Share Follow us Menopause can be very difficult on a number of levels. Although each woman’s experience is different, many find that they gain fat, lose muscle tone, and struggle with hot flashes, insomnia, and mood swings during this time. In this article, I’ll discuss how a low-carb or keto diet combined with other lifestyle strategies may help you manage some of the physical, mental, and emotional symptoms of menopause. Fortunately, there are many things that can help you through the menopause transition, starting with following a nutrient-dense ketogenic or low-carb diet. A very-low-carb lifestyle can help lower insulin levels, improve insulin sensitivity, keep your appetite under control and potentially even reduce hot flashes and other symptoms. In addition, there are several health benefits of ketogenic or low-carb diets. Following this way of eating may reduce other heart disease risk factors, which is especially important once you lose the cardioprotective effects of estrogen. It’s important to understand that losing weight during menopause can be extremely tough even if you do everything right.
What are some hot topics among our members? Specifically, many members express how menopause seems to negatively impact their results on keto, or how it makes following the diet more challenging. Keto sometimes helps, but not in every case.
Free 1-year warranty on all blenders and juicers. For many of my patients, menopause spells absolute misery. Hot flashes cut into their sleep and create heart palpitations. Hormonal imbalances like estrogen, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone DHEA, which decline around middle age, contribute to these and other issues. Altogether, these imbalances create a perfect storm for problems such as weight gain, mood swings, and crashing libido. Many patients are surprised to learn that diet and lifestyle choices dramatically impact menopausal symptoms. Chronic stress and anxiety, which nearly every patient experiences, also contribute to hot flashes. Those hormonal imbalances — especially insulin, which subsequently knocks other hormones out of balance — can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS, an inflammatory condition characterized by irregular periods, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, and infertility.
In addition to its mood-boosting properties, daily exercise also contributes to improved heart health, win-win! Reply: 9. If you are eating too much fat or protein for your body’s needs you will burn that first and you won’t access the energy in your fat stores. I’ve found keto combined with exercise and IF – to not only provide results, but to dramatically reduce my menopause symptoms. There are other connections to health problems, such as diabetes, that are currently being studied. Can keto make you sweat? When you plateau again, aim for 60g of fat, but don’t go any lower. You may think caffeine and alcohol help you de-stress, but their effects on the body, especially in excess, can have adverse effects.