Like Penny Lancaster, I know why 49 is the weight gain tipping point

If a picture is worth a thousand words then the one taken of me at a friend’s birthday dinner a few weeks ago with a noticeably plump face and thick waist spelt it out loud and clear in just three: midlife and overweight.

I could have blamed it on lockdown; all that anxiety-driven gorging on bags of Chilli Heatwave Doritos and Green & Black’s minis. But I knew it had started much earlier than that, around my 49th birthday last year, when my body seemed to renege on the deal that had worked so successfully between us for years.

The deal went something like this: I’d eat three healthy meals a day interspersed with multiple not-so-healthy snacks and the odd glass of wine and as long as I kept moving, whether by chasing two active children or sweating it out at hot yoga, the pounds somehow steered clear.

But clearly the deal was off as the weight had now stuck.

Penny Lancaster – also 49 – revealed she’d put on a stone this year too, blaming comfort eating during lockdown and the onset of the menopause.

The former model and wife of Rod Stewart used a picture of her stomach as an incentive to lose weight and succeeded, losing 17lbs in eight weeks, and posting a glorious after shot of her trim tum on Instagram.

While I’m thrilled with Penny’s efforts, what is it about this age that heralds this midlife body crisis for women?

GP and menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson, co-founder of The Menopause Charity, blames it on the sex hormone oestrogen, which falls off a cliff around this age. Oestrogen is made primarily in our ovaries but also in the adrenal glands and fat tissue, and is responsible for regulating our hormone cycle, keeping cholesterol in check, protecting our bones as well as being important for childbearing, mood and the health of our heart and skin.

“The decline in oestrogen shows how our bodies are designed to procreate, then wither and fade,” says Newson. “In perimenopause, our oestrogen levels drop but the body still wants it and so will create more fat cells around the abdomen area to produce a weaker oestrogen. Oestrogen also helps to optimise the action of insulin, the hormone that prevents high blood sugar levels, so low levels of oestrogen raise your blood sugar levels, which leads to cravings and weight gain.”

NHS Consultant and weight loss expert Dr Sally Norton agrees, claiming this time of life drums up a ‘perfect storm’ of events for women.

“So many things happen at this age,” she says. “Years of yo-yo dieting may be catching up with you; the hormone changes kick in as perimenopause symptoms can start 10 years before the menopause. The drop in oestrogen changes the fat distribution, which is why women tend to go from pear-shaped around this age to apple-shaped, developing a big belly but still losing weight off their legs and bum. We also tend to be less active now and yet we still dish out the same food portions to ourselves as we would to our partners and teenagers.”

It doesn’t help that women also lose 8 per cent of muscle per decade after the age of 40. “Muscle burns more energy than fat, so resistance training to build up more muscle is a good idea in midlife,” says Norton, adding that 49 is the perfect time for a mindset overhaul and making small, doable changes.

Goodbye grazing

“It’s all about eating real food, not diet or low-calorie rubbish, cutting down on constant grazing and going back to three traditional healthy meals a day and reducing your portion size to match your lower activity levels,” she says. “Eating little and often – even if it’s healthy – isn’t good for weight control at this age as it makes your blood sugar levels go up and down, which leads to more difficulty burning fat.”

And here’s my problem.

I’m a classic grazer and always seem to be popping something– whether an apple, a bag of popcorn or an energy bar – into my mouth.

With fat-burning now a priority, I seek advice from nutritional therapist, Melissa Cohen who writes me a midlife food plan to shift fat, reduce bloating (a particular middle-aged curse of mine) and improve my overall wellbeing.

It’s based around eating three healthy meals a day, all of which are heavy on good fats like avocado, protein such as chicken, eggs, meat or fish and lots of salad and vegetables – about half your plate.

“The idea is that each meal should be filling so you don’t need to eat in between,” says Cohen.

Slow-releasing carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, butternut squash and quinoa are midlife winners, as are foods high in phytoestrogen – tofu, tempeh, flaxseed, chickpeas and lentils.

“These foods mimic the effects of oestrogen and should be eaten every day,” says Cohen. “The goal at this age is to balance out blood sugar levels and avoid certain fruit and carbohydrates, which sends glucose rushing into the bloodstream, giving you a quick high, but an even quicker fall.”

Dealing with stubborn fat cells

Cohen cites mango and grapes as the worst culprits for that blood sugar spike and low-sugar berries as a better option. She also advocates drinking two litres of water a day.

“Stubborn fat cells work like storage and need to be broken down in water to be flushed out,” says Cohen, adding that tea and coffee have the opposite effect and make our bodies lose water.

Snacks, Cohen explains, should be down to no more than one a day and can be a handful of nuts with a few spoonfuls of yoghurt or a protein-based smoothie made with filling whey isolate powder, nut butter, fruit, non-dairy milk and a dash of vanilla essence.

It all sounded daunting but, like Penny, I had an unflattering photo for motivation.

I’m now seven days into the plan and already my clothes feel looser around my waist. It’s been hard, admittedly, to stop snacking but I think that’s more about habit breaking than hunger because each meal does do the job of filling me up.

Just give me seven more weeks and I could be ready for that Penny-style after shot.