Why ‘eat less, move more’ doesn’t work in menopause (and what to do instead)

If I had a pound for every time someone told a menopausal woman to “eat less and move more”, I’d be retired on a beach somewhere drinking iced coffee and reading the latest Taylor Jenkins Reid blockbuster...

It’s the kind of throwaway advice that sounds sensible, but has caused more misery, hunger, and hormonal chaos than I care to count. Sure, calories matter a bit. But they’re far from the whole story. Especially in menopause, when your metabolism has its own ideas about how things should work. So if you’ve been eating less, moving more, and still watching the scales laugh in your face, pull up a chair. Let’s unpack what’s really going on in your midlife body.

“Never have so few words caused so much misery for so many.”

The big lie: why ‘eat less, move more’ in menopause is crap advice

That line’s straight from my book Everything They Told You About Menopause Weight Loss Is Wrong, because it sums it up perfectly. The idea that you can simply eat less and move more to lose weight is a dangerous oversimplification. It completely ignores the fact that your metabolism isn’t a calculator – it’s chemistry.

What you eat, how you sleep, your stress levels, your hormones, and even how often you eat all play a part in whether your body burns fat or clings onto it for dear life.

In fact, one of the biggest ever studies on post-menopausal women (the Women’s Health Initiative) asked half of them to eat less and move more. After a year of calorie cutting and salad chewing, they’d lost a grand total of… four pounds. The year after? They regained it. After seven years, there was zero difference between the calorie cutters and the control group. Can you even imagine???

Translation: deprivation doesn’t work. Not long term. Not in midlife.

If “eat less, move more” actually worked, we’d all be strutting around like 90s supermodels by now.

What’s really going on inside your body

Let’s talk chemistry (don’t panic, there’s no test).

Your body runs on two main fuel sources – glucose and fat. It’s meant to be able to switch between the two depending on what you’ve eaten. That’s called being metabolically flexible.

The trouble is, modern life and modern food have totally messed with that flexibility. We’re a nation of snackers. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, something while watching Netflix. When does your body ever get a break, let alone start burning fat?

Here’s the deal. You can only burn fat when your glucose stores are low. But if you’re constantly topping them up with carbs, your body never gets the memo. Instead of using stored fat for fuel, it just keeps using the glucose you’re feeding it.

There are two key hormones at play: insulin and glucagon. Insulin is the fat storage hormone. Glucagon is the fat-burning hormone. They’re like a light switch – one’s on, the other’s off. When insulin is high (from frequent eating or carb-heavy meals), glucagon can’t do its job.

Menopause makes this even trickier. Years of carb-heavy diets and hormonal changes mean your cells become less sensitive to insulin. That’s why even healthy carbs – the brown rice and fruit you’ve been dutifully eating – can suddenly send your blood sugar soaring and your waistline expanding.

Add in stress, poor sleep, and a punishing exercise regime, and you’ve got the perfect storm for a metabolism that’s clinging to fat like it’s a safety blanket.

Why cutting calories makes things worse

Here’s the cruel twist. When you cut calories too hard, your body doesn’t go, “Oh lovely, let’s use up some fat.” It goes, “Holy hell, we’re starving! Better slow everything down.”

Your metabolism adapts to the lower intake. You burn fewer calories, have less energy, and your hunger hormones go wild trying to get you to eat. You become obsessed with food, tired, grumpy, and (ironically) less likely to move at all.

This isn’t lack of willpower. It’s your biology trying to keep you alive. You can probably already see how eat less, move more is tricky for you...

One famous study from the 1950s followed healthy young men who were semi-starved for six months. They became weak, miserable, and completely food-obsessed – and when they started eating normally again, they regained more weight than they’d lost. Sound familiar?

That’s exactly the kind of metabolic debt years of dieting leaves you with.

So, the more you diet, the slower your metabolism becomes. The slower your metabolism, the harder it is to lose weight. And round and round we go.

Why moving more isn’t the magic fix either

Don’t get me wrong, movement matters – for your mood, your bones, your muscles, your brain. But you can’t outrun a bad diet, and you definitely can’t outrun hormonal changes.

Most women think cardio is the key. More steps, longer runs, extra spin classes. But in midlife, that can backfire. High-intensity exercise spikes cortisol (your stress hormone), which keeps blood sugar high and fat burning low. So, although while doing hard-core exercise you're burning more calories (and I'm not hating on cardio but don't ONLY focus on cardio), there are better forms of exercise to throw into the mix for the outcome you want.

The better move? Strength training. Muscle is metabolic gold. It helps regulate blood sugar, keeps your metabolism humming, and stops that middle-aged body composition shift we all love to hate.

So yes, move – but move smart.

The real midlife metabolism fix

Here’s what actually works:

1. Eat fewer carbs, not fewer calories. You don’t have to ban birthday cake forever (the world would be a sad place without it), but cutting down on sugary and starchy foods gives your body a chance to burn fat again.

2. Stop grazing all day. Three meals and, if you need it, one snack. Give your body proper breaks between eating so it can reset.

3. Prioritise protein and healthy fats. They keep you full, stabilise your blood sugar, and protect your muscle – your best metabolic friend.

4. Sleep like it’s your job. You can eat perfectly and exercise wisely, but if you’re not sleeping, you’ll still struggle to lose weight.

5. Dial down the stress. Constant cortisol is like putting a padlock on your fat stores.

It’s not about restriction. It’s about working with your body’s hormones instead of against them.

The bottom line here is this:

If you’ve been eating less and moving more and wondering why nothing’s changing, it’s not you – it’s the advice that’s been created by men using approaches largely studiend on men and that aren't great for women over 40.

Your midlife body needs a new approach. One that’s built on science, not suffering. One that lets you feel good, eat well, and still have a life that includes crisps and trifle (preferably not together).

That’s exactly what my book Everything They Told You About Menopause Weight Loss Is Wrong is all about. It gives you the full roadmap for fixing your midlife metabolism without the misery, the fads or the fluff. So, if you’re ready to stop dieting and start thriving, grab your copy today. Your metabolism will thank you.