Can You Develop An Eating Disorder During Menopause? Seattle Dietitian Offers 4 Truths About Eating Challenges Later In Life
Doctors, wellness influencers, and people everywhere are giving advice on how to “fight” menopause weight gain and “combat” aging.
Odds are you’ve tried at least a few of the things that have been recommended to you and been victim to the promises of these diets and programs.
But for many women and people who go through menopause, in order to achieve weight loss during menopause they have to engage in very restrictive eating and dieting that can cause a lot of harm physically and psychologically.
What is menopause?
According to MayoClinic, menopause is defined as the cessation of a menstrual period and is diagnosed after a full year absence of a period (1). Although there is no set age for menopause to occur, onset is typically between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. *It is important to mention that menopause is not consistent with gender and those who identify as transgender or non-binary can also experience menopause.
There are an array of physical and mental symptoms that accompany menopause due to changing hormone levels and a slowing reproductive system. Estrogen levels drop, fat tends to accumulate around the belly area and weight distribution changes, and the intensity of such changes create discomfort for those experiencing them.
Menopause can be an incredibly difficult time to navigate as there are many changes happening in one’s body, one’s mind, and one’s life. Although these symptoms are a result of naturally occurring processes, many struggle with these changes.
In fact, because of the hormonal and body changes that happen during menopause, those experiencing menopause are at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder or worsening eating disorders.
Why are you at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder in menopause?
It is often challenging to cope with sudden and abrupt bodily changes, like those frequently seen during menopause. Some bodily changes during menopause include, but are not limited to:
Vaginal dryness
Hot flashes
Thinning and brittle hair
Night sweats
Chills
Disturbances of sleep
Mood changes or mood swings
Changes in metabolism
Accumulation of belly fat
Overall weight gain
The last three listed symptoms (changes in metabolism, accumulation of belly fat, and overall weight gain) are often the most challenging symptoms of menopause to cope with. Diet culture teaches you that weight gain is “bad”, “unhealthy” and signifies some sort of failure in life. Because diet culture is so deeply ingrained in social and cultural environments, it can be difficult for you to ignore these messages and unlearn diet culture’s unhealthy idolization of weight loss. If you’re experiencing menopause, you may be struggling to cope with these bodily changes, especially weight gain. Preoccupations with weight and body image are known to be gateways to disordered eating, even if they begin innocently. And, feeling shame, embarrassment, or guilt around weight gain or increasing belly fat can be a catalyst for eating disorders and disordered eating. Oftentimes, women try to fight these bodily changes and feelings that accompany body changes, through weight loss, restrictive dieting, and excessive exercise.
A study completed in 2012 surveyed women over the age of 50 years old to identify any associations between eating disorders and menopause. Researchers found that 79.1% of respondents viewed weight and body shape as a “moderate” or “most important” factor in their perception of self (2). This is a staggering number in thinking about what the impact of this statistic truly means. And because diet culture idolizes thinness, there is no space for your body to change throughout the course of your life despite it being completely normal during aging. In fact, weight gain later in life often needs to occur for safe aging.
In addition to physical changes, those going through menopause often experience an array of mental and emotional changes that put them at an increased risk for developing or worsening an eating disorder. Menopause is typically referred to as “reverse puberty”. You may remember the emotional struggles of such important transitional life periods of puberty, and menopause is no different. Imbalanced and abruptly changing hormones create a perfect recipe for mood swings, anxiety and depression, and disconnection with one’s body. Alterations in hormones can cause those experiencing menopause to feel especially emotional and out of tune with their body.
To add on to these struggles, this period of life is accompanied with many struggles. These tribulations can range anywhere from divorce to death of a loved one to becoming grandparents. Although these life experiences are all quite different from one another, there is one common denominator: change. Periods of change and the emotional impacts of such changes in menopause remove a sense of stability from life. Because most humans crave and need stability, it’s common for people to use disordered eating as a false sense of control over one’s life in menopause. Bodily dissatisfaction, changes in emotions and moods, and intense life events create the perfect storm for an eating disorder to either develop or worsen.
If you or someone you know is experiencing menopause and struggling with body image or disordered eating, you’re not alone! And if you want some guidance and insight, about weight gain and eating disorder in menopause, we are here to support you!
4 important Things For You To Consider About Menopause and Eating Disorders:
#1. Weight Gain is Both Normal & A Necessity.
