Why “Intuitive Eating” May Not Work the Way You Think After 40

Calvin and Brooke Masters: You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, let's try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: Hey there everyone. Welcome Master Your Metabolism. My name is Brooke Masters, one of the coaches here at Masters Fitness Coaching. And today I wanted to talk a little bit about intuitive eating. And specifically for women that are over 40, in perimenopause, or in menopause, and have thought to themselves, I will just listen to my body. And that sounds really simple, but what if? For many years, like most of us, we have been trying to diet. We've been undereating, overtraining, and some of the cues for hunger and satiety are not reliable. So intuitive eating is not a bad thing. That's not the problem. The question is whether those cues are correct. And can actually help you to give the information needed in order for you to hit your goals. Now, a couple of things that could impact the ability to use hunger and satiety as a cue is because many years of undereating, and this is super common among women, that your body adapts and gets used to the famine that it thinks your body's Been in and your body will adapt to lower calories, and you after a while will not have those same cues that you feel hunger. Also, sometimes, either due to the chronic undereating, stress in general, your hormones can downregulate. And some of those hormones also are a part of how your body receives those signals for hunger. So think about changes in sleep. Many women in perimenopause are suffering from lack of sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, not being able to fall asleep, and getting very little sleep. And in when you are sleeping, that's when those hormones for satiety and hunger are regulated. Cortisol is regulated. So it's not the hormones themselves, but the Result of those hormones changing, the result of your dieting history that can impact how your body senses hunger signals and satiety signals. So not necessarily hungry enough to intuitively eat between protein, fiber, and carbs, it's not really that your body is ready for that. It's not able to make that correlation between hunger and satiety. So what we need to look at is when we're having cravings, what our appetite is like, our insulin sensitivity, because another thing that is dysregulated in perimenopause and menopause is your body's ability to regulate blood sugars and regulate insulin. So when you have higher insulin, you will tend to have more cravings. When you have higher stress, Your body is going to crave more things. And those cravings are a result of something going on in your body, not necessarily if you need more food in order to calorically meet your needs. And muscle mass. Being able to eat enough. If you are losing muscle mass, you are not weight training, you are not eating adequate protein, and you lose muscle mass as you age, you're not going to be able to eat as much. So You may have the hunger, but your body and your basal metabolic rate, what your body requires and the amount of calories your body requires just to be is not the same as it used to be. So you might notice that you're gaining weight even though you're just eating when you're hungry. so again, perimenopause or menopause do not automatically break your metabolism. That's not what happens, but the combination of different hormonal changes, reduction of muscle mass. Disruption of sleep, lifestyle changes, all of these things can impact your body composition. So many women that are saying, I'm barely eating anything and I still can't lose weight. I am not eating breakfast. I am, you know, training five to six days a week. I'm doing all this cardio, yet nothing is working. And it's just because that may not be the answer. Right now, what you may need to do is almost recover the body and giving your body what it needs right now. And sometimes that means consistent meals that are balanced, having more protein than you're used to, having carbohydrates at specific times, specifically when you are active or around your training, dietary fats, lots of people will stop eating fats because they feel it will make them fat. Through the many years of things that we have been through, these are some things that have been brought up and have been ingrained into our heads. But dietary fats are actually necessary to help with hormone function, help with cognitive function, brain fog, things like that. So having the dietary fats also keeps you fuller longer. So if you feel like you're getting cravings all the time, sometimes having some healthy fats into your diet Help to satiate you and keep you full for longer periods of time, as well as fiber and micronutrients that your body's requiring. Hydration, also super important. Sometimes those cues are coming because you're actually really, really thirsty and dehydrated, not really hungry. So understanding that intuitive eating is great, but it has to be in a body that is ready for it, a body that you can trust. To intuitively eat. So looking at your energy, your sleep, your performance, your strength, digestion, mood, cravings, all of these things, this is what we need to have in a great place and understand. But learning first, like training wheels, learning what 30 to 40 grams of protein looks like at a meal. What carbohydrates and the amount of carbohydrates that are required per meal, looking at tracking your food for a period of time so you know what a meal looks like. So that way you can intuitively go to a restaurant and know, well, at home where I've measured food, where I've understood what these portions look like and how my body is able to maintain. Now I can intuitively eat when I go to a restaurant or intuitively eat. After there was a period of time of learning. It is a skill. Tracking your food, understanding what that food does for your body, how your body feels, the feeling of having adequate food during a meal, and what your body feels like as far as satiated right after. That is a skill that you learn by understanding where your body is now and giving your body some time to recover from years of dieting. Making sure that our sleep is in a good place. So working on all of the systems to get your body in a healthier place. So those signals are accurate. So those signals are really giving you the correct information so that you can make the correct decisions as far as what you will be consuming, how much you need to be consuming to either maintain your body weight, to lose body weight. It really is a matter of looking. measuring, understanding what that looks like. And once you have an understanding, then you can get to a point that you say, you know what? This is how I feel after a meal that I've eaten adequate calories. And this is now what I understand and what now satiety feels like. Hunger. I have gone and usually my meals are about three hours apart or two hours apart. And this is how I feel. I am not ravenous, but I have hunger and also learning How to feel satiated, not full and feel like you're gonna throw up, but actually just feeling satiated after your meals, knowing what that feels like. I have enough to keep me full until my next meal is scheduled. So sometimes, of course, your meals can change, schedules can change, but when you are developing this skill, understanding balances, recognizing those hormones and the satiety and hunger hormones. Recognizing all of the lifestyle factors that need to be in place in order to get your body into a healthy spot that you can really rely on those cues that your body's giving you. So if you have spent years dieting, undereating, skipping meals, ignoring hunger because you're on a diet, listening to the body might not be enough now. But when you give your body that consistent nutrition, learning how to adequately fuel yourself and what that looks like, that's when you can take that next step. So if you are someone that's over 40 and you feel like this is might be what's going on and maybe you need to kind of learn how to do this, please send me a message. I'm on Instagram at Masters Mind and Body. I will put it in the notes. I will also put in the show notes our links so you can set up a free call. And we can chat and see how we can help you best. Please don't try and do this alone. Don't get frustrated. And if you are having trouble, this is not easy. This is a skill that you need to learn. And if you do need help, we'd be happy to help. So thank you for tuning in. This is Master Metabolism. If you wouldn't mind sharing a review, and if you have any other information that you would like us to share on future episodes, please drop it in the comments. And until next time. We'll see you guys soon. Calvin and Brooke Masters: Thanks for tuning in to Master Your Metabolism. If you found value in today's episode, it would mean the world to us if you'd hit subscribe and share this episode with someone who could use a little guidance in their health journey. Ready to take the next step? Head over to www.mastersfitnesscoaching.com and you can book a free call right from the site. so we can chat about your goals and how we can help support you. Don't forget to join our Facebook group where we're sharing coaching tips, support, and tricks to help keep you on track and continue making progress. You don't have to do this alone. We're here to walk with you every step of the way. Until next time, stay consistent, stay kind to yourself, and keep mastering your metabolism. Let's do this together.