Learn how nutrition phases help support your hormones and metabolism, and how to leverage these phases to reach your goals more effectively.

Throughout my career as a health coach, I’ve witnessed hundreds of women who have dieted their entire lives. They’ve spent years and years (and more years) chasing fat loss by means of yoyo dieting, removing certain foods, and drastically cutting calories. 

As a young adult, I too fell into the dieting trap. After navigating my middle age years and am now post-menopausal, I can attest to the fact that this approach does more harm than good. In fact, the long-term dieting side effects magnify our post-menopausal challenges and hinder us from reaching our goals. 

How Nutrition Phasing Can Help You Overcome the Diet Roller Coaster – and Effectively Reach Your Goals!

Typically women begin experiencing at least some peri-menopausal (the period before menopause) symptoms in their mid to late thirties and forties. Some of these symptoms might include weight gain, low energy, poor sleep, muscle loss, poor digestion, hot flashes/night sweats, and mood swings.

During menopause, your body is under a constant state of stress due to hormonal fluctuations. Extreme calorie deprivation also causes stress on the body; therefore, when the two stressors are combined, the results can be catastrophic for your body. All of the symptoms listed above are intensified when we place too much stress on the body. During menopause, the goal is to mitigate as much stress on the body as possible so you can reach your health goals. One way to do this is through phasing your nutrition. Three of the basic nutrition phases are the fat loss phase, reverse phase, and maintenance phase.

During menopause, we want to intentionally move between these phases. Doing so will help you continue losing fat, and build or preserve muscle mass. Phasing your nutrition also gives your hormones and metabolism a break, which allows them to recover and upregulate to a healthy place.

Let’s take a closer look at the three basic nutrition phases, and how they affect your body during menopause:

Fat Loss Phase (Deficit Calories): 

• fat loss/weight loss
• starting phase should be planned out for 12-16 weeks max
• starting deficit will depend on your body, activity level, and goals
• metabolism slows down 
• decrease in thyroid output
• lower testosterone
• higher cortisol
• lower energy
• some muscle loss
• irritability

Reverse Phase (Gradual Calorie Increase):

• fat loss exit plan for sustainable results
• more food
• time in reverse depends on individual
• metabolism increases
• boosting hormones
• more energy
• better sleep
• stronger in workouts
• better mood

Maintenance Phase (Maintenance Calories):

• maintain results, muscle building, metabolism priming, and optimizing hormone health
• time in maintenance depends on individual goals
• metabolic balance
• hormone balance
• normal cortisol ranges
• sustained energy
• quality sleep
• body recomposition/muscle building
• sustainable living

Why Nutrition Phasing is More Effective Than Always Restricting Calories

It’s a known fact that being in an intentional calorie deficit can help you lose weight; however, an extreme calorie deficit over a long period of time is hard on you mentally, emotionally, and physically. Eventually, it will lead to diet fatigue, hunger, low energy, high cortisol levels, and a slower metabolism. To make matters worse, the more stress you put on your body, the harder it becomes to heal and repair the damage. 

Time spent in the deficit phase, where calories are restricted, should be short-term and infrequent. As you near the end of your deficit, you should have a strategic plan to begin reversing (increasing) your calories back up to your maintenance calories. It’s during the reverse phase that you can sustain your fat loss while allowing your hormones and metabolism to naturally begin to recover. Once you reach the maintenance phase, your body can thrive! Many life-long dieters are shocked to hear that the maintenance phase is actually where they should spend the majority of their time! The maintenance phase is crucial if you want to build muscle, change your physique, and properly support your bone, hormone, and metabolic health. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how to phase your nutrition and thrive through menopause, I’d love to be your personal coach!