What I Never Ask My Clients To Do To Lose Weight in Perimenopause

What if everything you've been taught about weight loss is actually sabotaging your efforts? As a Perimenopause Naturopath and Weight Loss Nutritionist, I'm pulling back the curtain on the five common weight loss approaches that I refuse to recommend to my perimenopausal and menopausal clients.

The outdated practice of counting calories completely misses what matters most—food quality and how different foods affect inflammation and blood glucose. Similarly, starvation tactics don't work; they throw your body into survival mode where it clings desperately to resources. Women going through hormonal transitions need proper nourishment, not deprivation. And contrary to popular belief, flogging yourself with intense workouts can actually block weight loss by raising cortisol and inflammation levels. A simple brisk walk after meals does far more for fat burning than exhausting HIIT sessions.

I've seen countless women transform their bodies and health when they stop guessing about nutrition and start addressing the real blockers to weight loss. Scientific approaches eliminate the frustrating trial and error, while proper stress management techniques help regulate the nervous system—a critical but often overlooked aspect of weight management during perimenopause and menopause. Simple practices like mindful breathing, nature walks, or engaging in activities you love can dramatically impact your body's ability to burn fat efficiently.

This episode distills decades of clinical experience into practical, evidence-based strategies that support women through midlife transitions. Whether you're struggling with stubborn weight gain or simply want to optimise your approach to health, these insights will help you navigate perimenopause and menopause with confidence. Follow the Ageless and Awesome podcast for weekly episodes dedicated to helping you thrive in your 40s, 50s and beyond with great health, positive mindset, and outrageous confidence.

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It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

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1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women

(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast.
Yes, I am back from my trip toPeru.

(00:46):
Had an incredible, incredibletime.
Cannot recommend it highlyenough if you get the
opportunity to go, and thanks somuch for hanging in with me.
I had about four weeks, I think, of flashback episodes just to
give me some breathing spacewhen I got back, and today is a
fresh new episode for you, so Ihope you enjoy it.

(01:09):
Today it's a little bit of adifferent structure of an
episode.
Today, I'm going to be focusingon the five things that I'll
never ask my clients inperimenopause and menopause to
do in order to lose weight.
The five things I'll never ask,and then the five things I also
apply to myself.
And why don't we just getstraight into it All right.

(01:34):
Number one I will never ask youto count calories.
If you've been following mypodcast or my Instagram feed for
a while, you'll have seen I'veposted many, many, many times on
this topic.
Counting calories is sooutdated.
It is just not a reliable wayto lose weight because, you know

(01:58):
, as a nutritionist, I reallyfocus on whole foods, so that's,
you know, fruits, veggies,salads, quality proteins, all
the things like that.
And when you actually look atthe history of calories and if
you're interested in learningmore, send me a DM on my

(02:19):
Instagram the perimenopause pathInstagram theperimenopausepath
and I will send you a reallyinteresting article on the
calorie myth, essentially thehistory of calories, why
calories were applied to foodand why they're really a very
poor measure of nutrition.

(02:40):
They're a poor measure of likeso many things.
Whole foods really get the rawdeal when it comes to calories,
so I will never ask you to countcalories.
There are several reasons otherthan what I just said.
One is that the quality offoods matters.
I can't tell you how many timesI had friends doing things like

(03:03):
weight watches.
This is decades ago doingweight watches, doing at the
time.
I don't know if it's still likethat these days.
But you had 20 points a day andI remember sitting with them
and they were adding up, likehow many points they wanted to
have two or three glasses ofwine, for example, how many
points they had for the rest ofthe day and how they would use

(03:23):
those points.
And at that moment it was justabout the points.
It had nothing to do withnutrition, nothing to do with
the quality of the food and,yeah, enough said about that.
Anyway, I don't want to get introuble with Weight Watchers,
but anyway.
But yeah, the quality of thefoods matters, the nutrient
density of the foods matters.

