The Ageless and Awesome Podcast

Why Eating Less Backfires And How To Rebuild Your Metabolic Fire After 40

• Susie Garden • Episode 307

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Ever felt like you’re doing “everything right” and still gaining weight? Let’s flip the script on midlife metabolism. I unpack why eating less and exercising more can backfire in peri and post-menopause, and how to send your body the safety signals it needs to release stored fat. As hormones shift, insulin sensitivity drops, cortisol rises, sleep can be poor, and muscle mass slides. The old calorie-in, calorie-out model ignores that your body is a chemistry lab, not a calculator.

I walk through the real levers that work after 40: getting enough protein to protect and build lean mass, choosing quality carbohydrates to support thyroid and adrenal function, embracing healthy fats for satiety and hormone production, and focusing on micronutrient-rich, minimally processed food. We talk clean protein powders, why ultra-low fat and ultra-low carb often backfire, and how three meals with 5 to 6 hours between can steady insulin and activate the migrating motor complex for better gut health.

You’ll also get a clear six-step reset: stop undereating, start meals with protein, strength train with progressive overload, guard sleep, calm your nervous system, heal digestion, and then fine-tune hormones. I share a simple day on a plate that’s satisfying and realistic, plus practical cues to measure progress beyond the scales. The goal isn’t punishment; it’s creating a body that feels safe, nourished, strong, and ready to burn fuel efficiently.

If you’re tired of the yo-yo and ready for a saner approach, this conversation is your permission slip to eat more and thrive. Subscribe or follow for weekly guidance, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more women find the show. Ready for tailored support? Book a free peri-weight loss assessment via the link in the show notes.

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Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

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1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path

