4 Exercise Mistakes Hijacking Your Menopause Fitness (and how to fix them)

You’re doing it all but could there be hidden mistakes hijacking your menopause fitness. Increasing protein, lifting weights, doing high intensity… How can you be this active but not working? 

Disclaimer: This could trigger you. The mistakes hijacking your menopause fitness you could be doing on purpose because you were told once this is what you SHOULD DO. 

This episode is for all women, and for you. So let’s unpack these mistakes hijacking your menopause fitness. 

Before anything.. Measure. 

If you aren’t measuring your body composition - skeletal muscle mass vs. body fat—you won’t truly know what’s working. I’ll link to the 4 Smart scales in my store. You can get a Dexa or go to a gym.

#1 Not Consuming Enough Fuel

Women are not the same as men on carbohydrate needs. We get little, we disrupt hormones. You are influenced by cortisol, insulin, thyroid, testosterone, growth hormone and the endocrine.

 

How much fuel do you need?

• Endocrine dysfunction - ~30-35 calories per kg of FFM in women; but around 15 calories per kg FFM in men.

• Fat Free Mass (FFM) - say you’re 130kg and you have 25% body fat. You need 2923 kcals to keep your body functioning well.

 

Fueling Your Workouts:

• Cardio: 30g carbs and 15g protein before

• Strength: 15g protein before + 30-45g protein after (higher in and after menopause) 
  

 

Thyroid & Carbohydrates

• Low carb diets (under 100g) - pivotal point for lower thyroid function. 
• Serotonin - produced in the gut, declines with low carb diets. 
• Low-carb diets - don’t lead to better weight loss long-term, they cause water loss.

 

What Happens When You’re Under-Fueled?
Low Energy Availability from brain (hypothalamus) to body…

• Hypothalamus signals HPA axis dysfunction
• Adrenals releases cortisol
• Thyroid slows metabolism
• Body conserves energy and breaks down muscle instead of fat for fuel

 

When You Fast, try one of these:

• High intensity intervals 
• Lift heavy weights 
• High intensity boot camp class 
• Reduce carbs, maintain a keto-like diet while increasing your walks

 

Know the Sneaky Mistakes Hijacking Your Menopause Fitness

#2 Never REALLY Recovering From Hard Intervals or Hard Workouts 

Some bootcamps and spin classes are rapid, high-intensity intervals without adequate recovery. Your cortisol levels during this session accumulate. 

It feels like you crushed it, but here’s the truth: if you’re not giving yourself real recovery, you’re not hitting your peak. 

When you skip the full recovery, you’re not building the strength and power that protect against sarcopenia (muscle loss).

Try these:

• Warm-up A: 

• Run up a steep hill for 40 seconds

• Mark that point on the hill

• Slowly go back down

• Fully recover, with your nasal breathing.

• Repeat until you don’t make it to the same spot on the hill
  
  

• Warm-up B:

• Run up a steep hill for 40 seconds

• Mark that point on the hill

• Quickly make your way down

• Cool down within 60 seconds

• Immediately run up again

• Repeat until you don’t make it to the same spot on the hill

They both will feel hard, but only one gets you to your maximum capacity. 

The glycolytic fibers - fast twitch that sustain power fatigue quickly. Women have fewer of them than slow twitch and lose twice as fast as slow-twitch fibers. Fast-twitch fibers need power moves — like heavy lifting or box jumps — and plenty of recovery to reload and go again. 

You’re fooling yourself into thinking you’re getting in better shape. 

So test yourself… a simple protocol you can do at home.

Try a full test battery you can easily do at home - I’ll provide access to it in the show notes as soon as it’s ready. 

Measure. Monitor your waist girth, your body fat percent and your skeletal muscle. Rate your energy, sleep, focus, digestion and elimination. Are you improving, worse or the same? When you’re exercising optimally these things also improve. It’s not just muscle mass and fat. 

 

Are these Mistakes Hijacking Your Menopause Fitness?

 

#3 Relying on Caffeine, Bar Codes and Over Emphasis on Packaged Food

By nature, your cortisol level is highest at about 8am. You’ve fasted overnight and if you’re not eating soon after waking, especially if you’re exercising as a female, your body has stressor on top of stressor:

• Punched your ticket in midlife (less estrogen, more cortisol)

• Caffeine (more cortisol) 

• No fuel (more cortisol) 

• Exercise (more cortisol) 

Fuel before intense exercise. 

Fuel again after, especially within the 24 hour period after resistance training or other HARD workouts the need for recovery persists, so it’s not just that single meal following activity.

#4 Always High and Hard

You have never needed high intensity more in your life than whatever age over 40 you are now. 

You also need full recovery … between intervals, strength training sets and sessions. 

Here’s the secret:

• Muscle gets stronger between sessions. The exercise is the stimulus. The recovery is where fitness happens – the release of hormones, the repair and supercompensation. 

• Recovery time. Get AT LEAST 48 to 72 hours between hard use of the same muscle groups.

• Active Recovery. The low intensity movement between your hard sessions is absolutely important in increasing circulation, blood sugar stabilization, improving sleep and mood and overall fitness levels. 

 

Keep It Simple:

1. Movement Time. Walking at the level below where cortisol negatively spikes so you can reduce or optimize it.

2. Short & Intense. Spend small amounts of time in high intensity interval session - where you recover completely between sessions.

3. All Major Muscle Groups. Spend 2-3 sessions a week hitting all major muscle groups or twice to total muscle fatigue. If you’re in post menopause, the volume of sets has to be greater compared to a perimenopause woman.

4. Recover. Give yourself at least 48 hours.. 72 is often BEST. 

Resources:

• Flipping50 Membership
• Flipping50 Insiders Group

 

Other Podcasts You Might Like:

• Previous Episode - Is Red Light Therapy the Answer to Aches, Pains and More Movement?
• Next Episode - 3 Short Strength Training Session Strategies for Women in Menopause
• More Like This - 12 Strength Training Mistakes in Menopause Robbing Your Results

 

References:

• Loucks AB, Verdun M, Heath EM. Low energy availability, not stress of exercise, alters LH pulsatility in exercising women. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1998 Jan;84(1):37-46. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1998.84.1.37. PMID: 9451615. https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1998.84.1.37
• Naude CE, Brand A, Schoonees A, Nguyen KA, Chaplin M, Volmink J. Low-carbohydrate versus balanced-carbohydrate diets for reducing weight and cardiovascular risk. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 Jan 28;1(1):CD013334. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013334.pub2. PMID: 35088407; PMCID: PMC8795871. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013334.pub2
• Shulhai AM, Rotondo R, Petraroli M, Patianna V, Predieri B, Iughetti L, Esposito S, Street ME. The Role of Nutrition on Thyroid Function. Nutrients. 2024 Jul 31;16(15):2496. doi: 10.3390/nu16152496. PMID: 39125376; PMCID: PMC11314468. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16152496