Part 2: How to Fix Your Metabolism After 45

Feel like your metabolism just isn’t responding the way it used to? You’re not imagining it! In this episode, we’re breaking down the barometer side of metabolism—because it’s not *just* about calories in, calories out. Stress, hormones, and gut health all play a massive role in how your body burns energy, stores fat, and feels on a daily basis. 

We’ll cover: 
✅ How chronic stress & high cortisol lead to belly fat (*even if you're eating well!*) 
✅ Why insulin resistance sneaks up in midlife & what to do about it 
✅ The gut-metabolism connection & how poor digestion can slow fat loss
✅ Simple, science-backed strategies to support metabolism in menopause 

If you’re in midlife and wondering why the same diet and workouts aren’t working anymore, this episode is a must-listen. We’re ditching the outdated just eat less and move more advice and getting into what actually works for women 40+ who want to feel energized, strong, and in control of their health.  

🎧 Tune in now to learn how to work with your metabolism, not against it! 

 
Free Home Gym Guide: https://www.camoyler.com/gym-equipment-guide

Free Menopause Sleep Guide: https://www.camoyler.com/pl/2148586038

Get the Menopause Mini Workouts: https://www.camoyler.com/meno-minis.

Key Takeaways:

• Your metabolism isn't just about calories in, calories out.
• Stress makes you store belly fat.
• Chronic stress increases our cortisol out of that natural rhythm.
• Cortisol is good. It's your get up and go.
• Insulin is this hormone that your pancreas sends out.
• 40% of women over 40 experience some degree of insulin resistance.
• Eating fiber and fermented foods is a great place to start.
• Low calories is actually high stress for your body.
• Manage your stress like it's your job.
• You cannot out diet or out exercise stress.

Timestamps:

