So I’m getting “old and fat”. And happy?

At this point, a shoutout to my friend, who has the right words for every situation: “Look positive: you’ve been on weight for over sixteen years.” Okay, I admit it, it’s relatively funny. And as you know, humor always helps.

I need to think seriously about how to handle this situation. Of course I knew I had gained weight, and also how much: Two dress sizes in two years. I also know that there is only so much I can do about it, because apart from not imposing such strict eating rules on myself as I used to (depending on my weight, no carbohydrates in the evening or no carbohydrates for a certain time), I do nothing else. I eat relatively healthy and exercise three to five times a week, a combination of strength training and endurance, and also exercise quite a lot in daily life.

Those responsible for my weight gain have names: they are called age and menopause. With age, muscle mass decreases, basal metabolic rate decreases, fat is burned worse and metabolism slows down. In order not to gain weight, I should have eaten fewer calories than before.

Thanks to menopause, I burn less energy – the body needs a lot of energy for the maturation of the egg cell, so if ovulation does not occur regularly (which is normal during menopause), energy consumption decreases. In addition, there is water retention at the beginning, which is promoted by excess estrogen. In fact, there are days when I feel like a balloon about to burst.

To get rid of the shock, I first eat a chocolate muffin that my daughter left in the fridge, although I don’t like sweets very much. Then I google “weight loss during menopause”. A body type quiz confirms that I have a normal BMI, but an “endomorphic” body type with a higher body fat percentage and a slow metabolism (great, I didn’t need a quiz for that). Let’s move on to which diet is probably right for my body type.

I swore I’d never google diets again. There’s a reason I don’t have a scale: My relationship with my body hasn’t always been easy. I have always compensated for emotional distress by modeling my body. It is clear to me now that it was all about control: I could control and direct my body, as opposed to my psyche.

Since I stopped dieting and just eat healthy and balanced, I feel quite comfortable in my body. For a long time I had the same clothing size, I didn’t need a scale. And now my body, or rather the weight, suddenly becomes an issue again. The good news is that the water retention problem will at least go away as the body eventually stops producing so much estrogen. The only question is when.

For the rest I have decided not to fall back into old patterns and to take it easy. No diet, no blatant renunciation, just common sense when eating: Don’t eat unless I’m hungry and fairly balanced. And then I bought myself a great plus size dress and celebrated my new curves at a cool event.

Now I wonder how you feel about your body. How do you feel about diets? How important is the number on the scale to you? And what experiences do you have with gaining weight at an older age or during menopause? Share it with us in the comment columns.