When your body changes and the old approach stops working
Menopause and perimenopause weight gain: what changes and what helps
Many women find their weight changes around the perimenopause and menopause, often settling around the middle, even when they haven’t changed how they eat. It’s common, it isn’t a personal failing, and it’s rarely down to one thing. Changing hormones, poorer sleep, stress, mood and a gradual loss of muscle can all play a part.
Here I’ll explain what’s going on in plain words, what your GP can help with, and where hypnotherapy may fit alongside that. I won’t give advice on hormones, HRT or supplements. Your GP is the right person for those questions.
Many women find that getting on top of sleep, stress and evening habits helps them feel more in control.
What are perimenopause and menopause?
Menopause is when your periods stop because of lower hormone levels. In the UK it usually happens between the ages of 45 and 55, though it can happen earlier. Perimenopause is the time leading up to it, when hormone levels start to change and your periods may become irregular, lighter or heavier. The NHS says symptoms usually last for 7 to 9 years, sometimes longer, and they can change along the way.
Why weight changes around the menopause
The NHS says weight gain during perimenopause and menopause is common, and that it often happens around the stomach and upper body. It’s rarely down to a single cause. These are the things that tend to change:
- Hormones. As hormone levels fall, the body tends to store more fat around the middle rather than on the hips and thighs. This shift can happen even when the number on the scales stays the same.
- Muscle. Those hormonal changes, along with getting older, tend to mean a little less muscle and a little more fat. Muscle helps keep you strong and active, so it’s worth looking after.
- Sleep. Night sweats and broken sleep are common. Poor sleep can leave you irritable, stressed and anxious, and when you’re exhausted, cravings get louder and exercise feels harder.
- Stress and mood. Mood swings, low mood, anxiety and brain fog are common at this time. Food is a quick comfort when you’re low or overwhelmed, so emotional eating often creeps in.
- Routines. This stage of life often comes with a lot going on: work, family, ageing parents. Meals get skipped, the evening becomes the only time that’s yours, and the approach that worked in your thirties may stop working.
The Australasian Menopause Society points out that weight gain around this time is mainly linked to lifestyle and ageing, not hormones alone. In a way that’s good news: the everyday things you can influence still count.
Talk to your GP first
If menopause symptoms are affecting your life, speak to your GP or a menopause specialist about the options, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Questions about hormones, HRT and supplements are for them, not me. It’s also worth seeing your GP if you’re not sure whether your symptoms are the menopause at all, or if you have any bleeding after your periods have stopped.
Hypnotherapy can support you alongside medical care, but it doesn’t replace it.
Things you can try today
- Protect your sleep with a regular bedtime and a cool bedroom
- Build some strength and weight-bearing exercise into your week, such as walking, weights or resistance bands. The NHS suggests weight-bearing and resistance exercise around the menopause
- Eat regular, balanced meals so tiredness and hunger don’t combine in the evening
- Notice when you eat to cope, and try one other way to wind down, such as a walk, a bath, yoga or a chat with a friend
- Make one small change at a time rather than starting a strict diet
- Be kind to yourself: your body is changing, not failing
Where hypnotherapy may help
Hypnotherapy won’t change your hormones, and I don’t use it to treat menopause symptoms. What it may help with are the habits and feelings around food that often get harder at this stage:
- Comfort eating linked to stress, low mood or tiredness
- Evening snacking and grazing
- Relaxing at night, getting to sleep and getting back to sleep
- Feeling calmer when stress builds up
- Motivation to keep moving when your energy is low
- Feeling more at ease in a changing body
If the old approach has stopped working
If you’ve done everything you used to do and your body is responding differently, that isn’t your fault, and it is very common.
We start by looking at what has changed for you and where eating fits in. Is it the afternoon slump, the evening on the sofa, the nights you can’t sleep? In hypnosis I help you manage stress and cravings, settle more easily into rest and feel more in control around food. The aim is also to help you feel calmer about the changes themselves.
