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[ladylollipop]

Hello everybody, I am postmeno for more than 4 years now. At the beginning I had lost a lot of kilos due to symptoms like anxiety etc.  Now I am on HRT for a year and take a very low dose of venlafaxine ( 37.5 mg) I don't eat a lot or more than I did before. Do you have any ideas what to do? Can you recommend something ? And does anybody know if this low dose of venlafaxine can also cause weight gain? Venlafaxine I have learnt should be a antidepressant without weight gain. Can the estrogen patch cause weight gain too?
Lady lollipop

[CLKD]

Have you put on actual weight?

My apron dropped so that I look fatter  but no weight gain.  When I lay down at night my body is usually flat unless I have slow transit.  By morning my body is flat.

I rarely weigh on scales but 'go' on my belt .

If it is weight gain then exercise, think what you are eating and how often. 

[Hurdity]

Haha CLKD - you and your funny apron! At least I know what you mean now - not sure anyone else will though 

Anyhoo ladylollipop - our metabolism slows as we age and I gather also around menopause whenever that it and also fat distribution changes from curvy to more up and down as we lose oestrogen and testosterone becomes a bit more dominant (even though that is also dropping!).

I have gained and lost weight on and off all the time throughout my life peri and post menopause, and on HRT. I have alos "heard" that Venlafaxene and similar can encourage weight gain - not sure if that's a myth though 

Whatever the reason I do know that I and many others need to eat less and exercise more just to stay the same weight post-menopause, and for me it is like fighting a losing battle at the moment because I have put on a few pounds but don't like being hungry - and eat all the right things and very little of the wrong things and do exercise classes.

Some progestogens tend to cause bloating and also some HRT at the beginning. They will almost certainly increase boob size but that's not necessarily an issue. For me it is round my middle especially that I've gained recently.

As CLKD says - what is your diet and exercise regime like?

Cutting too much added fat, sugar and refined cabrs ( or indeed many added carbs) from your diet will help enomrously - but I do that and still putting on at the moment! Smaller portions ( I need to do this!) and increasing exercise little by litte wherever you can should also help - body conditioning classes (to increase musce which burns more calories at rest than fat) and aerobic ones too.

Hurdity x

[CLKD]

Apron is a medical term so don't know why you don't understand 

Same as a double chin - the reason is loss of oestrogen.

People who exercise mix up muscle gain with weight gain  .

When I put on weight in early 2000s, it took 17 months of walking daily with a neighbours' puppy to get down to my usual weight. I have never gained weight on anti-depressant medication 

[Hurdity]

Yes exactly CLKD - re the muscle gain - you mean fat gain? It is OK to put on weight as a result of exercise if you are replacing fat with muscle and like I said that has a positive feedback effect to as more calories are then burned than the same  mass of fat!

Re apron - I think the term is panniculus - it's just the apron word sounds funny and I've never heard of it except you using it and it always makes me think of walking about the kitchen with my pinny on!!! It also gives me the shivers the thought of a pile of fat slumping down just like that eek! Only jesting CLKD you know that by now

Hurdity x

[ladylollipop]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry but I don't know what that apron thing is. I mean I know what an apron is but that doesn't seem to be it. Must be an expression I have never learned ( I am German) so help me,  please well I never had this kind of weight problems before . I was a size 10 for a long time. Now it is very often size 14 sometimes size 12. depends a bit. To be honest I don't do much sports a the moment but often I am too tired. I work full time as a headteacher. Try to eat sugar free which doesn't really work,too. Well must accept I am not 30 anymore  and have to live with it.

Lady Lollipop x

[wuzzie]

I reduced carbs esp. sugar and upped the exercise.  Seemed to do the trick.  Took a while though. 

