How Women Over 40 Actually Lose Weight Without Following a Perfect Diet | 62

Episode 62: Insulin Resistance in Perimenopause: Why Your Body Feels Completely Different After 40

You are eating well. You are trying. And your body is still doing things that make zero sense to you. The weight is shifting to your middle. You are exhausted by 3 pm. You finish a full dinner and somehow still feel hungry. And this foggy, disconnected feeling just will not quit.

Nothing is wrong with you. But something is happening. And today we are going to talk about exactly what that is.

This episode is about insulin resistance, and it is one of the most important and most overlooked conversations for women in perimenopause. Once you understand this, everything starts to click.

What You will Learn in This Episode

• Why your body is storing fat differently in your 40s, even when you have not changed how you eat
• How the drop in estrogen during perimenopause directly affects how your cells respond to insulin
• What insulin resistance actually feels like in your body day to day (not just on a lab report)
• The lifestyle factors beyond food that are quietly making this worse
• Simple, real-life shifts in what you eat, how you move, and how you sleep can actually turn this around

Hey Beautiful! Let’s help you break the cycle and lose fat in a way that actually fits your real life.

If you’re over 40 and tired of holding it together all week… only to feel like it unravels by the weekend… this Midlife Fat Loss Strategy Call is your turning point.

This isn’t another meal plan.
 It’s not calorie counting.
 It’s not “try harder and be more disciplined.”

It’s a focused 1:1 strategy session designed to uncover why the restrict-all-week, overeat-all-weekend pattern keeps happening — and how to fix it with structure that works in midlife.

You’ll also leave with emotional eating interruption tools and a clear 30-day action plan, so you’re not “starting over Monday” again.

You walk away with:
 • Clear insight into why you self-sabotage
 • A structure that feels calm and doable
 • A strategy built for your midlife body
 • Confidence in exactly what to do next

You don’t need more information.
 You need a better system.

If you’re ready to stop the cycle and finally feel steady around food, book your Midlife Fat Loss Strategy Call HERE.

Let’s build something that actually holds up when life gets busy.

FREEBIE What to Eat After 40 for Fat Loss 

FREEBIE How to Set Your Macros

Join the Weight Loss in Midlife Facebook Community here.

And don’t forget to hit follow so you never miss a new episode when it drops. Thanks for being here. I’m always cheering you on.

Send me a message at hello@jenniferpeeke.com.

