The Best Diet and Exercise Plans for Menopause

Maintaining health and fitness when you’re going through menopause is extremely valuable in helping to minimise symptoms and reduce weight gain. 

Quick Summary

  • Menopause often results in weight gain, particularly around the abdomen, due to hormonal changes and sleep disturbances
  • A balanced diet is essential, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, high-fibre foods, proteins, and calcium-rich foods for bone health
  • Heart health is supported by consuming unsaturated fats, fish, nuts, seeds, and whole grains while reducing sugar and salt intake
  • Regular exercise, including cardiovascular, strength training, and balance/mobility exercises, is crucial for heart health, bone strength, and anxiety reduction

Why Do We Gain Weight During the Menopause?

As a result of fluctuating hormone levels, it’s normal for menopausal women to gain weight – particularly around their stomach – while disturbed sleep, low mood and hot flushes all make it harder to eat well and exercise regularly. 

What Diet is Most Effective for Menopausal Women?

There’s no fad diet that will help you lose or maintain your weight through menopause. A balanced diet, whereby you eat a variety of food in the right proportions, will stand you in good stead. 

The NHS advises that you should: 

  • Eat at least five portions of fruit and veg a day
  • Base meals on higher-fibre starchy foods like potatoes, pasta, bread or rice
  • Make sure you eat plenty of protein such as beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat
  • Have calcium-rich food such as milk, yoghurt and kale to keep bones healthy
  • Choose unsaturated oils and spreads, and eat them in small amounts
  • Drink plenty of fluid (at least six to eight glasses a day) 
What Diet Is Most Effective for Menopausal Women?

What Foods Are Good for Bone Health?

According to the British Dietetic Association, we should aim for two to three portions of calcium-rich foods a day. These can include: 

  • 200ml of semi-skimmed milk
  • Matchbox size piece of cheese
  • Small yoghurt
  • Milk-based pudding-like custard or rice pudding
  • Foods that contain vitamin D such as oily fish, some mushrooms, red meat, fortified plant beverages (e.g soya or oat milk), fortified breakfast cereals and eggs 

What Foods Are Good for Heart Health?

The British Dietic Association also advises on good foods for menopausal women to eat and those to avoid to maintain heart health. Guidance includes: 

  • Switch to unsaturated fats, oils and spreads – also grill rather than fry food
  • Include meals based on fish, nuts, beans or pulses at least twice a week
  • Eat at least four to five portions of unsalted nuts, seeds and legumes a week
  • Reduce intake of refined sugars like cakes, sweets and soft drinks
  • Reduce salt by avoiding processed foods
  • Aim for at least two portions of fish per week – one oily such as canned sardines, mackerel, salmon, trout or herrings
  • Eat five fruit or vegetables a day
  • Swap to higher fibre foods such as wholegrain bread and brown rice where you can
How Can Exercise Help Menopausal Women?

How Can Exercise Help Menopausal Women?

Staying fit and healthy is really important for women going through menopause. Exercising can help you as it will: 

  • Improve your heart health (older women have a higher risk of heart disease)
  • Enhance your bone health (loss of oestrogen leads to a decline in bone health)
  • Reduce anxiety (endorphins released during exercise will lift your mood)
  • Support better sleep (allowing you more time and energy to exercise)

What Exercises Should Menopausal Women Do?

Cardiovascular 

Get your blood pumping to support your heart health through some cardiovascular exercise. You can try brisk walking, swimming running, cycling, dancing, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). 

Strength 

Focus on building your bone and muscle strength with weight training. Start with using your own body weight by doing planks, squats and lunges. You can also use the resistance-based equipment available in most gyms. Once your strength improves, you can start lifting weights such as dumbbells and kettlebells. 

If you’ve never done strength training before, speak to a qualified expert to guide you safely. Weightlifting can cause injury that can put you out of action for months. 

Balance and Mobility

Getting older means you’re more at risk of falls, while a lack of bone strength means you’re more prone to breaks and fractures. 

Try yoga, pilates or tai chi to help with your balance and mobility. These types of exercises really make you focus, so are great for reducing stress too. 

How Much Exercise Should I Do?

If you’ve never exercised before, it’s important to get your body moving and gradually introduce exercise to your lifestyle so you don’t injure yourself by going too hard and fast. When you’ve built up good mobility, the NHS recommends: 

  • Strength activities that work for all major muscle groups at least twice a week
  • At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week

The Long-Term Impact

Improving your diet and exercise routines will have a hugely positive impact on your journey through menopause. Eating healthily and moving regularly will help ease menopause symptoms and enable you to live an active and enjoyable life for longer. 

As always, if you have any questions you can use our Menopause Q&A where you can ask for more advice.

We have lots of Menopause FAQs, Menopause videos, Menopause reviews, and Menopause before and after images for you to do more research.

If you want to look for your nearest verified Menopause clinic, your local menopause clinics are listed below.