(03:44):
None of this is accounted forwhen you're counting calories,
so I will not ask you to do that.
What I will ask you to do is tofocus on foods that lower
inflammation in your body andbalance your blood glucose and
insulin to lose weight.
These are things that need tobe done to remove these blockers
to turn you into a fat burningmachine.
So there, that's number one.
I'll these blockers to turn youinto a fat burning machine.

(04:05):
So there, that's number one.
I'll never ask you to countcalories.
Number two I will never ask youto starve yourself.
Oh my gosh, women need to befed.
I can't tell you how manypeople come into my program that
expect to feel hungry, expectit, and then don't let me know
if they are.

(04:25):
So I can't help them.
So I will never allow you tostarve.
I will always give you morefood when you're working with me
.
And women just need to be fed.
That's all I want to say reallyabout that.
Stop starving yourself.
It doesn't help it, just it canthrow your body into survival
mode where you'll just hang onto resources.
And again, if you're notaddressing the blockers to

(04:47):
weight loss, such as yourinsulin levels, such as the
inflammation in your body, thenyou're not going to lose weight.
It doesn't matter how much youstarve yourself, and probably
you've experienced this anyway.
I know I have in the past whenI used to do things like that in
my 20s.
Number three of the five thingsI'll never ask my clients to do,

(05:07):
particularly in perimenopauseand menopause, to lose weight.
And number three is flogyourself with exercise.
Intense exercise in women inperi and post-menopause isn't
necessary for weight loss.
It is not.
If you do it because you enjoydoing it, if you do it because
you have a specific goal, go forit, that's awesome, but it is

(05:31):
not necessary for weight lossand in fact it can block weight
loss in some women because itraises cortisol, it raises
inflammation and these are twoblockers to weight loss.
So really appropriate levels ofmovement are all you need.
Brisk walking, so walking to apace where you can only just

(05:52):
hold a conversation, that is thefat-burning zone, that is
really, really effective, andparticularly if you do that walk
after eating.
So if you are in a positionwhere you can have lunch and
then go for like a 20 to 30minute walk at that pace, that
will be ideal to burn fat.

(06:14):
If you can do that after anymeal of the day, that is the
best time to do it and that'sthe best pace to do it.
For weight loss specifically,everything I'm talking about
today is for weight loss veryspecifically.
Number four the fourth thingthat I'll never ask my clients
to do for weight loss this is isto guess what you should be

(06:39):
eating and how much, and whatthe macro balance.
You know not get.
There's no guesswork.
There's no guesswork.
We know now how toscientifically calculate all of
these things.
We know what the rightcombinations of foods and
protein, fat, carbohydratebalance is to support women in

(07:03):
peri and post-menopause to loseweight.
We know, I know, I can tell you.
I can only tell you if I knowthings about you, though.
I take quite a lot ofinformation to build the
personal plans and protocolsthat I do for my clients, so
guesswork is not part of theequation and that's why the

(07:24):
results are there Number five.
Number five for the things I'llnever ask my clients in
perimenopause and menopause todo to lose weight is to not
address their stress.
Stress is a massive blocker toweight loss and stress is a big
part of life when you're in your40s and 50s and beyond,

(07:48):
unfortunately, and often youcannot remove yourself from that
stressful situation.
I mean, if you can, if you canchange jobs, if you can work on
relationships whether it'sfamily with partners, friends,
etc.
Relationships whether it'sfamily with partners, friends,
et cetera you know.
If there are things you can do,that's great, but ultimately it
is your ability to regulateyour own nervous system.

(08:10):
That is going to be one of thegreatest gifts you'll ever
receive, because it means thatyou know we all experience
stress at some point, right?
So having the skill set becausethat's what it is it's training
, it's training your mind, it'straining your nervous system to
manage under stress is.
It's just a gift.

