LIKE many people, Joanna Ferguson found staying slim in her twenties easy – but struggled in her 40s.
At 47, the mum-of-two felt locked in a cycle of being frustrated with the scales, no matter how hard she tried to shift any weight in the gym.
The final straw came when Jo reached her heaviest weight of 80.5kg, and decided she needed to make a change.
Jo, from Perth, told the Mail: “I was eating well, exercising like a demon and burning 500 calories daily but still gaining weight – then the 4am night sweats hit.
“I was at the gym six to seven days a week, doing endless cardio and lifting weights and watching what I was eating. But there was no payoff.”
Jo said she also noticed a change in her mood, and would always feel fatigued, grumpy and bloated.
When she would tell friends she needed to lose weight, they assured her she looked great, but felt like something was wrong.
After visiting the GP, she was told that it was due to her being perimenopause, and said it felt like a “missing piece in the weight gain conversation that no one talks about”.
In June last year, blood tests showed she had worryingly low levels of iron, with the doctor likening her to the “walking dead.”
Upon advice, Jo was given an iron infusion to help boost her levels.
While many of her friends started using weight loss jabs such as Ozempic, which helped drop their weight rapidly, Jo was put off using them herself.
She explained: “I noticed they lost a lot of muscle mass which worried me because I know it’s important to build muscle, especially as we get older, for bone density. So I decided to stay away from it.”
She decided to seek “preventative measures” to stay healthy as she got older – and turned her attention to her diet.
A conversation with a friend about menopause led to her learning about MyPause Health shakes, which she agreed to try.
Although she admitted she usually gets bored of protein shakes, she decided to try them out for a month, and claims to have noticed a difference “straight away.”
Opting for the shakes at breakfast and lunch, she added in a protein-heavy dinner, focusing on meats such as steak, chicken, and tuna, paired with vegetables.
Jo said: “The weight was coming off steadily and my energy was back. I was losing 1kg–1.5kg every week and was only on it for a month.”
Jo said she’s never counted calories, so the shakes helped her stay on track without being obsessive tracking everything she ate.
While the gym used to feel like her second home as she was there so often, she switched to doing four 45-minute works a week.
This included doing gentle cardio, such as incline walking on the treadmill.
During the first month, she lost 6kg, and then another 4kg the second month.
Her weight is now down to 70kg on one shake a day plus two meals, and her symptoms have alleviated, including night sweats and bloating.
Her sleep also improved, her mood shifted and she had more energy to face the day.
While she is no longer trying to rewind the clock back to her 20s, she is happy with her weight, and that her worst perimenopause symptoms are no longer affecting her.
The 13 symptoms of perimenopause to look out for
DURING perimenopause, oestrogen and progesterone levels begin to fluctuate.
This is when it’s common to experience difficult symptoms like mood changes, irregular periods and hot flushes.
It can also lead to hair thinning and loss as hormone levels affect the hair growth cycle.
The condition usually affects women in their 40s but can sometimes begin in the 30s – it’s less common but not unusual.
Here are some of the most commonly experienced symptoms of perimenopause to look out for:
- Incontinence and bladder problems
- Changes in your menstrual cycle
- Hot flushes and night sweats
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Vaginal dryness
- Weight gain
- Joint and muscle pain
- Difficulty sleeping
- Feeling depressed
- Experiencing mood swings
- Brain fog
- A loss of interest in sex
