How Intermittent Fasting and Menopause Affects Health.
Menopause is a natural phase in every woman’s life, typically occurring in the late 40s to early 50s, marking the retirement of the ovaries and the end of menstrual cycles.
This transition, though a normal biological process, can bring about a variety of symptoms that can impact your quality of life.
Common symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings, brain fog and an increase in body fat, particularly around the abdominal area.
These changes can be challenging and often lead women to seek effective strategies to manage their health during this time.
One approach gaining significant attention is intermittent fasting (IF).
In this blog post, I explore how intermittent fasting can be particularly beneficial during menopause, addressing not only weight management but also various health markers such as insulin sensitivity, hormonal balance, and cellular health through the process of autophagy.
Discover how intermittent fasting can be adapted to fit any dietary preference, whether you are vegetarian, vegan, omnivore, or anything in between.
Additionally, I will highlight other benefits of intermittent fasting such as cost and how it can seamlessly integrate into your family life without the need for preparing multiple meals.
Let’s dive in!
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting (IF) is an eating pattern that alternates between periods of fasting and eating or as prefer to call it, feasting.
Unlike traditional diets that prescribe what foods to eat, IF focuses on when you eat.
This approach allows for greater flexibility and can be adapted to suit various lifestyles and dietary preferences.
What IF is not is a restrictive diet, a way to manipulate food and calorie intake for the benefit of weight loss.
If you have been in my world for any length of time you will know that I promote nourishment of the body over punishment, however, I have struggled with menopause weight gain and understand the feeling of hopelessness and the drop in self-esteem that increased body weight can bring.
Why can’t you just control your food intake, eat less and move more, count your calories, macros, steps, or points etc, the medical profession can’t be wrong, they know best…
What I have come to understand is that the body is run by hormones, not calories.
Our body is wired to survive. Calorie restriction and deprivation puts you at war with your body, working against it, not with it
The fastest way to shift unwanted body fat, remember it is only fat we want to lose, not weight, is to teach your body to metabolically switch from sugar burning to fat burning, just like it did when you were younger (when you thought your restrictive diets were working).
IF is great for fat loss, but this is just the side effect.
I am going to share with you what I have learned and experienced and the enormous benefits of Intermittent Fasting and Menopause for women’s health.
Different Types of Intermittent Fasting
Everyone fasts.
It’s important to understand that everyone fasts naturally every day. The term “breakfast” literally means “breaking the fast.”
Whether you have your first meal at 7 AM or noon, it’s the meal that ends your fasting period from the previous night. Even a simple 12-hour fast (e.g., eating from 7 AM to 7 PM) can provide health benefits.
Fasting with intention and for different lengths of time provides the body with a range of benefits.
Standard Intermittent Fasting is between 12-16 hours, creating a 12 – 8-hour window for eating the benefits of this include;
- Rest for the Digestive System
- Fasting gives your digestive system a much-needed break. Continuous eating can overwork the digestive organs, but fasting periods allow them to rest and recover, improving overall efficiency.
- Improved Gut Health
- Fasting can enhance the balance of gut bacteria. A healthy gut microbiome is crucial for digestion, nutrient absorption, and immune function.
- Reduced Inflammation
- Chronic inflammation in the gut can lead to various digestive issues such as bloating, wind, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Fasting helps reduce inflammation, promoting a healthier digestive tract.
- Enhanced Nutrient Absorption
- With improved gut health and a more efficient digestive system, your body can better absorb nutrients from the food you eat. You aren’t what you eat, you are what you can absorb.
- Improved Detox Pathways
- IF allows the liver time to process and eliminate stored toxins more effectively. This can support hormone health, especially estrogen dominance.
You can see that by being mindful about when you eat and creating a time for your body to take a rest from processing what you are putting in, you can reap enormous benefits.
These benefits don’t stop here.
Extended Intermittent Fasting and Menopause
For some women, especially during different stages of menopause, extended fasting periods like 24, 36, or even 72 hours can provide additional benefits.
These extended fasts should be approached with caution as they can have negative effects if your nervous system or adrenal health needs to be improved first.
- Autophagy Fasting – from 17 hours + (see more about autophagy below)
- Gut-reset fast – 24 hours – Provides deeper levels of autophagy and cellular repair. It’s a manageable way to reset the digestive system and improve metabolic health.
- Fat burner fast – 36 hours – Often referred to as alternate-day fasting, this method can significantly increase autophagy and fat burning. It can also support hormone imbalances, brain function and mental clarity.
- Dopamine reset – 48 hours – this is a mental health boost supporting your dopamine receptors to be more sensitive improving feelings of joy.
- Immune reset fast – more than 72 hours – A three-day water fast can profoundly affect the body, including significant autophagy, improved immune function, and mental clarity. It can be particularly beneficial for resetting the body and improving overall health markers.
