its stores of sugar and to burn fat instead, increasing our metabolic flexibility.

Some studies have suggested that Intermittent Fasting may also help lower inflammation in the body. And that's obviously a good thing as this can lead to disrupted hormones, and have a further knock on effect that can lead to increased weight gain.

It may also reduce the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and increase growth hormone, which is a really important hormone that helps to build muscle, which is really important because we start to lose muscle from the age of about 30, and the less muscle we have, the lower our metabolism, which can lead to weight gain.

It must be said though that there still needs to be more research with human trials. Many studies have been carried out on rats or mice, or on human cells, but in a Petri dish. So bear that in mind. 

Types of Intermittent Fasting

5:2 Diet.

This was made popular by Michael Mosley. For five days of the week, you're just eating normally. Then for two days of the week, you are fasting and you only have around 500 calories for the whole day. 

So bearing in mind that the average woman needs around 2000 calories a day (depending on activity level and build), you can see that it’s only around a quarter of your normal daily intake.

Fasting days would not be consecutive.

Eat. Stop. Eat

Essentially means putting in some days during the week where you don't eat at all, apart from no-calorie drinks & fluids like herbal teas, water & black coffee.

How many days you fast can vary, for example you might just do it once a week.

Alternate Day Fasting

As it sounds - one day you eat normally, and then the next day you don't eat at all.  

Time-restricted Eating e.g. 16/8

Essentially this is limiting the window of hours during the day where you eat but eat normally during those hours. The most common example is the 16:8 where you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window.

This may be the easiest for most people to implement because much of the fasting period can be done overnight and the extra fasting time can be achieved by pushing your first meal of the day later or bringing your last meal of the day earlier.

There are other variations of this, so you could have 14/10 or 12/12, depending on the individual and at what point they feel the benefits. 

Will it Work for Me?

It’s really important to know that there's no one right way to do it. Everybody is unique and we will all react differently to fasting. Finding what is going to fit in with your lifestyle is key if you are going to stay consistent with this eating approach.

What are the pro’s of Intermittent Fasting?

One of the reasons why people tend to lose weight when they're doing intermittent fasting is because it can lead to taking in fewer calories overall. If we are looking at this very basic scenario of calories in versus calories out, you may not have as many calories going in as if you weren’t fasting. 

However, this may only be the case if you are still following healthy eating principles as obviously it's still possible to eat more calories than you need, even in a reduced eating window, if you are eating a lot of junk or oversized portions (which is tempting if you are really hungry after a fast).

Some studies have shown though that for most people they still achieved a calorie deficit overall, although this is more likely with the more extreme methods of fasting rather than a shorter, time-restricted eating protocol.

Another pro is the support with balancing blood sugar levels. It can help with keeping your insulin levels down, making sure that you are using up your glucose stores so that your body can then burn fat. 

If you fast for 18 hours or more and reach a state of ketosis it may also help to blunt appetite.


It can be good for people who don’t want to track calories or obsess over every mouthful.

It’s a good way of potentially losing weight without losing muscle mass, thereby keeping our metabolism higher, as it depletes the fat stores instead, which is what we want.

What are the Cons of Intermittent Fasting?

One of the issues that a lot of doctors can be concerned about is whether it can lead to disordered eating. Obviously, it would not be heathy to get into a pattern of starving and bingeing or becoming so inflexible that it impacts home or social life.

Another con is that on its own, Intermittent Fasting doesn't teach you anything about healthy eating. It doesn't teach you about the foods, especially in menopause, that your body needs and which can support your hormone balance rather than further disrupt it.

If you are going to eat whatever you like in that non-fasting window and think that intermittent fasting is going to be the magic pill for you to lose the weight, then unfortunately it's probably not going to.

At this point in life we really need to look at all the ways that hormones get disrupted. So, there's no point doing something on one hand that's helpful and then counteracting on the other hand with what we're actually eating.

It can also be very hard to stick to, especially the more extreme versions. If you are embarking on a program which requires you to have complete day fasts, you might find that you can't exercise on those days as you don’t have the energy.

