The Real Reason Women Can't Lose Weight in Perimenopause, and Why HRT Doesn't Always Fix It
About this episode
This episode discusses the challenges women face with weight loss during perimenopause and the complexities of hormone replacement therapy.
Navigating midlife body changes can feel like waking up in a completely different body, even when your routine hasn't changed. Around 15% of active women transition through menopause without experiencing significant weight gain, finding that standard calorie deficits and exercise still work. However, the vast majority notice that previously effective fitness and nutrition habits suddenly stop yielding results. This shift is highly associated with a changing hormonal environment—specifically decreasing estradiol and declining progesterone levels—rather than just the natural ageing process. While it seems logical that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) would be the perfect fix, the reality is much more complex. HRT yields highly variable results for body composition; it helps some lose fat, has no impact on others, and can even cause weight gain. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN Approximately 15% of active women navigate menopause without significant weight gain and can still successfully lose weight using standard calorie deficits. For many women, the fitness and nutrition strategies that worked five or ten years ago become noticeably less effective during midlife. Accelerated fat gain during…
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