I’m only 37, but I had a ‘radical’ hysterectomy in February and am this in surgical menopause. I’m taking HRT (estrogen — Vivelle Dot).
I can’t find ANY information on fasting for menopausal women! Anyone have any experience, or want to help me explore how this thing works? :)
I’m so glad you posted! I am thinking of fasting because my weight loss has been slow. I am 51, SW 216, CW 205, GW 165. I started 90 days ago according to MFP. This is the hardest time I’ve ever had trying to lose weight. I eat under 1400 cals a day (usually 1200) and exercise 3-4 times a week, AND IMF 16:8. I had my thyroid tested two weeks ago and it is normal, and I do not take any hormones (I’m sweating it out with the hot flashes). I actually can’t believe the hot flashes alone haven’t taken me down 20 pounds. The one nice thing about IMF is that it has taken my fear of being hungry away. I will watch this thread to see what others say.
I am 61 and have been post-menopausal for 10 years. I did pretty well with keto and IF last year (mostly OMAD) but I have a little problem with wine in the evening and it just quit working. I would get into ketosis during the day but apparently my wine habit was slowing my metabolism and returning me to my set point every evening. I have decided to try some longer fasts in part to break the wine habit. I did 48 hours two days ago and then ate last night at a charity event. I am 24 hours in to a 72 hour fast now. So far, no change on the scale at all. I’ll let you know if 72 hours changes anything. I am honestly not expecting it to. I suspect that it will take a couple months of consistent longer fasts to reset my set point. I have about 15 lbs to lose.
I’m not yet, but my mother is post- and she has done a little bit of fasting! She hasn’t gone hardcore with more than 30~ hours yet, though. Her experience sounds like it’s been pretty par for the course, though… the usual pitfalls when she didn’t know about electrolytes etc. I’m sorry it’s not very useful information, but it’s all I had to contribute ha ha… I’m going to watch this thread for her, since she took a break but is getting back into fasting again!
Update: 54 hours in to what I had planned to be a 72 hour fast. Still pondering going 7 days. Anyway, my wonderful daughter accompanied me to 2 hot yoga classes over the weekend which helped enormously (although I was sweating massively all night). When I started I weighed 122 in the morning and 125 in the afternoon. Yesterday still 122 in the morning. Today 118.8. Probably all of those night sweats but I still glad to see some change.All in all the fasting is very tolerable. I had to cut back on coffee because the usual 2 shots made me jittery. I drink lots of water with electrolytes and eat Lite Salt whenever I crave it.Hope you all are doing well!