3. Join the waitlist for my innovative NEW 8 week group program, In Your Skin™️, for women in perimenopause and post-menopause who want effective solutions to manage skin changes at this time of life.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and aging so that you can be ageless and autumn in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Autumn Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to today's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. I'm Susie Garden, your host, and this is my first kind of new episode in a few weeks. I've just had a few weeks where I haven't been able to get to putting out a new app, so I'm really sorry about that. I also just want to let you know for those that are regular listeners, you've heard me talking about launching a new program for skin in peri and post-menopause, and I'm super excited to be doing that. Now I have had to just postpone that to early next year just because this is a really busy time of year for me. And I kind of probably got a bit overexcited and I wasn't really thinking about the fact that this is a really busy time. Lots of people, as you come out of winter, decide that they want to, you know, achieve their goals for the year, um, particularly if you've been hibernating a little bit, not moving the body, perhaps overindulging a little bit, and summer is around the corner. So, yes, I've been super busy with um peri weight loss assessment calls and enrolling people in my program, the Glow Protocol. So I've decided because I want the skin program to be, you know, awesome, I need to put a little bit more time into it. So uh keep an eye out for that. I'm hoping to launch that in February, March next year when things kind of quiten down a little bit. So if you are interested in booking a peri weight loss assessment with me, I've just opened up Fridays because I was running out of appointments. So um feel free to book on the link in the show notes. If you want to know more about what uh this is all about, then go to my website, susegarden.com, and go to uh I think it's work with me and the glow protocol. And that will give you a little bit more information. Okay, so now that I've got that housekeeping out of the way, today I wanted to talk about my, you know, this is one of my absolute favorite things to talk about and favorite things to work with women on is weight loss. So today is essentially eat more, burn more, how to reset a sluggish metabolism in peri and post-menopause. And, you know, one of the reasons that I love talking about this is kind of the opposite to what many women are told when it comes to weight loss. Many women are told eat less and exercise more and eat more, burn more is a little bit of a different approach. And many women are surprised when they realize that I'm not gonna be talking about calorie counting when you work with me on weight loss. So many of you may have experienced this. You know, you've been eating less, you've been exercising more, because you know that's apparently the formula, and you're still watching the scales creep up. So this episode is hopefully gonna change the way you think about food, about fat loss, and your hormones and the relationship that there is between these things. So let's dive in. So, firstly, let's talk about why, for many women, our metabolism slows down in perimenopause. So, let's talk about what's actually going on in your body during this time. Your metabolism doesn't just randomly and magically slow down because you've had a birthday, it slows because of some very specific hormonal shifts that change how your body uses energy. Both estrogen and progesterone and testosterone to another extent both have powerful roles in metabolism. So, estrogen has a very important role in regulating insulin sensitivity. So when your estrogen starts to decline, and this happens unfortunately to all of us uh that are born with ovaries, it makes our insulin less sensitive. And therefore, the body becomes more prone to storing fat, particularly around the middle of our bodies. Progesterone has a calming and balancing effect on the nervous system. Estrogen does too, but progesterone is one of its key roles, and as it kind of falls away, your it impacts our nervous system. So our cortisol levels can become more dominant, which can lead to more fat storage around the middle, uh, poor sleep, and higher blood sugar levels because of the cortisol. Add in the fact that most women in their 40s and 50s are chronically stressed, they're not sleeping enough, that is a perfect storm for a metabolic slowdown. So when women tell me I'm barely eating anything and I still can't lose weight, I know right away their metabolism has kind of gone into that famine stage. And that's what we need to fix. Because for decades, you know what? We've been told that weight loss is all about calories in versus calories out, but your body is not a calculator, it's a chemistry lab. And when you consistently eat too little, your body can interpret that as stress and therefore send your cortisol up. That interferes with your glucose metabolism, thyroid hormones can slow down, and your metabolism, your body's engine, if you like, um, shifts into fuel conservation mode. So you burn fewer calories at rest, your hunger hormones. So you have these two hormones uh called ghrelin and leptin, and they can get dysregulated, and this can impact your satiety. So you may be feeling hungry all of the time, and it doesn't matter how much you eat, you are never going to feel full if those hormones aren't working properly. So that's really important. And one of the other big things is you can lose precious muscle mass, which further slows your metabolism because