I Tried 12 Weeks of Strength Training For Perimenopause & Here's What Happened

One of the most beneficial things women can do for their bodies at any time, but especially in perimenopause and beyond, is to build muscle mass.

Indeed, after 12 weeks of weight lifting three times a week at age 45, I can confirm that the muscle I've gained has been a perimenopause game-changer. It's also transformed my relationship with my body and the number on the scale.

I've long had a regular fitness routine. But like many women, I'd always prioritized cardio over building strength. Why? First, I like cardio. Nothing soothes my soul like a meditative run in the woods, and it's great for helping me manage my asthma.

But also, if you look at health advice and research from the '80s, '90s, and the aughts, you'll find the notion that weight management and chronic disease prevention is about calories-in-calories-out1, or burning more calories than you consume. Thanks to newer research2, we can now label that concept a myth.

Being metabolic healthy means having optimal levels4 of blood pressure, fasting glucose, waist circumference, triglycerides, and high density lipoprotein (HDL), or what's called "good" cholesterol—all without taking medication to control these factors.

Perimenopause usually begins in one's 40s7, and it can last for a decade before one reaches menopause, which is the absence of a period for 12 months, usually occurring in one's early 50s7. After that, you're in postmenopause. Perimenopause is when we often notice menopausal symptoms, such as weight gain, depression, anxiety, sleep issues, hot flashes and night sweats, and more.

Many of these symptoms occur because of changes in hormones, all of which I won't get into here. But, as an example, by the time we reach menopause, estrogen levels will have declined by as much as 50%8. Estrogen helps protect us from insulin resistance9, and research shows that insulin resistance often increases around menopause.

Plus, insulin resistance and weight gain are linked. Often, excess weight can lead to insulin resistance, and vice versa. Other hormonal changes during perimenopause impact our feelings of hunger or fullness. These are some of the many reasons menopause can be associated with midlife weight gain.

Perimenopause10, and the corresponding decline in estrogen, is traditionally a time when we gain fat and lose muscle. This changes our shape, but it also puts us even more at risk for insulin resistance and other health concerns, and it contributes to further changes in hunger and satiety signals. Muscle loss can also lead to11 joint pain, frailty, osteoporosis, and more, leaving us feeling lackluster, to say the least. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Muscle is more metabolically healthy10 than fat. It can increase our insulin sensitivity, increase the amount of calories we burn at rest, promote fat loss, and aid in balancing hunger and satiety signals12. As an added bonus, lean body mass, meaning muscle, may be protective against or ease some menopausal symptoms.

I started out with the goal to lift three times a week for 12 weeks before reassessing. As of the writing of this article, I'm actually close to reaching 24 weeks, but I want to focus on what happened to me during those first three months. Twelve weeks is an accessible goal and goes slightly beyond the average time13 it takes to form a habit.