Transcript

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You're eating the way that you've always eaten, maybe even better now than you used to. You're actually trying. You're doing all the things, and yet something just feels off. The weight is showing up in places that it never used to. You're exhausted by 3 p.m., even when you feel like you slept okay. You finished dinner and somehow you're still hungry. And yet you have this foggy feeling, almost like a disconnected feeling that you just can't shake. And you just keep thinking to yourself, what is wrong with me? Nothing is wrong with you, beautiful, but something is happening. And today we're going to talk about exactly what that is. So put those earbuds in, take a deep breath, and let's prioritize the best version of you. Hey beautiful, and welcome to Weight Loss in Midlife, where we ditch the diet cycle and finally lose fat, build muscle, and feel confident again. I'm Jennifer, a certified women's coach who's been where you are, stuck in the all-or-nothing cycle, navigating midlife changes and wondering why what used to work doesn't anymore. After years of restriction and burnout, I found a better way. Built on macros, mindset, and muscles. Each week, I'll share the strategies to help you lose fat, boost your metabolism, and build lasting strength and confidence. Let's dive into today's episode. Hey beautiful, welcome back to the Weight Loss in Midlife podcast, the show for busy women in midlife who want to finally lose fat for good, feel confident, and have the energy to live their best life. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to tell you about something really quickly. If you are a woman over 40 who feels like she is doing everything right and still not seeing the results, I want you to book a weight loss in midlife strategy session with me. This is just a 60-minute one-on-one call where we get really honest about what is actually going on with you. Not just what you're eating, but what is driving your patterns, what's keeping you stuck, and the one thing you can focus on this week to actually start moving forward. Most of the women I work with come in thinking they just need more willpower. They leave understanding themselves for the first time in years. You can book your weight loss and midlife strategy session right now at jenniferpeak.com backslash coaching. Again, that's jenniferpeak.com backslash coaching. One call sixty minutes, real clarity. I'll see you there. Mile eighteen, that is where it happened. I had trained for months, like actually trained, doing the long runs on Saturday mornings, going to bed early when I definitely did not feel like doing that and missing out on the fun on the weekends. And at mile 18 of my marathon, my legs started doing this thing where they just felt completely like blocks of concrete. It was so hard to run. It was almost like they were giving up. Like they belonged to someone else, someone much older who had not trained at all. And my brain started doing what brains do at mile 18. And when your body starts feeling like this, it started negotiating. It said, maybe you can just walk just for a little bit, or maybe this is just how it is now. Maybe your body is just different than it used to be, and you need to just accept that. And I had a choice right there on that course. Listen to that voice that was telling me something was wrong, or understand what was actually happening in my body and work with it instead of doing against it. I ended up finishing the race with a fractured foot, but I finished. But what I learned in those last eight miles, how I think about everything, including this topic, changed. And that is exactly what we are going to talk about today. Because what I learned at mile 18 is the same thing I want you to understand about your body right now. When things stop working the way they used to, the answer is never to push harder, to restrict more with the same approach. Sometimes your body is just operating on a completely different set of rules. And in perimenopause, one of the biggest rule changers is something called insulin resistance, which most women have never even heard of, but it is affecting almost everything in your body. Today, we're going really deep on something that I think is one of the most important and most misunderstood topics for women in this season of their life. We're going to be talking about insulin resistance. And before you think, oh, that's just a diabetes thing, that's not for me. I want you to stay with me right now because this is absolutely for you. Here is why this matters right now. Your 40s often come with so much good stuff: empowerment, career moves, confidence. Your kids are older. You start having more time for yourself. And then your hormones decide to shake things up. And suddenly your body feels like it is operating on a totally different set of rules than the ones that you thought you knew in your 20s and 30s. What is happening inside your body during perimenopause has a direct impact on your blood sugar, your weight, your energy, your mood, even your hunger, basically everything in your life. And insulin is right in the middle of all of this. So today we're going to cover why insulin resistance causes hormonal shifts, how to recognize the signs that insulin resistance might be showing up in your life, and practical nutrition and lifestyle strategies to help you navigate this next phase and handle the insulin resistance. So let's get into it. Okay, let's first talk about what is actually happening. Insulin is a hormone. It's made by your pancreas, and its actual job is like that of a k. When you eat, sugar enters your bloodstream, and insulin shows up to unlock your cells so that that sugar can get inside and be used for energy. When this system is working well, your blood