The benefits of intermittent fasting for menopause

Here I have a guest post for you from Karen Finn, an expert when it comes to using intermittent fasting for menopause to help you to lose weight, feel more in control or be more comfortable during the menopause.

Karen’s story

It’s not a fad diet. It’s not a diet at all. But intermittent fasting helped me lose the stubborn menopausal weight that nothing else could shift. That’s just the icing on the cake, though.

This lifestyle has transformed my physical and mental health, and I’m in good company. I know so many women who swear by this way of life for their ongoing weight maintenance, health and overall well-being as they navigate their menopausal journey.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating where you only eat during certain times during the 24-hour day. For example, you may only eat between noon and 8 p.m. (your “eating window”).

The 16 hours between 8 pm and noon the next day are reserved for fasting, which means you only drink unflavoured water, black coffee/tea or green tea. This so-called 16:8 is just one way to fast – the beauty of fasting is that you can choose what times work best for your lifestyle, making it very flexible.

Before I go into the benefits of intermittent fasting for menopausal women, it’s essential to understand what’s going on in your body during menopause.

What is menopause?

Put simply, menopause is when a woman stops having monthly periods because her ovaries have stopped producing eggs. Over time, her reproductive hormone levels decline until the cycle that used to produce a monthly period eventually stops.

Medically, a woman has officially hit menopause on the day 12 months after her last period. The average age for this is around 51.

Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause. It can start in your mid-30s, but most women begin having symptoms in their 40s. The whole transition from perimenopause to menopause can average 4-8 years, but everybody’s different.

I had an unexplained early menopause at age 43, and some women go through it when they’re even younger. Others can experience surgical or medical menopause if they have both ovaries removed due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy or if treatment is given to suppress ovarian function for conditions like endometriosis.

Many people don’t realise that hot flushes are not the only symptom of menopause. Some of the most common physical symptoms include joint and muscle pain, digestive issues, sleep problems, headaches, itchy skin, dizziness, night sweats, irregular periods (in peri), vaginal dryness, low libido and weight gain.

Mental symptoms such as brain fog, mood changes, rage, anxiety, depression, overwhelm and a general lack of joy are also common.

Many of these symptoms can worsen during perimenopause because our reproductive hormones – mainly oestrogen and progesterone – fluctuate while declining overall. The hormone testosterone, which can impact libido and muscle mass, is also decreasing.

How intermittent fasting can support menopause

There’s a lot of conflicting information online about intermittent fasting, especially for women. Add menopause to the mix, and it’s a minefield of misinformation.

The reason that I was first drawn to intermittent fasting was because it sounded simple and sustainable. I was fed up with complicated and restrictive diets that left me feeling miserable and devoid of energy despite promising the opposite!

Not to mention the fact that they just kept me on the diet rollercoaster. Fasting was the missing piece in the puzzle… a long-term solution for better health, healthy food relationships, and weight loss/maintenance. The best part: no calorie counting is required!

Here are some health benefits of intermittent fasting that can have an impact on menopausal symptoms and potentially make your menopausal journey a smoother one:

Inflammation reduction

Chronic inflammation is known to impact our health negatively. Inflammation is linked to everything from joint pain to insomnia to brain fog. Research shows that intermittent fasting has an anti-inflammatory effect.

Appetite correction

Many of my clients constantly complain of uncontrollable cravings and feeling hungry. When you’re on the correct intermittent fasting protocol for your body, your hunger/fullness hormones will be properly balanced, and you won’t always be hungry.

This is known as appetite correction. Being unable to respond to the hunger and fullness signals being sent to our brain stems from factors like being taught to eat at certain times of the day whether we’re hungry or not, years of following restrictive diets and eating processed foods that mess with our hunger hormones, among other things.

Blood sugar regulation

Fasting affects insulin, which is the hormone that regulates blood sugar. One recent study discovered that post-menopausal women had worse blood sugar markers (fasting glucose, insulin and HbA1c) and a greater risk of pre-diabetes than pre-menopausal women.

Fasting allows our circulating insulin levels to decrease, which means the body can heal and repair itself, potentially lowering the risk of diabetes and heart disease, among other health issues.

Improved heart health

Once women hit menopause, they are at greater risk of developing heart disease. Research shows that intermittent fasting improves blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as reducing oxidative stress and systemic inflammation – these are all indicators of heart disease risk. 