For Autophagy and gut reset fasting you could try the One Meal A Day (OMAD) approach.
This doesn’t look like scoffing one meal hungrily but opening your eating window following your fast of 17-24 hours with something light and nourishing, maybe a smoothie, bone broth soup or a well-balanced light meal equivalent to a starter.
Shortly after you might have a well-balanced main meal and then follow with a nutritious dessert such as Greek yoghurt, berries and honey with a sprinkle of chopped nuts.
IF isn’t about restriction.
The focus is on letting the body rest, reset and recover whilst your eating window is closed. When you open your eating window it is essential to nourish your body by feasting on a variety of real foods in a balanced way with protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates.
What is Autophagy?
Autophagy, derived from the Greek words “auto” (self) and “phagy” (eating), literally means “self-eating.” It is a crucial cellular process where cells break down and recycle their components.
This process helps maintain cellular health by removing damaged or dysfunctional components and recycling them for new cellular structures or energy.
The benefits of autophagy include;
- Cellular Cleanup
- Removing damaged organelles, misfolded proteins, and other cellular debris, prevents the accumulation of harmful materials that can impair cell function.
- Energy Efficiency
- By recycling cellular components, autophagy provides the cell with essential building blocks and energy, especially during periods of stress or nutrient deprivation.
- Enhanced Cellular Function
- Regular autophagy helps maintain optimal cellular function and promotes longevity by ensuring that cells are in a healthy and efficient state.
- Protection Against Disease
- Autophagy plays a protective role against various diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders (such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease), infections, and cancer. It helps eliminate pathogens and potentially harmful mutated proteins, contributing to overall cellular health.
Burning Belly Fat
Many women assume their metabolism declines as they age and while this can appear to be true it is more a case that their metabolic health changes making it more difficult for their body to switch between energy systems.
This can be reversed by taking control of insulin resistance.
Modern society and our 24-hour access to food, whether that is real food or junk food keeps our body in a sugar-burning state.
Women who are looking to achieve fat loss need to be able to switch their bodies to a fat-burning state to access this stored energy. Your body can’t access stored fat if there is insulin present or if your body is stuck in the fight or flight mode of the sympathetic nervous system.
Standard fasting protocols can certainly support your menopause body to regain its ability to switch between fat burning and sugar burning, however, an extended fast might provide the ideal positive stress the body needs to jump start this relearning.
Tapping into your cyclical magic can also support hormone changes providing hormone harmony and enhancing the beneficial effects of Intermittent Fasting and Menopause.
Women are still cyclical beings even if they no longer experience a menstrual cycle due to menopause or contraception and adapting your fasting protocol to the follicular and luteal phases of your cycle or the moon cycle can support the body to detox excess hormones during the follicular phase and promote optimal progesterone levels during the luteal phase.
For postmenopausal women or if your cycle is irregular, you may find it helpful to follow the 29.5-day moon cycle. I have found this is an effective way to stay on track and monitor improvements in hormone levels as well as bringing a little moon magic into your life.
A Personalised Approach
It’s essential to recognise that the best fasting regimen varies from person to person, we are unique.
Factors such as lifestyle, activity level, and the specific stage of menopause should be considered when choosing a fasting method.
Some women may find that shorter fasting periods like 12/12 or 16/8 work best, while others may benefit from longer fasts.
Consulting with a healthcare provider who understands the benefits of IF can help determine the most suitable approach for your individual needs.
By understanding the flexibility and benefits of intermittent fasting, you can choose a method that aligns with your lifestyle and health goals, making it a sustainable and effective way to manage health during menopause.
I have experienced amazing results since starting IF in January this year.
I have lost abdominal fat and feel more comfortable and confident in my clothes but I can also see body composition changes all over my body. My energy and focus have improved along with my sleep patterns.
I have experimented with different lengths of fast, my longest being 36 hours and haven’t felt deprived, in fact, it has given me a deeper connection to my body allowing me to feel that metabolic switch taking place.
Aside from my results, my husband was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in October 2023 showing that his blood sugar levels were consistently high and if he didn’t manage this then he could develop type-2 diabetes and all the health complications that come with that.
After I started experimenting on myself and seeing the positive results I encouraged him to join me. His latest blood test results provided good news and showed he is no longer pre-diabetic.
Conclusion
I always mention Intermittent Fasting with trepidation as it can provoke a hostile reaction in people who are triggered by IF.
My feelings used to be the same and I think this is becuase I associated IF with diet culture such as the Fast 800 and the 5:2 diet.
The results I have experienced have taken 7 months so far, and I still have a long way to go to reach my health goals.
This is not a quick fix diet. It is a long-term lifestyle that have found to be a flexible way to reconnect with my body and honour its ever changing needs.
If you would like to chat with me about your unique menopause health, book a Wild Well-Being call and come away inspired and motivated to begin your journey to optimal health.