Same Food, Same Workouts, Different Body: What's Really Happening During Perimenopause
Updated: Sep 25
If you have been eating the same way and training the same way you always have, and your body is responding completely differently, you are not imagining it, and you are not doing anything wrong. Two things are happening inside your body at the same time during perimenopause, and together they explain why the plan that used to work has stopped working.
Your Body Is Storing Fat More Easily
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As estrogen declines, your cells become less responsive to insulin. Your body compensates by producing more of it, and higher circulating insulin promotes fat storage, particularly around the abdomen. This is why weight can settle in a completely different place than it used to, even when the number on the scale barely changes.
Your Body Is Losing Muscle Faster
At the same time, declining estrogen and testosterone reduce your body's ability to build and repair muscle. Your muscles now need more effort and more protein than they did in your thirties, not to build new muscle, but simply to hold on to what you already have.
Why These Two Changes Together Make This Stage So Much Harder
Muscle is metabolically active tissue, meaning it plays a direct role in how many calories your body burns at rest. When muscle declines, your metabolism slows down. A slower metabolism makes fat even easier to gain and harder to lose using the same approach that worked before. Fat storage increasing, muscle declining, and metabolism slowing are not three separate problems. They are happening together, and that combination is what makes this stage of life feel so much more difficult than anything before it.
This Is Not a Discipline Problem
I want to be direct about this because so many women blame themselves at this stage. I have lived through exactly what I am describing. I was doing the same workouts that used to keep me lean. I was eating the way I have coached other women to eat for years. And the scale kept climbing while my strength kept dropping. It took a real shift in strategy, not more willpower, to turn it around.
If this sounds like your experience too, you are not alone, and it is not permanent. Follow along on Instagram for the rest of this series as it unfolds.
What This Means Going Forward
This stage is not permanent, and it is not hopeless. It does require a different approach than the one that worked for you at thirty. For me, that shift started with a conversation with my own doctor about hormone replacement therapy, a conversation nobody brought up until I asked for it myself. I will be walking through that exact conversation in my next video and blog post.
If This Sounds Familiar
If you are a woman navigating these changes and want support building a plan that actually works with your changing body, not against it, I invite you to learn more about coaching at CB Health & Wellness Center.
You can book a free consultation at cbhealthandwellness.com.
Coach Cecilia
CB Health & Wellness Center
Online Health Coaching
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