I’m starting my Huel journey today. I am female, 54 and for most of my life was around 65kg but as I hit the menopause, no matter how much I cut my calories and increased exercise my weight just went up. I’ve spent the last 3 years or so trying a vague mix of diets or ‘ways of eating’ including very low carb, fasting, short lived fad diets such as egg only, I got into a right mess, completely messed up my metabolism. In May this year I went on an expensive but very good health retreat for a week which concentrated on nutrition, exercise and good quality sleep. Since then I’ve been on a regime of 3 low carb, moderate protien and fat meals per day total 1200 cals max. I feel good but packing in the nutrition - a few nuts, seeds, small amount of good quality protein, green veg etc but not going over the calories in each meal is a challenge. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be easier to have something that I know has everything I need, already prepared that won’t make me crave a sandwich 2 hours later.
I did a search and didn’t find any other posts relating to menopause weight gain, sorry if I just missed it! I’m keen to hear from other ladies struggling with this. I intend to post about my journey.
That’s no yolk.
I don’t necessarily have any answers but you are definitely not alone in this experience!
I’ve been going through the menopause for nearly 10 years and you definitely aren’t alone in this. Huel has definitely made all the difference to me, I do lose weight with it but very very slowly however that’s just me and isn’t necessarily the same for other women in the menopause.
What I like is the energy I get from Huel rather than that sluggish feeling I used to have, I sleep better, my nails have gone into growing overdrive and my hair seems thicker and shinier. My sugar cravings have dropped off and in fact I’m finding things to be too sweet, plus every shake I have (75g Huel, 300ml water and 100ml whole milk) keeps me full for 5-6 hours.
Best thing I ever did!
Ha ha ha… that’s bad
That’s good to hear OneStep, it confirms my experience and thoughts that the best thing is to concentrate on nutrition. As I said to my younger friend yesterday - who was telling me I should just eat less and I would lose weight (you get this all time don’t you) - I might be fatter than I like but actually, now that I’ve got my nutrition sorted my hair and nails are in the best condition ever and I’ve got long hair. My skin is good and energy pretty good most of the time. I’m hoping that having the option of a quick, easy and nutritious meal at my fingertips will stop me from sometimes making bad choices - like toast for breakfast or skipping breakfast but then getting very hungry and having a sausage roll or something equally bad for me later. We will see!
Got to love the “eat less” mantra… yep I’ll eat less, I’ll be really hungry and miserable all the time and then have a mega eating session, still won’t be happy but at least I won’t be hungry!
Definitely losing those cravings and no longer feeling deprived when I do a food shop! I’m not a saint though and we do have some extras - on Sunday I usually bake something yummy but I no longer feel the need to overeat whatever it is - I’ve made a victoria sponge, lemon sponge, coffee sponge, pecan pie and this week it will be scones with jam and cream.
Deprivation for me is the slippery slope to an eating session, so this way I have something occasionally, thoroughly enjoy and get back with the programme the next day.
Just enjoy what you’re doing, after all you’re doing it for you, not to please others who feel that if you could just eat less and be totally rigid with your food choices then the weight would fall off and then everything would be fine!
Hi. Asking as a woman just entering menopause, have you found that huel has helped with any of the other symptoms, other than weight gain? If anything I’m losing weight (especially around the boobs 
) but also my moods are all over the place! But I’ve also had a bit if a huel break recently (well intermittently anyway). I have black rather than normal huel as I have an issue with oats, but wondered whether anyone has noticed an improvement in other symptoms?
Hi Gecko, I’m 55 and a year into menopause - I started with a bang and had a stroke - a bleed on the brain due to high blood pressure - common in menopausal women apparently.
I’m very lucky that I have physically recovered from the stroke. I had been suffering hot flushes, erratic blood pressure (passing out when it dropped too low) and rapid weight gain (I have always been slim so that was horrific!)
Since starting Huel my blood pressure is stable and now in the “normal” range, flushes are reduced and weight is back to my normal.
I have also noticed that after Huel, I don’t get the post meal exhaustion I had been suffering. It was crazy - after the lightest meal I felt like I’d eaten a Sunday roast and had to lay down and sleep!
Huel has been great for me.
Oh my! You poor thing - that sounds awful! So glad to hear you’re feeling better now, and are recovering well. And yay huel!
Menopause is the last menstruation of your life, not the years before nor the years after. Those are called pre-, peri- and postmenopause. If you use terms incorrectly, nobody knows what exactly you are talking about.
Wrong. Do some research. Menopause is a process that starts with peri- and ends with post.
Wrong. This is an incorrect use of the word.
Wrong. It’s a correct use of the word.
Good to hear that you feel better!
Apparently the reason for the beneficial effects of Huel seems to be the high content in flaxseed:
https:// pubmed. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov /25882265/
There also seem to be other beneficial substances/supplements:
- Soy Isoflavones
- Dong Quai
- Maca Root
- St. John’s Wort
- Ashwagandha
- Rhodiola
Let the NHS have the last say
@Chipster13 @Gecko @Grizelda - one of the GPs at my local surgery is a specialist in women’s health issues relating to the menopause. She is on instagram @menopausehealth and is extremely knowledgeable.