sugar stays balanced and your pancreas only makes the insulin that is needed for your body. That is what we call being insulin sensitive. And that's a good thing. Now, here's where perimenopause comes in. Perimenopause is that transitional phase before menopause, before your cycles permanently stop. And during this time, your estrogen levels are going to decline. And estrogen plays a really, really important role in insulin sensitivity. So when estrogen goes down, your cells can start to become resistant to insulin signal. The key is no longer turning the lock as easily as it used to. And I want you to sit with that just for a second because this is not about having more willpower. This is not about you failing at a diet. This is a hormone shift that is directly affecting how your body processes the food that you are eating. And that right there is why so many women in their 40s feel like they are doing everything right and still struggling. It is not your fault. And this is why I do what I do. I want you to see why you are not a failure. You are not broken or destined to just keep gaining weight. I want you to understand what your body is going through so that you can take those steps to fight back and to feel your best, to lose weight, to feel confident, to put those jeans on and zip up and feel good in them when you look in the mirror. So let's talk about the symptoms because I think this is where it gets really eye-opening. For many women, the symptoms of insulin resistance are subtle at first. You might feel fatigued more than usual. You might have some brain fog. You might notice some belly fat showing up or growing, especially around your midsection. You might feel hungry even after you ate a full meal. You might have low energy, high blood pressure. And some women even experience depression or anxiety alongside all of these other symptoms. Even though there's glucose or fuel in your blood, it's not getting where it needs to go because of that resistance. So your body still thinks it needs fuel. So your appetite goes up, you feel tired, you're hungry, and you're foggy all the time. And then we add in the rest of the menopausal symptoms on top of all that, and we feel like we are totally somebody else. And I know you know what I mean by that. I want to make something really clear here. Insulin resistance is not just about what you eat. Yes, food does matter, but there are several other things that are driving this that we need to talk about. First, your physical inactivity and your body composition. So let's look at this less muscle mass and more visceral fat, that is the fat that is stored around your abdomen and your organs, increases insulin resistance. And here is the thing muscle mass peaks between the ages of 30 and 35, and then it starts declining. Your muscles are actually metabolically active, they help manage your blood glucose. So losing muscle is not just a physical appearance thing, it is actually a metabolic health thing. The second thing is sleep. Getting less than seven hours of sleep at night is a risk factor for insulin resistance all on its own. Not getting enough sleep raises your cortisol, your stress hormone, and elevated cortisol puts your body in constant fight or flight mode. So it holds on to weight, which worsens insulin resistance and disrupts everything. The third thing is chronic stress. We live very busy lives, demanding careers, family responsibilities, a million things are pulling at us at once. And all that chronic stress raises cortisol levels, which directly contributes to the insulin resistance. Stress eating is also really common during hormonal transitions. And I see this with so many of the women that I work with. And fourth is your dietary habits. Consuming excess sugar, ultra-processed foods like donuts and cookies, and not getting enough fiber and not getting enough protein all play an important role. When the pancreas has to work overtime, making more and more insulin to compensate, your blood insulin levels rise. Inflammation is going to go up. And that excess insulin tells your body to store calories at as fat. And that is often around your midsection. And that right there is why belly fat in your 40s often feels so stubborn in a way that it never used to before. It's a hormonal and metabolic issue, not a character flaw, not a failure, not more willpower. It is just something that is happening in your body because of all the things that are going on right now in your life. And here's what I really want you to hear. Learning that your insulin sensitivity has changed is not a life sentence. It is actually an opportunity. Even small changes can have a big impact. And I want to walk you through the strategies that will actually work for you. So on the nutrition side, focus on balanced meals with lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. Think grilled chicken over a quinoa bowl with roasted vegetables, black beans, and some avocado. That is a real life meal that actually works. Aim for that 30 grams of protein per meal. Protein maintains your muscles, it keeps you full, and it stabilizes your blood sugar throughout the day. And make sure you're adding fiber, soluble fiber found in oats, beans, lentils, and berries. They all help regulate the blood sugar and they feed your good gut bacteria. Eating a diverse array of about 30 different plants every week actually helps reduce cravings for sugar and high-fat foods because your gut microbes are happy and they are doing the job that they need to do. Also, make sure that you're limiting added sugars to around 25 grams a day and reduce those ultra-processed foods and empty carbs like sweet coffee drinks and donuts and sugar. So instead of the sugar, add spices like cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger for flavor. And they also