The Menopause Diet: 5-Day Plan to Lose Weight

Written by: Jennifer Chesak, MSJ
Medically reviewed by: Jared Meacham, PhD, RD, CSCS

Spoiler alert: Five days is not enough time to lose a significant amount of weight. But focusing on your diet and lifestyle for five days can help jumpstart your weight management journey during menopause and set you up for success to reach your goals in the long run.

If you’re in perimenopause, also called the menopause transition, you might be experiencing frustrating symptoms. Some classic clues include hot flashes and night sweats. But did you know that this transition can also impact your metabolic health?

You might have noticed changes to your weight or body composition, which is your distribution of muscle and fat tissue. These changes can understandably be vexing, especially if your usual diet and exercise regimens no longer seem to be effective.

You might feel like you need to work harder. But it’s not you. It’s the menopause transition in action, impacting your hormones, which can then have a domino effect on your metabolism.

The good news is that you do have some things within your control to help manage bodily changes. In this article, we provide an approachable menopause diet 5-day plan to lose weight and more.

The Menopause Diet 5-Day Plan to Lose Weight: What It Is and Who It’s For

First, let’s unpack a few menopause terms because they can get a bit confusing.

• Perimenopause: This is the menopause transition, the time leading up to menopause. It often begins when you’re in your mid-40s, though it can begin earlier for a variety of reasons. Symptoms can show up during this time, especially as you get closer to menopause.

• Menopause: This is a moment in time when you’ve had an absence of a period for a full year. The average age of menopause is about 51 or 52 in the United States, though it can begin earlier. Symptoms tend to be at their peak around this time.

• Postmenopause: You’re in postmenopause after you’ve gone a full year without a period. Symptoms may continue for a few years or more before stabilizing.

The menopause diet five-day plan to lose weight is for anyone noticing frustrating bodily changes during any of these phases. This plan is not about eating specific foods, restricting calories, or taking up extreme exercise regimens. And it’s not a plan for dropping significant weight in a few days.

Crash dieting does the opposite of what we want it to. Instead of supporting your metabolism, it can slow it.

Instead, it’s a guide to modifying your diet and lifestyle in sustainable ways to help you reach your goals and feel more confident. Think of the plan as a springboard to set yourself up for success in the long haul rather than as a quick fix. The goal extends beyond reaching your desired weight or body composition. It’s also about improving your overall metabolic health, a strategy that’s especially important for menopause.

During your reproductive years, estrogen offers some protection against obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and dementia. But the decline in estrogen that occurs as part of the menopause transition can increase your risk for these conditions. 

Why Weight Changes During Menopause

You might be wondering how this midlife change affects weight in the first place. Your reproductive hormones can fluctuate dramatically during perimenopause. But ultimately progesterone and estrogen levels decline significantly by the time you reach menopause.

This decrease in your estrogen levels is especially tied to body weight and composition. Although many factors are at play, changes to your insulin sensitivity and changes to how your body stores fat are among the most relevant. These issues impact how to lose weight during menopause.

Estrogen and insulin sensitivity

One key factor regarding menopause weight changes has to do with how sensitive your body is to insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas.

When you eat, your glucose (blood sugar) level rises in your bloodstream. In response, your pancreas releases insulin. Insulin tells your cells to uptake glucose to be used for energy or stored for later. When your cells stop responding as well to insulin, you have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance and weight gain are linked, with each driving the other in a complex cycle.

Estrogen provides some protection against insulin resistance, helping to keep your body more insulin sensitive. So a loss of estrogen as part of the menopause transition can increase your risk for insulin resistance. But you can take steps to improve insulin sensitivity. Doing so can support weight management.

Estrogen and body composition

Body composition involves your body’s distribution of muscle and fat tissue. The menopause transition is linked to increased body fat, decreased muscle, and changes regarding where your body stores fat.

Research shows that menopause is associated with a 3% increase in body fat, an increase in waist and hip circumference, and an increase in visceral fat.

Although you need some visceral fat for overall health, too much of this type of fat is associated with negative health consequences, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It’s also the type of fat that tends to accumulate deep within the midsection, causing an increase in waist circumference.

Menopause is also associated with an accumulation of abdominal subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is the type just below your skin that you can pinch. Additionally, where you store subcutaneous fat might also change. Research shows that if your body normally stores this type of fat in your hips and thighs, the menopause transition can shift it toward your abdomen.

Why do these changes occur? The loss of estrogen as part of the menopause transition is associated with a reduction in how much fat you burn and how many calories you burn overall. Essentially, menopause can slow your metabolism.

What about muscle? Aging for anyone causes a decline in muscle mass unless you do something to maintain or even build it. For females, waning estrogen increases muscle breakdown and shrinkage and impairs regeneration, worsening the issue of muscle loss. You might even lose about 10% of your lean mass from the start of perimenopause to when you reach menopause.

