Fasting, keto, low carb, all zone 2 all the time…those rules are not for us.
It’s been two years since my menopause training book, Next Level, came out and three years since we started working on it. Though it’s nearly impossible to believe at this point, just three or four years ago, menopause wasn’t a mainstream topic of conversation. But once Oprah and other high-profile women started talking about it–and businesses recognized that menopausal women were a massive demographic (read: potential profit center!), the conversation exploded, and menopause information is literally everywhere.
Sadly, so is misinformation, especially for active women who, because we are a minority (barely a quarter of adults over 18 meet the minimum physical activity guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity). That’s how I end up seeing so many midlife women with low energy availability because they’ve been told menopausal women need to cut carbs and fast. So, let’s talk about some of the mainstream advice that does not apply to active women (and really, often doesn’t apply to any women).
You Need to Fast
Fasting is sold to women as the Golden Ticket for health and wellness (and one should note, “health and wellness” are often social media code for “weight loss”) for menopausal women. Generally, it’s promoted as intermittent fasting (i.e., eating in a small window each day or severely restricting calories a few days each week).
As I’ve said many times, from a health standpoint, intermittent fasting can be useful for the general population who are not very active and struggling with metabolic diseases. Exercise is also helpful here. What gets missed in the conversation is you do not garner any additional benefits from layering intermittent fasting on top of exercising. In fact, for women, it can backfire.