Weight gain during menopause is crucial, and quite frankly, it’s a necessity for healthy aging. Registered Dietitian Jessi Hagerty’s Why You Gain Belly Fat After Menopause And Why It's Ok delves into the science behind menopause and weight gain. As estrogen levels in the body decline and adipose tissue (fat) takes over to balance hormone levels in the body, you experience an accumulation of belly fat. Hagerty explains the importance of adipose tissue and how adipose tissue is responsible for mitigating other adverse symptoms that are associated with menopause.
More specifically, if you don’t allow your body to properly accumulate fat (i.e. you restrict calories, excessively exercise, or begin unhealthy behaviors in pursuit of weight loss), you deprive your body the ability to regulate estrogen. This can cause insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, cardiovascular issues, increased risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis, nervous system issues, decreased water holding, and more.
Additionally, menopause itself isn’t responsible for weight gain but rather a redistribution of fat. It’s common for those in menopause to lose fat in the thighs or legs and to gain fat in their abdominal area. For this reason, people associate menopause with weight gain when in reality, menopause isn’t the culprit. Menopause is merely responsible for changes in body composition.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to “fight menopause” or “combat menopausal weight gain”. Weight gain during this time of life is normal and necessary. In fact, many studies have shown that weight gain is protective, especially later in life.
#2. Eating Disorders Aren’t Just For Adolescents.
If you believe that you’re too old to develop an eating disorder, it’s important to know that eating disorders aren’t just for teenagers. Just as bodily changes and vulnerability of transitional life periods in adolescents can increase the risk for developing an eating disorder at a younger age, the bodily changes and vulnerability of aging can also increase someone’s risk for developing an eating disorder or disordered eating. Eating disorders and body image concerns don’t have an age limit and the changes in life can give rise to well known coping mechanisms that may be harming you. Diet culture also teaches you that there’s something abnormal about normal biological processes happening to your body, including puberty, menopause, and aging. Unfortunately, you’ve been taught for most of your life to fight your bodies normal and natural changes in size, weight and shape.
To make matters worse, there is a distorted assumption that you must be “sick enough” to seek help when it comes to struggling with your relationship to food and your body. Eating disorders don’t have a “look”, and you don’t need to be thin or weigh a certain amount to start virtual eating disorder nutrition therapy with a registered dietitian.Dissatisfaction with your body image, combined with the emotional exhaustion and anxiety of menopause, place middle-age individuals at a particularly high risk for developing disordered eating behaviors.
#3. Eating Disorders Don’t Have An Expiration Date.
It’s important to understand that eating disorders don’t have an expiration date, and eating disorders don’t just magically disappear once you hit a certain age. Eating disorders can resurface, persist, and/or worsen during menopause. There is a false belief that eating disorders are a “young people illness”, when in reality, this simply isn’t true.
Menopause can be a triggering time for those who:
Have been recovered from an eating disorder for many years
Have recently developed an eating disorder
Have been struggling with an eating disorder for the majority of their life and may have never gotten support or treatment
There’s also a misconception that weight and body size is an indication of how worthy someone is of getting support; however, people in all size bodies have eating disorders and experience disordered eating. Stereotypes and stigma of eating disorders limit the accessibility of treatment for those who are struggling especially as you age. If you’ve ever felt invalidated in your eating disorder because of your body size, or if you’ve ever thought you’re “too old” to have an eating disorder, please know that it;s never too late to get support. Our dietitians at Bravespace Nutrition want to help you heal your relationship with food and your body so that you can live your life, fully!
#4. It’s Never Too Late To Seek Help.
It can be challenging to stray away from the familiarity of diet culture that includes, but isn’t limited to, dieting and restricting your food intake. Although you may feel as if it is too late for you to seek help, this is far from the truth. Even if you’ve spent the majority of your life stuck in dieting and diet culture, it’s possible to find peace and acceptance with your body and food.
In menopause and beyond, you deserve to create a positive body image, discover self-compassion, and form a peaceful relationship with food, regardless of your age. Recovery is 100% possible for you, no matter your age or circumstances.
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How Can Nutrition Therapy Help Me?
Do you want support with how to eat in menopause to support your energy and your body? Our eating disorder dietitians want to help you!
Menopause can be an incredibly difficult time, and you’re not alone in this experience. So many of our clients struggle with bodily changes and the stresses of this time in life. If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, disordered eating, food issues, or body image issues during menopause, or if you would like to learn more about proper nutrition during menopause, check out Bravespace Nutrition . Our Seattle-based virtual eating disorder dietitians are equipped with the tools to meet you where you’re at and help you break free from years of dieting and restriction. For more resources and information on body positivity and finding peace with yourself and food, check out these books and podcasts.