if you have good muscle mass, it will burn more energy at rest. And the thing is, we're already, as women in our 40s and 50s and beyond, we're fighting a very hard battle to maintain the muscle mass we have, let alone get more. So moving the body in ways that can prioritize building muscle mass is a massive uh opportunity that we have at this time of life because it's this vicious cycle. You know, if you restrict your food intake, you might lose a little weight, um, but then your metabolism might slow down accordingly. And often you'll see that as a plateau. And then the moment you sort of start eating normally again, or like normally in inverted commas, you can gain it all back, often with a bit extra. And this is called the yo-yo effect. There's been quite a lot of research done on this, it is a real phenomenon. So if you think it's just you that you've you know, you've been um watching what you're eating, you've lost weight, and then it's you know, you go back to normal eating, and your body actually piles on more weight than you had before. It's not just you, you're not alone. This is a phenomenon that we've been aware of since I think it's post around World War II. They did a lot of research on uh men that had been in uh prison camps, concentration camps, things like that. So, and they found this yo-yo pattern. And I see this, I talk to women about this all of the time that have had, they've been on virtually every weight loss program ever, and um they have seen this absolute yo-yo effect where they just lose weight, feel good, then it all falls apart and they end up being heavier than when they were before they started the program they were doing. And so there's I see this yo-yo with women, particularly when there's they've done a very low calorie kind of diets, fasting sometimes depends on the type of fasting, or when they've been really thrashing themselves with cardio, and it's one of the main reasons that I I you know work with women on their metabolism inside the Globe Protocol because it's the this is the key. We're actually resetting your metabolism in this program, and you you know, one of the things is your body needs to feel safe to burn fat, and because we are wired for survival. If you're a regular listener, you hear me say that all the time. We are wired for survival, and the body will always conserve fat tissue if it can, and we have an unlimited capability to build fat, there's nothing that will switch it off. So, you know, you need to be uh aware that there are all these mechanisms in the body that potentially can be working against you if you don't know how to use them to your advantage, which is why it's always important, I think, to work with someone who actually knows and understands how weight management happens in the body, and particularly for women in peri and postmenopause. So let's talk about, let's shift gears actually. Let's talk about what your metabolism actually thrives on. Because yes, you can absolutely eat more and still lose weight when you do it strategically. I have many women that come in and do the glow protocol that say to me, Oh my gosh, this is so much food. I mean, conversely, I sometimes have women go, oh my gosh, this is this is not as much food as I'm used to eating, but this is because the portion sizes are calculated exactly for you. So for many women that don't understand the right portion size for themselves, they may have been undercooking it, they may have been overcooking it, then you know, we want to make sure we get that portion size right and that micro balance right for each individual so we keep your metabolism running in the way that it should for you as an individual. But here are some of the key elements. Obviously, there are some key principles that are behind what I do in this program. So, one of the main things is having enough protein, and this is a non-negotiable. Most women over 40 are probably under-eating protein, which means they're losing muscle and slowing their metabolic rate. And protein's fantastic, it keeps you full, it supports our neurotransmitters, so our brain chemicals, helps your body build lean tissue that burns calories around the clock. Um, the thing is with protein, there is a lot of emerging research and there's a lot of confusion about what the right amount of protein is to eat. Kind of before you hit that period time, generally the calculation as nutritionists that we use is one gram per kilo of body weight. Now, the emerging research is saying anywhere between 1.2 to 1.6. I even read the other day two grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day. Now, again, I I think this is going to keep changing over the next few years because we now, and I'm sure you've seen it, the huge focus that we're seeing in perimenopause and menopause in the in the lay media at the moment. I mean, it's it's absolutely fantastic. And at the same time, there are many people who are unqualified and uneducated about what they're saying. So you just need to be careful that you're getting your information from good sources and that there's some research to back it up. And I feel like at the moment, from what I'm reading, is that the research is still emerging. So we we hear one thing, we go, oh, one point, it's one, oh now it's 1.2 grams, oh now it's 1.6, and now I'm hearing one, now I'm hearing two. So watch this space because it is changing. And the thing is, it's not kind of good enough to just go, oh, well, I'll just eat as much protein as I can. And particularly if you have kidney issues, you need to be very careful with the amount of protein that you're eating. Um, so at the moment, you know, if you're aiming for somewhere between 