(08:32):
So, and in the context ofweight loss, it's really, really
important, and I see this allthe time women plateauing in
their weight loss if they're notmanaging their stress.
And it's not hard to do youjust actually have to do it, and
I have so many little tricksand tips and strategies to share

(08:56):
, depending on what yourpreferences are.
So if you're someone that justdoes not like meditation at all,
then perhaps breathing is foryou.
I mean, we all have to breatheright.
So doing some either kind ofreally specific breathing
exercises, you can do that.
And there's lots of really goodevidence attached particularly

(09:20):
to belly breathing and toalternate nostril breathing in
terms of its ability to work onthe brain and switch you from
your sympathetic nervous systemthat's, your fight and flight
response to your parasympatheticnervous system.
I'm not sure because, simplybecause I haven't looked, I'm
pretty sure they would be,though.
Evidence for box breathing,that's when you breathe in.

(09:43):
For a count, let's just sayit's four, breathe in for four,
hold for four, breathe out forfour, hold for four.
So doing that kind of breathingthat can also really be good
for many people, but sometimesjust really unstructured deep
breathing that you can do whenyou're driving, when you're

(10:05):
shopping, when you're cooking,when you're at the computer.
There's no counting involved,there's no specific technique,
it's just deep breathing.
Anyone can do that.
But maybe what's better for youis to go and spend time in
nature.
Maybe you've got some activitythat you really love to do,
whether that's cooking, whetherthat is sewing, whether that is

(10:27):
reading, any of those things,anything that brings you joy,
that is going to help bring yournervous system back into
balance.
And spending time in nature.
And again, I you know, ifyou've been following me for a
while, that I live in a reallybeautiful place and I'm just so
lucky that I back onto bushlandand I have access to the ocean

(10:48):
pretty easily, and I'm very,very grateful for that, because
that's not been the case for themajority of my life, and so I
do really appreciate it.
But I did.
I lived in suburbia for a reallylong time and so you know, even
just being able to look at thesky, get some sunlight on your
skin, to go into a local park,just to walk around in your

(11:13):
neighborhood and when I say that, doing it mindfully, so that
you are listening to the sounds,you're feeling the sensation of
the air at your nostrils,you're feeling your feet on the
ground.
All of that sort of stuff helpsto regulate your nervous system
and that in turn will helpremove a weight loss blocker and

(11:36):
just even the fact that many ofthe stress management
techniques that are around doinvolve movement, then that will
also help.
And even if I go back to mypoint number three about
exercise, if you do do like a 20or 30 minute walk at lunchtime,
make it a mindful walk whereyou're not listening to a

(11:57):
podcast that's related to yourjob, where you're not thinking
about you know your to-do listfor the rest of the afternoon.
Although if you have to do that, then sure do it.
But if you don't actuallyreally have to do it, if you can
just enjoy your surrounds andyou're actually getting a
two-in-one, you're getting somestress management and you're
also getting that movement intoyour day.
That's going to get into like afat burning and manage your

(12:19):
blood sugar as well.
So I hope that's been helpful.
I think it's really important tobring some of these little tips
into your day, particularly ifyou're a woman in peri or
postmenopause and you arestruggling with weight, which a
lot of women are.

(12:41):
That's my bread and butter.
I see women day in, day outwith these issues, and it's so
rewarding to me to see peoplegetting on a path that I know is
not only going to make themfeel better within themselves,
but it's also going to improvetheir longevity.
It's going to reduce their riskof chronic disease in the

(13:01):
future.
It's going to improve theirquality of life as well.
If you're healthier, you are outand about enjoying life, you're
able to move around andunfortunately, you know I'm in
my fifties and these are thingsI need to start thinking about.
You can't wait until you're in,you know, the later decades of
your life and you've got chronicdisease.
I mean you can still do thingsto help, but you've really this

(13:24):
opportunity we have now, in ourforties and fifties particularly
, is where we can still maintainour muscle mass as much as we
can.
We can build our socialnetworks, because we know that
is super important for ourmental health and our longevity.
There's so many things that weneed to be thinking about right

(13:45):
now in order to have a fantasticlife moving forward.
So, yeah, I hope this has beenhelpful, I hope it's been
inspiring, and if you have anyquestions, just pop over to
Instagram.
I'm at theperimenopausepath andI would love to connect with
you over there.
Thanks so much for joining meon the Ageless and Awesome

(14:08):
podcast.
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(14:30):
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