You might find that it affects your concentration or your mood that might have an impact on your work productivity and so forth. It might mean that you’re not a very happy camper to have around at home with the kids. So it's really important that you pick something that you think is actually going to fit in with your life and be alert to any negative consequences.
 
It’s not a quick fix and you need to be able to stay consistent with it as weight will likely be regained again if you stop following the protocol. Weight loss during menopause is a slow process and you need to be realistic about how long it’s going to take to come off.  

So if this is something that you do want to try it obviously has to be a lifestyle change. If you know that you always want to have dinner with your children every night and it's important to you that they see you eating healthy food then you're probably not going to want to do something which requires you to fast all day long. 
Or if you have regular breakfast meetings with work and it's going to be a little awkward if you are the only one not eating or it’s just extremely tempting for you, making you hungrier and hungrier so that when you get home you raid the cupboards for junk, that's probably not going to work for you.

Studies have shown that in fact men respond to intermittent fasting much better than women do. And that's mostly because of the difference in hormones. So, if you are perimenopausal and your hormone levels are all over the place, you might find that intermittent fasting makes it worse. That's not for certain, it might not, but it's just something to be aware of so that you can track your symptoms and how you are feeling. Once you are through menopause and your hormones are lower but more stable, it becomes a little bit easier because it's a  bit more like being on a par with a man and you may find Intermittent Fasting works better for you.

Interittent Fasting also puts stress on the body. Now for someone who is not stressed and is healthy then that's okay. It's like a good stress. If you think about our ancestors, fasting was not something they did consciously, but it was part of everyday life. They didn't have regular, access to food every three hours.  They would some days feast and some days fast and that's kind of how your brain has been designed. It can cope. It gives the cells somewhat of a good stressor. It helps them to be more resilient, but not if you are already really stressed. That's just going to add to your stress levels and mess further with your blood sugar and insulin levels. 

Who Shouldn’t Try Intermittent Fasting?

Obviously if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, but as this article is focused on women during the menopausal transition I’m assuming this won’t relate to you!

People who have ever had an eating disorder previously.

If you are chronically stressed, or have been struggling with sleep issues.

If you are diabetic (always consult a doctor before you try IF)

What’s the Best Way to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting?

If any of this has made you think you’d like to try Intermittent Fasting to see if it helps you with your goal of weight loss during menopause I would advise you to start slowly. I've given you some of the methods, but I wouldn't necessarily go jumping feet first, straight into them but instead build up slowly starting with a time-restricted eating window.

You can start as easy as 12:12, so 12 hours fasting and then 12 hour eating window. The vast majority of people will be able to do that without much difficulty, because for most of it you’re going to be asleep. 

If you are already finishing dinner by 8pm, then breakfast would be at 8am, which is very doable for most people. You could then start to push breakfast forward slowly by around 30 mins – 1 hour per week to see how you feel until you reach your ideal eating window.

See how it fits around your and your family's schedule. It may be that you don't want to do it every day of the week. Maybe you do it Monday to Friday, but you don't do it on weekends because that's going to be too difficult in terms of social plans.

That's all fine. There is no one best way that fits everybody. Make sure that it works for you. Listen to your body.  If you start to feel faint, dizzy, shaking, your body needs to eat something. You do not want to be fainting or having an accident because you're determined to stretch out that fasting window. 

If your menopause symptoms are getting worse then drop it and see whether they improve again, to give you an idea of whether it’s negatively interfering with your hormone balance.

And please, please, please make sure you are keeping your healthy eating principles, your stress relief techniques and your good sleep routines. All of those things need to stay in place. This is not a substitute for any of that.


If you are unhappy with menopausal weight gain and have been struggling to shift it so that you can increase your confidence and self-esteem and get back into your favourite clothes again I’d love to invite you to book a free VIP Menopause Empowerment call with me.  

During this 30 minute session we’ll discuss your own unique situation and goals along with guidance on areas which will be of most importance to focus on and an opportunity to discover whether we would be a good fit to work with each other. Book your session directly in my diary at https://calendly.com/feelgoodforlife

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