have the benefit of anti-inflammatory properties as well. And stay hydrated and limit alcohol because it can cause blood sugar fluctuations, disrupt your sleep, and raise your cortisol level. All these things worsen insulin resistance. Now let's look at the lifestyle side. Strength training is a non-negotiable for women in perimenopause. Two to three times a week is where you start. You don't need to be in the gym five days a week. You don't need a fancy gym. You can easily do it in your basement. I wake up, get down to my basement and work out, and I get a good workout in my basement. You can also use YouTube classes to help guide you through your workouts or a fitness app or find a friend that'll go to the gym with you and hold you accountable. That all counts. And aerobic exercising, like walking, running, biking, or swimming, is also going to improve how your cells use glucose. And research shows that insulin sensitivity can remain elevated for up to 16 hours after exercise. You also need to make sure that you're prioritizing your sleep. Aim for about seven to nine hours a night. Avoid screens and heavy meals close to bedtime. And if it's okay with your provider, try some magnesium glycide before you go to bed at night. That should help you fall asleep. And manage your stress, mindfulness, journaling, yoga, nature walks, whatever works for you and what you enjoy actually doing to maybe reduce some of the stress that you're feeling throughout the day. It could be a nice walk after lunch for even 10 minutes, or journaling before you go to bed and being grateful for the things that were went well in your day today. And stay on top of your lab work. Do not skip your annual doctor's visits. I know that we're busy. We make sure that our kids get to the pediatrician and get their annual visits. But it's also important for us as women to make sure that they're getting their fasting glucose, your insulin, your A1C, and your lipid levels checked every year and bringing those numbers to the conversation and speaking to your doctor about what's going on. It is so important to do this and to make sure that you're advocating for yourself. Okay, so this is what I want you to try this week. I just want you to try one or two things. I don't want you trying all the things that I just mentioned because there's so many things that you can do. It's not a complete overhaul. Just one or two small shifts this week. So let's try a couple. Action step one. Look at your meals this week and ask yourself, do I have enough protein and fiber on my plate? Remember, a good reference to how much protein you should have at the at each meal is the size of your palm, making sure that you're getting lean protein in. And listen, it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm not asking you to pull out a scale. Just look at your palm. And that's about 30 grams of protein. And don't be obsessive. Just notice. Aim for 30 grams of protein in each meal and add a fiber source like beans, vegetables, or berries to your meals. That one shift can start to stabilize your blood sugar in a really meaningful way. All right, action step two. Move your body in a way that includes some strength. Every even if it's twice a week, even for 30 minutes, pick two days, put them on your calendar, and show up for yourself. And to start, you don't even need to do weights. Do some body weight training. That is what when you're utilizing your own body weight to build strength in your body, like doing dips and you're doing push-ups and pull-ups and things like that. Your muscles are metabolically active and they need you to use them. And action step three, look at your sleep. Are you getting seven hours of sleep? If not, what is the one thing that you can change this week to protect your sleep just a little bit better? Maybe you're getting off your phone a little bit earlier and not using your phone in bed. Maybe it's a consistent bedtime and wake time, or maybe it's journaling before you go to bed, or just a little bit of magnesium before bed. Just pick something and start making it work. Small steps and consistency over time, that is going to work and help you build on the habits that you already have. Okay, so here is what is at the heart of what I want you to take away today. Your hormones are changing, and those changes are real, and they are affecting things from your weight to your energy to your cravings to your mood. Insulin resistance during perimenopause is incredibly common and it is driven by a combination of hormone shifts, lifestyle factors, and yes, even your genetics, but it is not your destiny. You have more power here than you probably realize. The food choices, the movement that you decide to do, the sleep, the stress management, it all adds up. And even the small changes can create real momentum in this area. You're not starting over. You are just starting to understand your body at a deeper level, and that is actually very powerful. So if this episode hit home for you, I would love for you to share this with a friend who needs to hear this as well. Leave a review if you're loving the show. It truly helps more women find us. Thank you for listening. Thank you for choosing to invest in your health today. These small moments of care are what really build your confidence and lasting strength so that you can live your best life. All right, ladies, remember that you are beautiful and you are strong. Until next time, keep showing up for yourself, keep celebrating those small wins, and remember, one choice, one change, one meal at a time. I hope you have a truly amazing week. Before you go, I have one quick favor to ask. If this episode empowered you, it would mean so much to me if you could help spread the work so more women can use that building muscle and feel unbelievably strong in common.