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day, and this is, you know, this is an average sedentary person. If you have different goals, like if you have a goal around bodybuilding or you know, something specific, that may be different. So, as I said, this is not individual health information by any stretch. This is just um general information only, okay? So you need to talk to your own practitioner or um healthcare professional, whatever, about if you're wanting to make changes along these lines, uh, so that you get a good educated advice, not general advice for you, particularly if you do have a weight loss goal and it's a significant weight loss goal. Um, and that protein ideally would be spread evenly across your meals for the day. Um, yeah, that's probably all I'm gonna say about protein for now. Oh, I do I will just say um protein powders, if you want to use protein powder to up it up, up it up, what does that mean? Up your protein um intake. That look that's fine. What I would suggest is you really try and get as pure a protein powder as you can. There are a lot of protein powders out there that are pretty ordinary, that are full of um flavorings and artificial colours, artificial sweeteners. Some of them are really bad. Just go for the most plain, ideally an unflavored protein powder and add your own flavor in there. Um, but have a look at the label. Do you recognize all of the ingredients? I would really advise staying away from protein powder that has probiotics in it because we know that your own microbiome is the best one for you. Please don't be adding probiotics in, you know, if you have a gut issue, you need specific probiotics. Uh, if you have no gut issues or health issues, you don't need probiotics, probably. So just be mindful of all the ingredients you're having if you are using those sorts of um supplements, particularly protein powders. I review, look, honestly, there's so many different brands. I'm reviewing different brands every week, and a lot of them are not great. And not great. So just be careful with that. Um, number two, and I'll just remind you what we're talking about. The key elements for um getting your metabolism revved up. So protein is super important, particularly because of the fact that it it improves your muscle mass. Um, quality carbohydrates, please don't fear carbs. You know, your thyroid, your adrenal glands need a small, steady supply of healthy carbs, ones from veggies, from legumes, from whole grains to keep your cortisol and your insulin balanced. Uh, when women cut carbs too low, they often experience poor sleep, anxiety, fatigue, and you know, it's you just need to have more carbs. Um, you know, there's so many women that are still not having bread, for example. And yes, you want quality, and you may not wish to have, you know, bread, huge amounts of bread three times a day, but we need carbs, all right? Don't fear a low carb uh environment, but again, quality. All of this I'm talking about involves quality, uh, so not refined carbs, which are things like white rice, white pasta, white flour, white sugar. Not ideal. Uh, number three is healthy fats. Again, a lot of people are still on the low-fat bandwagon, and I see this particularly with things like yogurts, for example, or other dairy products. You know, you want the full fat product. These help stabilize hunger, improve satiety, improve hormone balance. We need fats for our hormones. So the kind of healthy fats I'm thinking of are avocados, um, olive oil, extravagant olive oil, particularly, um, nuts, seeds, even though they're high in calorie, we know from the research that people that eat lots of nuts and seeds tend to have better weight management than people who don't. Uh, also, oily fish, fantastic uh healthy fats. So just be aware of that, that that it's another one of these myths that that come from the calorie in, calorie out theory, uh, that you should have low-fat products. And it's I couldn't, yeah, no, I couldn't be further from the truth. Uh, another thing that you know, when I'm working with women, I really want to make sure they're getting their micronutrients. So micronutrients are things like your vitamins, your minerals, things like magnesium, zinc, selenium, B vitamins, because these all support energy production and thyroid function and neurotransmitter production. So if this is really important, again, quality of food matters, which is why, again, the calories, I keep coming back to it. The calories, um, and I'm seeing this a lot at the moment with people um, you know, just focusing on calories rather than food quality, is you can really get an unbalanced diet if you're just focusing on calories. Um, because we all know, and I mean I've done it myself when I followed um a calorie control diet. I did, I think I've spoken about this before. I used I did it for one week, did a 1200 calorie a day uh eating at the gym I was at at the time, and it was awful. And I would sit there and I'd work out. Well, I want to have two glasses of wine tonight, so that's gonna be 300 calories. So that's I've got 900 calories left for food. And sure, we want to have fun with our with our life and our food, and we don't want to be, you know, pulling all of the fun foods out, but at the same time, when you're really following calories like this, it the quality of the food is is a lower priority than the calorie amount, and that just doesn't make sense, particularly for women going through transition in peri and post-menopause. The other thing I think number five in terms of um keeping your metabolism running high is consistency of meal times. So if you're skipping meals, if you've got erratic eating patterns, that really can confuse your