00:00 Metabolism, Stress, and Gut Health

05:08 Stress, Cortisol, and Fat Retention

06:49 Midlife Insulin Resistance and Fat Storage

10:23 Menopause and Food Sensitivity

15:15 Understanding Stress and Metabolism

Transcript

0:00

You're eating healthy, you're working out, and you're doing all the right things. So why does it feel like your body's working against you? Maybe your scale won't budge, and your energy is completely shot. Maybe you feel puffy and you're holding on to weight in places that you've never had weight before. So here's the thing. Your metabolism isn't just about calories in calories out. It's also how your body feels and responds to stress, hormones, and your gut health. It's kinda like a barometer constantly measuring the internal pressure. And guess what? If the pressure gets too high, your body slows down everything to protect you. And that means it even slows down fat loss. In today's episode, we're diving into the barometer side of your metabolism. The part that most of us don't understand, we didn't realize this was actually impacting our energy, our weight, and our overall health. And today, we're gonna talk about why stress makes you store belly fat, how insulin resistance really sneaks up on you in midlife, and what to do about it, and then the surprising connection between gut health and your metabolism. I'm gonna give you lots of science ways to support your metabolism without crash dieting because we know that doesn't work. If you've ever thought, I feel like my body just doesn't respond like it used to, this episode's for you. So let's dive in. Hey there. I'm Cam Allen. Welcome back to the Menopause Method. This is part two of a three part series. In part one, we covered the energy calculator side of our metabolism. The calculator. The calories in, the calories out. I'm not saying calories don't matter. I'm just saying that there's this other side to our metabolism, the barometer side, which is what we're gonna talk about today, that really will help you understand if you're feeling stuck and stagnant in your weight loss journey. Today, we're diving into that. The barometer side of your metabolism is really about how your body feels and responds to stress, hormones, gut health, inflammation, all of those things. I often say coaching is an art and a science. Today, we're talking about the art part because it's not obvious. The science part's easy. Calories in, calories out. Are you exercising? Are you lifting weights? Are you walking? That part we get. That's the part we have always known about. But this side is a little bit sneakier. But let me tell you, after today's episode, you're gonna have some answers and some action steps to get going. Because this is honestly where most midlife women get stuck. Because they're doing everything right. You're eating the right food, you're exercising, and still your metabolism isn't cooperating like it used to. Believe me, this is not about willpower. It's about your physiology. So when I say the barometer side of your metabolism, what exactly am I talking about? I want you to think of it this way. Your metabolism is like a weather barometer. It measures the pressure. Like, we have high pressure day to day. It's nice and sunny here. When the pressure gets too high, however, in our body because of hormone imbalances, for because of inflammation, whatever, a chronic history of dieting, your body actually slows down everything to protect you. So although it's very frustrating, you're like, what the heck's going on with my metabolism? It's actually we're hardwired. Our body is hardwired to keep us alive and keep us reproducing. This is the pressure side of our metabolism. This really matters in perimenopause, the years leading up to menopause and then postmenopause. We have all these hormonal shifts happening. The first thing that happens is your progesterone drops because you are ovulating less or not at all. And then second, your estrogen is on this roller coaster ride. All of this makes our body more sensitive to stress. And chronic stress, like physical, emotional, metabolic, all of that can cause fat storage, low energy and poor recovery. In my forties, I had all of that, and I didn't know what in the world was going on. Weight gain isn't just about food. It's actually how safe your body feels. And I know that sounds so nuanced, but actually, the fact that you can figure this out for yourself is important. It's really important that you believe that you can figure this out, that your body isn't broken. The biggest takeaway about this is calories matter, but so does your body how your body responds to those calories. So let's talk about cortisol and fat storage. See, cortisol also gets a bad rap if you go on social media. We have a rhythm of cortisol. Naturally, it rises in the morning when the sun comes up, and it slowly decreases as the day goes on, and then you get ready for bed. What happens when the body is under stress? Your body actually prioritizes survival over weight loss. It's like, I don't need to lose weight when we're chronic stress. So here's the formula. Chronic stress increases our cortisol out of that natural rhythm, which we need the natural rhythm. Cortisol is good. It's your get up and go. However, when you're living on cortisol day in and day out, that's when the problem comes. So increased cortisol leads to increased belly fat. Stress makes your body hold on to fat even when you are eating perfectly and you're hitting the gym exactly as you think you should. Let that sink in. So have you ever noticed that you were able to bounce back after a weekend of eating out, but now your body holds on to that weight longer? That's your metabolism adjusting to the hormonal shifts and the stress response. Higher cortisol levels are linked to a nominal fat even in women who eat well and exercise all the time. So what can we do about this excess cortisol? Strength training instead of excessive cardio is my number one recommendation when it comes to exercise. In midlife menopause, we need the right amount of cardio, and too much cardio is just too much cortisol for our system. If you had to choose, either strength train or do a crazy cardio workout, I would definitely put my money on strength training. Strength training changes our resting metabolic rate, which we talked about in the last episode. So that's really important. Next, restorative movement like walking, yoga, and stretching. Younger me thought all that stuff was just nonsense and fluff. Menopause me knows that it matters and it's really important for your health. And then also stress reducing practices like breath work or meditation or even just setting boundaries and saying no more to other people so you can say yes more to yourself. Next week, we're gonna talk even more about cortisol, but that's like a little hint about it. So another big down mover when it comes to our metabolism in midlife is insulin resistance and our blood sugar. So what exactly is insulin resistance? Insulin is this hormone that your, pancreas sends out to clear the blood sugar. We need glucose for energy. But in midlife, because we've lost our estrogen, that makes our body less responsive to the insulin, and it leads to fat storage. So we've got cortisol, if we've got our cortisol out of control leading to fat storage, and if our body is sending out so much insulin because our blood sugar is way too high, then we have insulin also storing. So have you ever felt angry after an hour after eating like a carb heavy meal? That's your blood sugar saying, hello. This isn't good for me anymore. Or have you noticed fasting or skipping the meals you used to be able to do that just fine? But now if you do that, you feel shaky, tired, or irritable. Those are signs feedback from your body that your body's struggling with balancing your blood sugar. In fact, forty percent of women 40 experience some degree of insulin resistance, even if they don't have diabetes. I would actually say that is higher than forty percent based on my personal experience with my clients. So what in the world can you do about this? Prior to prioritizing your protein and your fiber at every meal will absolutely slow your blood sugar spikes. In fact, my favorite trick, if you will, when it comes to blood sugar is always it's food order. It's always