[kdee69]

I have been in my current HRT now for 7 months and I've put on 3/4 stone with no change at all to my routine. I'm fact I also gave up alcohol in that time too. I am so strict with what I eat -I cut out sugar ( well as much as isn't already hidden) and refined carbs two years ago and there are some days I just wonder what else I could cut. I know that there is a direct correlation between my weight gain and my HRT but it is what it is. I am going to have to change my exercise routine from pretty much nothing ( well dog walks) to some cardio. All my weight gain is round my middle and each night I am so bloated I look pregnant but it all goes down again by morning. I definitely have the start of an apron so I will just have to get moving a bit more and for me anyway, stop whinging. And I do whinge 😂.

[CLKD]

For apron think belly ;-).  The section that swells with pregnancy.  When I stand and look down, I have a rounded shape where B4 it was flat.  When I lay down, the area is flat 

How's the weather in Germany or are you living here? 

[jaycee]

I have never heard of apron either,do you mean the part immediately under your ribs?  and above the belly button,where i seem to have put it on recently ,or below the belly button?

[kdee69]

Brace yourselves...
I don't know how to add a photo so here's a link
(It's not me by the way, but it could be  )

https://www.losebabyweight.com.au/the-overhang-understand-it-and-get-rid-of-it/

[CLKD]

Under the rib-cage is the abdomen.  A large amount of muscle until oestrogen levels drop when it goes south   

[ladylollipop]

Thanks for explaining „apron“ to me.  I do live in Germany and the weather was sunny until an hour ago. Now it is raining cats and dogs.

Lady Lollipop x

[Hurdity]

ladylollipop - it's not a term that anyone uses commonly in UK - I've never heard it anywhere in my (fairly long!) life - except by CLKD on this forum, so if you start using it no-one will understand what you're talking about! I actually think it's a horrible word/term to use for that part of the body - and prefer to say I've put on weight around the middle and skin is a bit floppy!! (Soz CLKD!). Each to their own. . As for the babyweight - I just call that my baby skin - and that is the very lower bit way below the belly button. That's the only bit that stayed floppy post pregnancies - the bit above the belly button went back to normal! Now it doesn't hang down (absolute yuk!)but still is a bit sticky out - more than I would like anyway - so have to pull it in all the time so as to look flat!!

I reduced carbs esp. sugar and upped the exercise.  Seemed to do the trick.  Took a while though. 

wuzzie I did this when I seemed to be losing no weight and it defo made a difference and I have stuck with it ( for 4 years) but now I am putting on weight again and it's really annoying. I barely eat bread, pasta, potatoes, pastry, cakes, biscuits, fried food, sugary food, no processed food, low fat yogurt, semi milk etc. I eat good portions though and don't go hungry but don;t think I overeat. Don't really know what else to do other than go on a proper diet but that is miserable and restricting in terms of people cooking for you or going out etc

Hurdity x

[KiltedCupid]

Hello everybody, I am postmeno for more than 4 years now. At the beginning I had lost a lot of kilos due to symptoms like anxiety etc.  Now I am on HRT for a year and take a very low dose of venlafaxine ( 37.5 mg) I don't eat a lot or more than I did before. Do you have any ideas what to do? Can you recommend something ? And does anybody know if this low dose of venlafaxine can also cause weight gain? Venlafaxine I have learnt should be a antidepressant without weight gain. Can the estrogen patch cause weight gain too?
Lady lollipop

Ladylollipop - I was put on seroxat for post natal depression. It's an older type of anti-d and I definitely gained weight with it. I wasn't using birth control at the time, no need as no libido, so it wasn't hormone based, other than my own hormones.

In terms of weight loss, whenever I feel the jeans getting a bit tight, I go on 5:2 for a couple of weeks, get the weight down and then make sure I walk around a lot when the weight is off. Diets are nonsense and just create a sense of craving from waking till bedtime. The weight always goes back on after a diet, they're just big business, money spinning crap. Cut down on all the things you know you shouldn't have, walk everywhere you can, carry shopping bags back from the shops, it hurts, but it helps, particularly with arm strengthening. Do your own cleaning, vigorously. I still do 5:2 once a week and it keeps things under control. Move around on your feet, or a bike. A lot.