metabolism. Your body loves habit, it loves rhythm. And so, ideally, when I'm working with women, I say three meals, no snacks. Trying to have a five to six hour fasting period between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner does a number of things. It helps to regulate your insulin and glucose, and that's what really turns you into a fat-burning machine. It helps to regulate your energy so you'll feel you won't get that afternoon slump in the afternoon, and it seems counterproductive, doesn't it, right? Like you think if I had snacks, isn't that going to keep my metabolism running? But the research tells us that you get way better blood glucose and insulin control when you have three meals a day, no snacks, versus multiple smaller meals a day. And the other benefit you get from fasting in this way is your gut gets a rest. There's a certain little process that goes on in your intestines when you stop eating for about 90 minutes. Once you stop eating for about 90 minutes, it will activate something called the migrating motor complex or MMC. And that MMC just helps to kind of think of it as a little brushing system inside your intestines and it brushes down through peristaltic contractions of your intestines, brushes down food that might be sitting there, bacteria, that kind of thing, so that it keeps your gut well and healthy. And it takes around an hour and a half to an hour and a half for that MMC to complete its cycle. So that's at least three hours that you need to not be eating in order to activate that. But ideally for our insulin and glucose control, five to six hours seems to be the sweet spot. So they're my five. I'll just go over it again because I've wandered off a little bit as I do on a tangent. Our five things that your metabolism thrives on are getting enough protein, having quality carbohydrates, healthy fats, micronutrients, making sure you're getting everything you need every day, and consistency of meal timing. So, how do you actually reset your metabolism after years of stress, years of dieting, years of hormone chaos? Let's go step by step. So, step one, stop undereating. It is okay to track your meals for awareness, but not restriction. If you find yourself getting a little bit obsessive about tracking, I suggest you take a break from it. I have experienced that myself after just one week of tracking. Um, this was a while ago, this is more than probably 10 years ago. Um, I became quite obsessed with tracking and I didn't like it, and I had to really force myself to stop. I am actually tracking at the moment, um, working with my PT, and I'm I'm really curious to do that, and it's been really eye-opening for me to be looking at uh what I'm eating, what things I eat a lot of, what I probably need to eat more of. That's been really great. So if you're tracking your meals for awareness, that can be really positive. Um but yeah, just be aware of any mind games that starts playing on you and just stop it. Because the thing is, when you're tracking, you start to understand whether or not you're eating enough to meet your body's needs. Um, and often I increase my clients' intake. And I I do it, I don't ask my clients to track, I prefer they don't. I ask I just base it on how they're feeling, what's their energy like, what's their stress like, what's their gut health doing? Uh, are they hungry? That kind of thing will help guide whether or not a person is under-eating or not, and that involves also being a little bit more in tune with your body. Step two is prioritizing protein at every meal. And I, as part of my program, ask all of my clients to have two bites of protein first, and this actually helps to keep your blood sugar stable, tricks your body into thinking you're having a high protein meal, and helps fuel your metabolism. So having two bites of protein first, but also prioritizing and make sure you've got enough protein on your plate. Generally, again, you've got to work out how much you need and then break that down into meals. Step three to reset a sluggish metabolism is strength training. Cardio has its place, absolutely, but muscle is your metabolic gold mine. Lifting weights, even just two to three times a week, tells your body to build lean tissue and burn more at rest. And you gotta lift heavy. You gotta lift heavy, particularly because we now have to not just think of our bone muscle mass, we've got to think of our bone, sorry, our muscle mass, we've got to think of our bone density, and so lifting heavy puts stress on the bones, and that helps make them strong. So, and if again, I would stress, please get some advice around this. Um, it's very easy to injure yourself if you're not having good form. You don't just go into the gym and start lifting heavy, you need to build up to it, you need to warm up your body properly. It is well worth having a chat to somebody who's an expert in this to get the right advice so you don't hurt yourself, all right? Step four to reset a sluggish metabolism is to manage stress and sleep. You cannot out-diet a stressed, sleep-deprived body. And let's face it, many women in peri and postmenopause are in a stressed and sleep-developed deprived body. Cortisol will always win. Always prioritize your sleep. I cannot stress this enough. Prioritize your sleep and prioritize nervous system health. So that's things like deep breathing, that's things like spending time in nature, um, maybe something more formal like meditation or yoga, anything that brings you joy will help with managing stress. And maybe you need to cut out some of the stress in your life if you can. If there are toxic relationships that are causing you stress, if there are certain things in the workplace that