eating, looking at my food, and eating the stuff that has the most fiber first. And then I'll eat the second thing would be like the protein and the fat source. And then the carby carbs like the sweet potato or the sourdough, will I'll eat that last. Just by changing the food order allows your digestion to get busy working on that fiber, and that fiber forms like a mesh in your gut, which actually slows the blood sugar uptake. It's absolutely amazing. So I'm not saying don't eat the potato or the bread. I'm just saying eat it last. It's my favorite. Avoid those ultra processed foods. I'm sure that's not surprising. And then strength training actually improves your insulin sensitivity as well. See, the more muscle we have, the more place we have to store our blood sugar. So here's another hack for you. If you've just had a big meal and you just feel really blah and bloated and, like, you just feel tired already, go take a walk. Walking after eating is the easiest way for your body to clear the blood sugar without insulin. Let me explain. Those big beautiful muscles that you build when you strength train, when you move them like walking, think of them like sponges. They are literally cleaning your blood by soaking up that blood sugar and storing it in the muscles, which means you'll have energy for your next workout. Isn't that amazing? So I like to think of it this way. The more muscles you have, the more places you have to store your blood sugar. And by walking after eating, you're clearing your blood sugar without that hormone insulin. And we know too much insulin is a more a storage hormone. So it's kinda like win win win all over the place. Another thing that I noticed on the barometer side of our metabolism is gut health and inflammation. By this stage of the game, we've been around the standard American diet for a long time, and chances are we have inflammation running around our body. So when it comes to this, gut bacteria actually influences how you digest your food, how you absorb your nutrients, and how you store your fat. So disrupted gut biome, like all the bacteria that lives in your gut, If it's disrupted, you're gonna have higher inflammation, which leads to a slower metabolism. So here are some common signs about gut related metabolic issues. Bloating after eating, and I encourage you to pay attention. Not all foods are gonna make you bloat. But if you eat something and you feel extra bloated, pay attention to those foods and make a list of, like, maybe those foods aren't for me anymore now that I'm in menopause. Low energy is another sign of gut problems with metabolic issues, unexplained weight gain, irregular digestion, like maybe you're constipated or maybe the opposite is diarrhea. So any changes in your digestive system, pay attention to those and kind of start putting together how your body is responding and what is your body actually telling you about that. Many, many women in midlife experience, like, a sudden food sensitivity that they've never had before. Maybe it's like bloating after dairy or even if they eat sugar. I know when I eat sugar these days, I feel like I'm buzzing. Is that what the first graders felt like when they had Halloween candy? I don't know. The changes in our gut is also related to the changes in estrogen. So if you're in post menopause like me, your estrogen is at its lowest level. That changes the gut bacteria. It changes the balance in your gut. So estrogen declines your back gut bacteria also shifts. Studies show that women who have a more diverse gut bacteria actually have lower body fat percentages. So there's some kind of connection between those. There's also research saying that the more diverse your gut is, the better insulin sensitivity you have. So there's definitely a connection to our gut health and our metabolism. So what can you do about that? Eating fiber and fermented foods is a great place to start. So fiber would be all your beautiful vegetables, and then fermented foods would include sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir. I also love kombucha, kimchi, things like that. Fermented foods have natural bacteria, and you are literally feeding your body this bacteria that helps your gut. Anything like that that causes inflammation in our body is not good for our gut health. And we gotta manage stress. Again, part three of the series is we're gonna talk all about stress because there is a direct connection between our gut and our brain. I put everything I talked about today into a simple checklist. Here is your metabolism checklist moving forward. Number one, ladies, you gotta eat enough. Do not starve yourself. Low calories is actually high stress for your body. And we already talked about how high stress equals high cortisol, and high cortisol means more belly fat. It's a storage hormone. We need the right amount of cortisol to actually be anti inflammatory and give us our get up and go. But if we are running on fumes, that is too much stress for our body. Number two, you gotta prioritize your protein and your fiber. This will help regulate your blood sugar. Having a stable blood sugar means that you'll be more insulin sensitive, meaning your body will be releasing less insulin and insulin is also a storage hormone. Number three, build muscle. It is the best way to support your metabolism. Please check out the menopause minis. These are ten minute strength workouts. If you are stuck and you're not being consistent, this is literally the easiest way to get started. They are amazing. So check the notes for that. Number four, move throughout the day. Your neat movement, your non exercise activity really matters at this stage. It is great for stress relief, and it also keeps your metabolism humming. Last week, we talked about neat. Meat accounts for about 15% of your daily calorie burn, which is the largest changeable part of your metabolism. Moving more matters. And let's be honest, we're in this side of menopause. We're just not moving as much as we used to. Number five, support your gut health for digestion and energy. Really start to compile a list of foods that make you feel crummy and bloated because your body is communicating to you. And the only thing we have to do is pick up the signals and, like, know what's for me and what's not for me. And then finally, manage your stress like it's your job. Because believe it or not, stress management is a big part of your midlife metabolism. In fact, come back for part three next week, and we're gonna talk all about stress, how it shows up, all the things. We don't need to be stress cadets anymore. In fact, it's affecting our health and our metabolism, and we can stop that. To sum it up, your metabolism is not just the calculator. That's what we grew up thinking, but there's this whole other side, the barometer, the pressure side. It measures the stress, the hormones, the environment, and how your body is responding to that. You cannot out diet or out exercise stress or sleep or hormonal shifts. It is your job to, like, be a detective and say, this is for me and this is not for me. Working you with your metabolism and supporting it through muscle, movement, blood sugar, gut health, and stress management. In the next episode, part three, we're gonna talk about what stress looks like and feels like in your body. Because if you went to high school in the eighties or the nineties, having a huge to do list and being a multitasker was a badge of honor. But I'm telling you on this side of menopause, it is not. So we're gonna actually break it down and what does stress look like? Because, honestly, stress is a very overused word. We're gonna dive in how it shows up physically, emotionally, and hormonally, and, of course, how to fix it. If you're doing everything right, but you're still struggling, I certainly don't want you to miss this. If this episode helps you in any way understand your metabolism better, send me a DM on Instagram at hey mama, m o m m a, underscore cam. Send me a message and tell me about your biggest takeaway. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button and like and follow for more. If this episode helps you in any way, please share your this with your friend. That is the easiest way to get the word out. Be sure to tune in next week, and we'll talk all about part three stress.