Better gut health

Having a healthy gut (microbiome) plays a critical role in menopause, but menopausal women have a harder time balancing the good and bad bacteria in their gut due to lower oestrogen levels.

This can have a knock-on effect on inflammation, metabolism, immunity and even your mood. Improving your gut health can help counteract some of the unfavourable health effects of the menopause, including weight gain.

According to other studies, intermittent fasting improves our gut microbiome health.

Cellular renewal

Scientific evidence shows that intermittent fasting activates something called autophagy. This is the body’s way of “recycling” damaged cells and generating new healthy cells in their place and it happens when we fast regularly.

It’s akin to a daily natural detoxing process that helps prevent diseases and promotes brain health. It’s also linked to greater longevity!

Fat burning

When we fast long enough and lower our insulin levels, our bodies begin to use stored fat for fuel. This is known as ketosis. It bolsters mental and physical performance, as well as disease resistance. Not to mention helping with menopausal weight loss!

How to get started

I’m a big fan of keeping things simple. As menopausal women, we’ve got too many other things going on in our lives to add even more to our “to do” list. This is why intermittent fasting works so well.

It’s incredibly straightforward. The only real rule is the clean fast (i.e., only unflavoured water, black coffee/tea or green tea).

In my view, having too many rules perpetuates diet mentality. One of my favourite things about fasting is that it helped me get rid of my diet mindset once and for all.

Some advice I give to my clients when starting out:

Build up gradually

Start by doing a 12-hour fast and then extending it by 15-30 minutes a day until you reach 16:8. Then see how you feel on that for a few weeks before you decide whether you want to try longer fasts.

Don’t worry too much about what you’re eating during the first four weeks or so, as this is a big adjustment for your body. Trying to start a new healthy eating regimen at the same time can be overwhelming and make you more likely to quit.

Same goes for starting a new exercise regimen. Take it easy on yourself in that first month or so.

Learning to listen to your body and trust the signals it’s sending you is part of the process. Keeping a diary of how you’re feeling can be helpful in the early days. This helps you become more intuitive about what your body needs.

Patience and consistency are key

This is a long game, not a quick fix. You may find that you feel better before you start losing weight. Fasting heals you on the inside first.

So, if there’s any health issue going on internally, that will be addressed before the superficial fat. Just because you aren’t losing weight immediately doesn’t mean it’s not working. Fasting is a healthy lifestyle with a side effect of weight loss.

Everybody needs to find their “sweet spot” for fasting so comparing yourself with what others do isn’t particularly helpful.

Know your why

You need to be clear on WHY you want to fast – is it for overall health, menopausal symptoms or weight loss? If your main goal is weight loss, then you’ll probably need to build up to at least 18 hours.

Fat burning really ramps up between 18-24 hours and most women find it difficult to lose weight on less than 18 hours. Of course, you don’t have to do the same number of hours every day.

It’s good to mix things up. And once you’ve lost the weight and you’re in maintenance, you can drop your hours.

Consider support

It’s entirely possible to do this on your own, but it can really help to have extra support from an experienced faster to keep you on track and answer any questions that may come up.

Loads of little hacks can increase your chances of success, which beginners may not know about.  

That’s where I come in. A great place to start is my Fasting4Menopause for Beginners masterclass, which gives you all the information you need to get started and includes lots of tips for ensuring your success.

If you want personalised support and accountability after that, I offer WhatsApp packages where you can message me anytime during business hours.

I’m also very excited to be creating a private community called The Thrive Sanctuary, where women at any stage of their menopausal journey can gather to learn more about intermittent fasting, get regular coaching from me, hear guest experts talk about related areas of menopausal wellness, and hang out with other like-minded, non-judgmental women who are determined to feel their very best during menopause. You can sign up to the wait list here and I’ll keep you updated.

If you’re still unsure whether fasting is for you, I invite you to join my free Facebook support group called Fasting4Menopause & More. You can ask questions and see how fasting works for other menopausal women. Or you can hang out and lurk if you’re feeling shy.

Finally, if you have any questions, please email me at karen@karenfinn.net.

A note from Jen

Is this something any of you have tried or would be interested in trying now? I think I am definitely in perimenopause so I have been thinking about all of this a lot lately and would love to hear about your experiences and anything specific you have found helpful.