are causing you stress, there's something to really consider prioritizing you, learning to say no, so that you can uh actually improve your stress response and your sleep, which will give you massive long-term health wins. Step five to reset your sluggish metabolism is to heal your gut. A sluggish gut or a fast moving gut, both of these are problems. If you have chronic constipation, if you have regular diarrhea, and I it amazes me how many people have this, and for them it's normal, and so they don't think that they need to do anything about it. But particularly if you have a sluggish gut, that means sluggish detox pathways because you know we our waste products are leaving our body primarily by the gut. And if we have a sluggish gut, that means those that pathway is sluggish, and that can um lead to reabsorption of hormones, which can then impact your hormone balance. It's it's yeah, it's can increase inflammation and block fat loss. And the other way around, if you get you know diarrhea frequently, then you may not be absorbing your nutrients very well, which means it's hard to build muscle, it's hard to build good hormones if how to build brain chemicals if you're really struggling to absorb your nutrients. So this is all really important, and that's why you know when I'm working with clients, improving digestion and detox is high priority. And final one, step six, balancing your hormones. Because once your metabolism feels safe and supported, your hormones are going to begin to cooperate as well. You'll find your cravings settle, your energy lifts, fat loss becomes almost a happy side effect of all of this, of bringing the body back into balance. And it's not forced, it's not challenging and difficult. So they're the six things to reset a sluggish metabolism. I'll say them again: stop under-eating, prioritize protein at every meal, strength training, manage stress and sleep, heal your gut, balance your hormones. So let's have a look at what eat more, burn more, as I said at the beginning of the episode. Let's see what that looks like. So this does not mean that you start eating pizza or wine every night in the name of metabolic freedom. Which sounds awesome. Well, maybe actually not so much for me anymore, but for many people that sounds awesome. Um, what I'm talking about is smart nourishment. So here's what that might look like in a day. Now, breakfast can be as simple as full-fat yogurt with fruit. You know, it can be that simple. It can be lunch could be, you know, um, like some salmon with salad. Or um, you know, like just you can literally do meat and three veg if you want. Um, you don't have to have fancy food. It's in fact, simple is often better. Uh, if you do have digestive issues, cooked food is generally going to be better than raw, much easier for your body to get the nutrients out. But you know, having good, decent portion sizes, um, full fat, as unprocessed as possible. So, you know, fruits, veggies, salads, quality proteins, legumes, whole grains, things like that. Also, plenty of fiber. Fiber, we know obviously makes you full, feel fuller, but also it's great for again getting those waste products out of the body, which is important for your metabolism. So, you want plenty of fiber, you want plenty of color, particularly for those antioxidants and balance, as I mentioned before. Because when your body realizes that it's not in a starvation mode, it It it will be way more likely to release stored fat. Way more likely and burning energy efficiently again. And actually, you're gonna feel really good. You're energized, you'll be sleeping well, your mood stabilizes all because your body finally feels safe and nourished. So, you know, if you've been stuck in that cycle of eating less, exercising more, getting nowhere, I want you to take this episode as your permission slip to nourish your body again. It's time to eat more, not less, and trust that your metabolism can bounce back when you give it what it needs. And it's not just about the food, it's also about managing your nervous system. So, you know, if you're thinking, well, maybe I do need some more professional help. If you would like to reach out to me, I'd love to help you and to do it through the GLOW protocol. So it's my signature program. I run it in a three-month or a six-month block, depending on your weight loss goal and what sort of help you feel like you need. I've designed it specifically for women in peri and postmenopause who want to lose weight, balance symptoms so that their um balance hormones so that their symptoms are under control, and to just feel like yourself again. So if you're not sure where to start, just book a free peri-weight loss assessment with me. I've got the link in the show notes. It is uh a no obligation video call. I get to know you a little, you get to know me and how I work, and we'll look at your symptoms, your lifestyle, what might be holding your metabolism back. So the link is in the show notes. Um yeah, I'd love to speak to you. So thank you so much for joining me today on The Pods. If this episode resonated with you, just follow the podcast or subscribe and share it with a friend who needs to hear that it's safe to eat again. Um yeah, it's only kind of the time of recording, so I think it's around six weeks or something till Christmas. So there is still time to get in before Christmas and get started and to start feeling really awesome for this um holiday period. So yeah, um look after yourselves. I will be back next Tuesday with another fresh episode. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimenopause Park. I would love to connect with you.

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Susie Garden

Host