Again, you have some control over these issues with sustainable diet and lifestyle changes.

Your 5-Day Menopause Diet Plan Plus Lifestyle Changes

Now for your menopause weight-loss plan. Over five days, you can make meaningful changes to your lifestyle that help address metabolism and body composition issues. Keep in mind that  this plan is not about achieving perfection or quick fixes. In the long term, consistency is the key to seeing the results you want.

Day 1: Setup and get started

You can start your menopause weight-loss program on any day. But starting on a day you have off from work to dedicate to planning is a great idea.

Focus: Meal plan and grocery shop

Planning helps you avoid convenience foods that are often loaded with added sugar and other ingredients that can hinder weight loss. Decide on your meals and snacks for the week. Then grab your groceries.

Focus on:

• Plenty of produce: Produce is high in fiber, which helps keep you satisfied from meals and snacks and aids blood sugar control. Produce also packs in the antioxidants for an anti-inflammatory boost.
• High-fiber carbohydrates: Choose whole grains rather than refined options that strip out fiber and protein, and increase your susceptibility to blood sugar spikes. Beans, chickpeas, and lentils are also great options.
• Lean protein: Protein gives your metabolism a boost and helps calm cravings, so having it with every meal is a must.
• Healthy fats: Nuts, seeds, avocados, fatty fish, and more are your friends. Healthy fats keep you more satisfied from your meals.

For a loose guide on portions, picture a plate and think about how you can fill it with 25% protein, 25% whole grains or starchy veggies, and 50% non-starchy vegetables for your meals. For snacks, aim for high fiber and high protein.

Your grocery run is also a great time to get acquainted with food labels. Review any packaged foods and check their added sugar content. Avoid added sugar as much as possible. Eliminating most culprits will help reduce your cravings in the long run. If you find yourself with a hankering for something sugary, berries are a naturally sweet substitute for processed treats.

Lifestyle jumpstart

Start incorporating a few sustainable lifestyle changes into your day.

• Swap out alcohol: Beer, wine, and spirits can impede your weight loss efforts because of empty calories and alcohol’s effects on metabolic health. If you normally have a drink or two in the evening, sip an unsweetened seltzer with a dash of bitters as a mocktail. Bitters do contain alcohol, but a dash has a negligible amount.
• Set up a bedtime routine: Plan for at least seven hours of sleep and decide on what you can do to wind down each evening to prepare your mind and body for rest.

Day 2

Now that you’ve got meal planning out of the way, you can focus your efforts on building a sustainable exercise routine.

Focus: Build an exercise routine

Make a list of activities you enjoy, whether walking, running, swimming, hiking, cycling, rowing, or another cardio-based movement. Then decide how you can incorporate 150 minutes of moderate physical activity into your week. Alternatively, you might choose 75 minutes of vigorous activity or a combination that falls somewhere in between. Walking is a moderate activity, whereas the other examples tend to be more vigorous.

Also plan for how you can build two strength-training sessions into your week. Would you prefer to do these at your local gym? Sign up for a membership if you don’t have one and schedule a session with a trainer to get acquainted with the equipment if needed.

Prefer to work out at home? All you need to get started is a set of free weights and an exercise mat. You can buy these items at any sporting goods or big box store and add new equipment over time as you progress. Or invest in adjustable weights so you can increase your load and efforts using the same gear. If you’re stumped on what to do, plenty of apps offer guided training via subscription.

Lifestyle jumpstart

Continue with the lifestyle changes you made on day one and layer in these extras.

• Exercise: If you got that gym membership, take any type of cardio class that speaks to you. Or do any type of cardio you prefer. Aim for 20 to 30 minutes. Keep it on the shorter side if you haven’t exercised in a while.

• Walk for 30 minutes after a meal: A short walk after eating supports blood sugar management and insulin sensitivity. Do this in addition to your other cardio to help build more movement into your day.
  
  

Day 3

Great work! You’re right on track and are ready to dial in even more components of a solid menopause diet for weight loss.

Focus: Reduce stress

For day three, take stock of anything causing you stress. Write down a list of your current triggers and whether they’re related to work, home, or other responsibilities. Now make a list of things that help ease your stress. That might be taking a walk, meditating, reading or journaling in a quiet space, or something else.

What does stress have to do with weight? Chronic stress can dysregulate cortisol, your stress hormone. Dysregulation can lead to increases in visceral fat and insulin resistance. Keeping stress in check can support weight loss.

Lifestyle jumpstart

As you did previously, keep up with the same lifestyle changes you made on day one and day two. But this time you’ll change the type of exercise and layer in one more strategy.

• Exercise: For day three, aim for a full-body strength training session. You might take a group class or work one-on-one with a personal trainer at the gym. Or, at home, you can find plenty of videos online that demonstrate moves with free weights.
• Carve out some “me” time: You’ve figured out your plan to mitigate stress, so now is the time to put it into action. Even if just for 15 to 20 minutes, find your sense of calm.