In 17 years of clinical practice, I’ve found that stress and tiredness sit behind a lot of the eating people bring to me at this stage of life. Results vary, though, and there are no good trials of hypnotherapy for menopause weight gain specifically. Hypnosis supports sensible eating, moving more and your own commitment, rather than replacing them. For the wider research, see does hypnosis work for weight loss?
If stress is the main driver, my guide on stress eating may help, and there’s more on emotional eating and eating at night. To try hypnosis before you spend anything, see free weight-loss hypnosis.
I’m Adam Cox, a clinical hypnotherapist with post-graduate qualifications in clinical hypnotherapy, and I host The Hypnotist podcast, which has passed 20 million downloads.
Free podcast sessions to try
Full hypnosis sessions from my podcast, The Hypnotist, free to listen to. Listen somewhere comfortable, never while driving.
Hypnosis to Eliminate Emotional Eating
Stress, anxiety, sadness, anger and boredom each take a turn in the captain’s chair of an imagined control room, and you rehearse a way to meet each feeling without food.
Weight Loss Hypnosis: Loving Your Body to Lose Weight
Your body is pictured as a house that responds to care rather than criticism, so looking after yourself grows from gratitude instead of pressure.
Common questions about menopause and weight
Why am I gaining weight in perimenopause?
Weight gain around perimenopause and menopause is common and usually has several causes. Falling hormone levels change where the body stores fat, muscle tends to decrease with age, and poor sleep, stress and low mood can make cravings stronger and exercise harder. Your GP can check whether anything else is playing a part.
Why is my menopause weight gain all around my belly?
As hormone levels fall, the body tends to store more fat around the middle rather than on the hips and thighs. The NHS says menopause weight gain often happens around the stomach and upper body. It’s very common and not a sign you’ve done anything wrong.
Can hypnosis get rid of menopause belly fat?
No. No diet, exercise plan or hypnosis session lets you choose where your body loses fat from, and I don’t claim otherwise. What hypnotherapy may help with is the stress, sleep, cravings and comfort eating that often get harder at this stage, alongside sensible eating and moving more.
Can hypnosis help with menopause symptoms?
I don’t treat menopause symptoms. I focus on eating habits, stress and sleep. For hot flushes, night sweats and other symptoms, speak to your GP about the options, including HRT.
Can I have hypnotherapy while taking HRT?
Yes. Hypnotherapy is a talking therapy that sits alongside medical care rather than replacing it. Always follow your doctor’s advice about your treatment, and tell me about any medication on the consultation call.
Is it too late to change my habits?
No. People change their habits at every age. It often helps to start with one small change, such as a regular bedtime or a walk after dinner, and build from there.
Free guides on this
Plain-language guides with free hypnosis sessions from my podcast to listen to.
- Feeling confident in your body while you changeConfidence does not have to wait for a number on the scales. How I think about body confidence, and four sessions to help you feel better now.
- Why fighting yourself makes weight loss harderIf losing weight feels like a war you are fighting with yourself, this guide looks at why pressure backfires and what a calmer approach looks like.
- Patience: planting the tree rather than pulling at itDig up a young tree to check its roots and it never grows. Here is why impatience undoes good habits, and how to wait well.
Where to start
Is hypnosis right for you?
Take my free four minute suitability test. You get an honest answer about whether hypnotherapy is likely to help with your goals, and how.
Want help with the habits around the menopause?
A short call is the simplest next step.
- Take the free test, so you know whether hypnotherapy suits you.
- Book a 30 minute call: £24.50 with code SLIM instead of £49 (or $29.50 outside the UK). The fee comes off your first session.
- Start sessions over Zoom, or face to face in Hertfordshire.
Or start with a recorded session
Sessions from my store, recorded for this kind of eating. Listen somewhere comfortable, never while driving.
Please read this first
If you’ve lost interest in food, are eating very little, making yourself sick, or feel your eating is out of your control, please speak to your GP or contact Beat, the UK eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677. If you’re feeling very low, talk to your GP or call Samaritans on 116 123. Hypnotherapy is not a substitute for medical advice, and if you take prescribed medication or HRT, speak to your GP or prescriber before changing anything. My work is with adults only, and you should never listen to hypnosis while driving.