At 61, she describes her weight loss without dieting but with a few adjustments to her habits.
During menopause, losing weight can become a real challenge. Estrogen drops suddenly, which significantly slows metabolism and promotes fat storage. At the same time, muscle wasting occurs which reduces the body’s ability to burn calories at rest. The stress hormone (cortisol) is secreted in greater quantities, which again encourages fat storage. In short, a real vicious circle that is often impervious to traditional diets. But don’t give up, with a few daily adjustments, it is entirely possible to lose a few pounds.
At the age of 61, Ilene Block lost 19 kilos in the space of a year, as she explains in an Instagram post. For several years, she remained trapped in a cycle of losing and regaining weight before changing her perspective and adjusting her lifestyle. The first point? “I was doing cardio like my life depended on it, but neglecting strength training“, she wrote in the caption of her publication. “All that running was actually making me lose muscle, which slowed my metabolism even more.“
While running does not directly cause loss of muscle mass, doing too much cardio without weight training carries risks and slows down weight loss. Reassessing your energy needs and following a suitable diet become essential for losing fat while preserving muscle during menopause. No need to lift heavy loads, but muscle strengthening remains essential.
Ilene Block’s second change is obviously in terms of food. “I ate like a 25 year old woman with a 61 year old metabolism“, she explains. “Your energy needs change. I continued to eat the same portions as when I worked 70 hours a week and compensated for stress with sugar.“At menopause, sufficient protein intake becomes crucial for maintaining good muscle mass. But that’s not all: instead of spending time guessing which foods are really healthy and which are false friends, she follows a specific list of ingredients, designed especially for women over 60 who want to lose fat.
Finally, the sixty-year-old suppressed old reflexes, notably snacking. “That handful of nuts? It was 200 calories. The “small” glass of wine after my stressful days at the office? Another 150. The “little pleasures” of the weekend? They canceled all my efforts for the week.“But also sauces that are too high in calories in dishes:”I was drowning my salads in vinaigrette wondering why the needle on the scale wasn’t moving.” Once she learned about all these patterns, Ilene Block started to see real results. She went from 82 kg to 64 kg and has not gained any more weight.