Day 4

Welcome to day four. You’ve made a lot of progress so far with setting up a sustainable plan.

Focus: Prioritize protein

Track your protein intake for the day. Are you getting enough to support and preserve your muscle mass and keep you feeling satisfied? A good rule of thumb is to aim for about 0.65 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. So if you weigh about 150 pounds, that equates to about 98 to 150 grams. Spreading the amount throughout the day is best.

Protein aids weight management in several ways. It supports your muscle mass, promotes satiety from your meals and reduces cravings, helps with blood sugar and insulin control, and even revs your metabolism a bit.

Not getting enough protein? Veracity recently launched its Metabolic Power Protein powder. A serving provides 20 grams of plant-based protein from organic peas, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds. It also features MyoVera, a plant-based combination of chromium (a trace mineral) and amylopectin (a polysaccharide) that helps your body to better use protein for muscle building and repair.

Lifestyle jumpstart

Once again, you’ll include the lifestyle jumpstarts you’ve already incorporated, but with another exercise switch and one more strategy.

• Exercise: Aim for at least 30 minutes of cardio with an activity that you enjoy.
• Movement snacks: Find two ways to build more movement into your day. For example, take the stairs at work, go for a walk during a call, or do a set of squats or another exercise on your coffee break.

Day 5

You’ve got one more day of setting up your sustainable plan that you can carry forward on your weight-loss journey.

Focus: Appetite and craving control

Unpredictable hormonal shifts and declines in estrogen can make your appetite go a little haywire. But a few strategies can help you feel more satisfied from your meals. Making protein a priority helps, and so can adding in more fiber.

Fiber slows food digestion so you feel fuller for longer. Much of the fiber you eat also passes through your gastrointestinal (GI) tract largely undigested or absorbed.

Additionally, once it reaches your large intestine, it feeds your microbiome, the community of microbes living in your gut. Some of your gut bacteria then ferment fiber. As a result, the bacteria produce beneficial compounds called short-chain-fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs activate cells that produce glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone that helps stabilize blood sugar and counteracts insulin resistance. Fiber also helps keep cholesterol levels in check.

Aim for at least 30 to 45 grams of fiber per day by consuming a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Need extra appetite support? Metabolaid is a combination of lemon verbena and hibiscus flower extract. It contains high levels of polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants that may aid with weight management. Metabolaid is the key ingredient in Metabolism Ignite, which helps support the production of your natural GLP-1 hormone.

Lifestyle jumpstart

You’ve done lots of hard work already, and you don’t need to layer on any additional lifestyle changes now that you’ve dialed in sleep, stress relief, walking after at least one meal, and building in additional movement snacks throughout the day. All you need to do is switch up your exercise for the day.

• Exercise: Today’s a great day for some active rest. This means a day off from your usual cardio or strength training sessions. Instead, try a restorative yoga class, take a leisurely bike ride with a friend, or find a mobility routine online that offers some gentle stretching and benefits your joints.

Beyond Your 5-Day Plan

Now you can look back and see that you set up a solid and sustainable plan for achieving your goals going forward. So how should you treat the days, weeks, and months ahead?

Focus on the pillars you established:

• Nutrition: Eat a diet that prioritizes protein and fiber and minimizes ultra-processed foods, added sugar, and alcohol.
• Movement: Incorporate 75 to 150 minutes of dedicated cardio and two strength training sessions every week.
• Other lifestyle habits: Make time for optimal sleep, stress relief, and downtime.

Additionally, you might consider a slight calorie deficit—of 300 to 500 fewer per day—into your meal planning if you’re trying to reduce weight, meaning the number on the scale.

However, you might see results in the mirror and notice your clothes fit better with strength training, even without a calorie deficit. This is because muscle takes up less space than fat and strength training over time will increase how many calories you burn at rest.

Key takeaways

• The menopause transition can usher in some frustrating changes for weight and body composition, largely due to a decline in estrogen.
• Lifestyle changes to diet, exercise, sleep quality, and stress levels can help.
• Changes should be sustainable rather than intense or restrictive for the best results.
  
  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can you reduce “menopause belly”?

“Menopause belly” is sometimes used as a term to describe weight gain around the midsection during the menopause transition. One of the best ways to address abdominal weight gain is through full-body strength training. This increases your muscle mass, which helps change your body composition over time.

What is the best menopause diet for weight loss?

Menopause can change the ways in which your body manages glucose (blood sugar) and insulin. Eating balanced meals that contain protein, fiber, and health fats, can help keep blood sugar and insulin levels down. In turn, this can reduce cravings and aid with weight loss.

What is the best breakfast for menopause weight loss?

The best breakfast for menopause weight loss is one that is high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats to help keep you satisfied. Eggs, plain Greek yogurt with nuts and berries, and protein powder smoothies are great options.