Feels like this was written for me! But it’s impossible to reach that level of exercise when you’re post menopausal and your HRT isn’t hitting the spot yet-exhaustion and aching muscles and joints are prohibitive. That’s why I want to work out how to lower my SHBG to benefit from testosterone to be able to exercise to that level!
Thank you, I am always vacillating back and forth about limiting calories and maintaining healthy macros. I do believe that strength training is the key 🗝️. Thanks for the clarification and precise strategy!
I lost 7lbs over 13 weeks of near-daily hiking without changing my diet, and this was a significant increase in hours of physical activity. I was not trying to lose weight, but my experience again supports your recommendation to exercise more as the first step to weight loss. (I have maintained a stable weight within a 5-7lb window for most of the past decade, suggesting that my diet was not the limiting factor in fat optimization. Thanks again for your articles, which I prioritize over all other non-urgent reading.
This is great information, but I’m left with the impression that it’s mostly relevant for obese (or at least overweight) individuals, and younger individuals.
Older individuals, especially post menopausal women, will generally have trouble tolerating that level of exercise, and would require more recovery time than — according to your data — allowed within the window of effective (for weight loss) levels of exercise.
How would you recommend the populations that can’t physically handle these recommendations proceed? As you probably know, menopausal women can work out as hard as they can tolerate , follow a reasonable diet with reasonable caloric intake and still struggle to lose weight. Sufficient protein intake (with the calories from fat that naturally accompany it) leaves little room for anything else if low enough caloric levels for weight loss are maintained when your body doesn’t tolerate these high levels of physical activity.
Yes you are correct that sufficient protein leaves no room for anything else. The solution is to not eat anything else.
You do not need to eat an optimized diet to lose weight and it’s not a permanent diet so it isn’t a problem. Also eating very lean protein with salt allows plenty of low calorie vegetables.
This post isn’t about how to lose weight. It’s about how to not lose muscle when losing weight.
I agree many people may need to exercise less when hitting up against their recoverable volume. However, how many post menopausal women are primarily doing bodybuilding exercises? This is the issue. You need to workout like a bodybuilder first and foremost.
I think there is a ctitical error in the article. Where it states, "Eat enough protein. Obtain 1.2-1.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (0.55-0.82 grams per pound of bodyweight)." It should be 1.2-1.8 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight.
"In obese postmenopausal women losing weight over five weeks, those who lost less than 0.74 kilograms (one-third of a pound) per week lost only 14% of their weight as lean mass, while those who lost weight faster than that lost 50% of their weight as lean mass.
An earlier study in women found no difference in 1.1 and 1.9 kilograms per week (0.5-0.85 pounds per week, but 43% of weight loss was lean mass."
Your math is off here. 0.74kg is 1.628lbs, 1.1 kg is 2.42lbs, 1.9kg is 4.18lbs. I think you were dividing by 2.2 instead of multiplying.
If fixed this and slightly revised the recommendations. I was working too fast and letting my finger memory do the calculations on weight loss after doing the inverse type of calculations on protein intake per bodyweight smh
Feels like this was written for me! But it’s impossible to reach that level of exercise when you’re post menopausal and your HRT isn’t hitting the spot yet-exhaustion and aching muscles and joints are prohibitive. That’s why I want to work out how to lower my SHBG to benefit from testosterone to be able to exercise to that level!
Thank you, I am always vacillating back and forth about limiting calories and maintaining healthy macros. I do believe that strength training is the key 🗝️. Thanks for the clarification and precise strategy!
Thanks for this.
I lost 7lbs over 13 weeks of near-daily hiking without changing my diet, and this was a significant increase in hours of physical activity. I was not trying to lose weight, but my experience again supports your recommendation to exercise more as the first step to weight loss. (I have maintained a stable weight within a 5-7lb window for most of the past decade, suggesting that my diet was not the limiting factor in fat optimization. Thanks again for your articles, which I prioritize over all other non-urgent reading.
This is great information, but I’m left with the impression that it’s mostly relevant for obese (or at least overweight) individuals, and younger individuals.
Older individuals, especially post menopausal women, will generally have trouble tolerating that level of exercise, and would require more recovery time than — according to your data — allowed within the window of effective (for weight loss) levels of exercise.
How would you recommend the populations that can’t physically handle these recommendations proceed? As you probably know, menopausal women can work out as hard as they can tolerate , follow a reasonable diet with reasonable caloric intake and still struggle to lose weight. Sufficient protein intake (with the calories from fat that naturally accompany it) leaves little room for anything else if low enough caloric levels for weight loss are maintained when your body doesn’t tolerate these high levels of physical activity.
Yes you are correct that sufficient protein leaves no room for anything else. The solution is to not eat anything else.
You do not need to eat an optimized diet to lose weight and it’s not a permanent diet so it isn’t a problem. Also eating very lean protein with salt allows plenty of low calorie vegetables.
This post isn’t about how to lose weight. It’s about how to not lose muscle when losing weight.
I agree many people may need to exercise less when hitting up against their recoverable volume. However, how many post menopausal women are primarily doing bodybuilding exercises? This is the issue. You need to workout like a bodybuilder first and foremost.
I think there is a ctitical error in the article. Where it states, "Eat enough protein. Obtain 1.2-1.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (0.55-0.82 grams per pound of bodyweight)." It should be 1.2-1.8 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight.
That’s a typo. Will fix.
..and this is 1.2-1.8 grams of protein per kg of ideal bodyweight?
Is this per lb of actual or ideal bodyweight for protein? Thanks!
I would think ideal should work but the studies did not use ideal, they used actual.
"In obese postmenopausal women losing weight over five weeks, those who lost less than 0.74 kilograms (one-third of a pound) per week lost only 14% of their weight as lean mass, while those who lost weight faster than that lost 50% of their weight as lean mass.
An earlier study in women found no difference in 1.1 and 1.9 kilograms per week (0.5-0.85 pounds per week, but 43% of weight loss was lean mass."
Your math is off here. 0.74kg is 1.628lbs, 1.1 kg is 2.42lbs, 1.9kg is 4.18lbs. I think you were dividing by 2.2 instead of multiplying.
Let me fix that yikes.
If fixed this and slightly revised the recommendations. I was working too fast and letting my finger memory do the calculations on weight loss after doing the inverse type of calculations on protein intake per bodyweight smh