Perimenopausal CrossFitter: If You’re Trying to Get the Weight Off, This Post is For You

Bycompetitivefemaletraining

You’re training harder than ever. PRs are still happening in the gym. Your nutrition is dialed in—or at least, it used to be dialed in.

But the weight? It’s creeping on. Especially around your middle. And no matter how clean you eat or how many extra metcons you throw in, your body isn’t responding the way it used to.

Welcome to perimenopause. Where the rules changed, but nobody told you.

Here’s the truth: your hormones shifted, your metabolism changed, and the strategies that worked in your 30s don’t work anymore. But that doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you need a new approach—one built specifically for this stage of life.

Let me show you what’s really happening in your body, and more importantly, what actually works to get the fat off and keep it off.

What’s Actually Happening in Your Body

The Insulin Resistance Problem

During perimenopause, your estrogen levels start to fluctuate wildly before eventually declining. This matters because estrogen plays a crucial role in helping your cells respond to insulin—the hormone that regulates blood sugar and fat storage.

As estrogen levels decline during the menopausal transition, women become more prone to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin signals. Research shows that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome—which includes insulin resistance—increases significantly through perimenopause, affecting nearly 58% of perimenopausal women compared to 45% of premenopausal women.

What does this mean for you? High insulin levels block stored fat from being broken down and used for energy, making weight loss significantly more challenging. Even worse, insulin resistance specifically drives fat storage around your midsection—that stubborn belly fat that won’t budge no matter how many burpees you do.

The Muscle Loss Equation

Here’s the second problem: Research indicates that compared to women in early perimenopause, those in menopause have approximately 10% less muscle mass in their arms and legs. And muscle is your metabolic engine. It burns calories even at rest, helps regulate blood sugar, and is essential for maintaining strength as you age.

Each day, your body uses more than 6 calories to maintain each pound of muscle, while only 2 calories are needed to sustain a pound of fat. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down, making it progressively harder to lose fat.

The Cortisol Connection

And then there’s cortisol. High cortisol levels disrupt how the body processes and burns fat, carbohydrates, and protein, causing the body to shift into fat-storage mode. The decline in estrogen during menopause combined with high cortisol leads to more fat being stored around the abdomen.

Poor sleep (hello, night sweats), increased life stress, and chronic under-eating all drive cortisol higher. It’s a vicious cycle: high cortisol disrupts sleep, poor sleep raises cortisol, and both make fat loss nearly impossible.

Why Your Old Approach Isn’t Working

Let’s talk about what you’re probably doing right now: eating less and training more. Maybe you cut your calories down to 1,200-1,400 per day. Maybe you added another WOD to your weekly schedule. Maybe you’re doing fasted cardio in the morning.

Here’s why it’s backfiring:

Your perimenopausal body interprets aggressive calorie restriction as an additional stressor. When your body is already under hormonal stress from perimenopause, putting yourself into a deep calorie deficit can push your body into survival mode, causing it to conserve energy by slowing metabolism and minimizing using stored fat as fuel.

Traditional advice of creating a 1000-calorie daily deficit often fails in menopausal women because it doesn’t account for the changed metabolism. You’re essentially putting one foot on the gas (training hard) and one foot on the brake (severe calorie restriction). Your body can’t differentiate between intentional dieting and actual food scarcity, so it adapts by becoming more efficient—which is the opposite of what you want.

What Actually Works: The Science-Based Approach

1. Prioritize Protein (More Than You Think)

This is non-negotiable. Research shows that lean mass and strength can be preserved during weight loss if protein intakes are elevated above the standard recommendation.

How much protein do you need?

Research suggests that perimenopausal women should increase daily protein intake to 1.0-1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for optimal weight regulation and muscle strength. If you’re actively training and trying to lose fat, you need even more—in the range of 1.4-1.6 grams per kilogram per day, or even up to 2.3-3.1 grams per kilogram per day during a calorie deficit to maintain lean body mass.

For a 150-pound (68 kg) CrossFitter in a deficit, that’s approximately 156-211 grams of protein per day. Yes, that’s likely more than you’re eating now.

Why it matters: Studies show that protein intake is positively associated with better physical performance, lean muscle mass, and strength among older women. Higher protein intake also increases satiety, reducing overall calorie intake naturally, and has a higher thermic effect—meaning your body burns more calories just digesting it.

How to implement:

  • Aim for 25-30 grams of protein at each meal
  • Include a protein source at every snack
  • Don’t skip breakfast—make it protein-heavy

2. Lift Heavy Things (Really Heavy)

Your CrossFit training is good, but we need to talk about intentional strength work.

Research on perimenopausal and postmenopausal women shows that moderate-intensity resistance training (around 75% of one-rep max) performed at least twice per week leads to increases in muscle mass and decreases in fat mass in premenopausal women, though postmenopausal women may require higher training volumes and intensities to see similar results.

A first-of-its-kind study demonstrated that resistance training improved muscle strength and lean mass across pre-, peri-, and postmenopausal groups, suggesting that the menopause transition doesn’t negatively affect the ability to benefit from resistance exercise.

What this means for you:

  • Prioritize true strength days—think heavy squats, deadlifts, presses
  • Progressive overload matters: gradually increase weight over time
  • Strength training enhances resting metabolic rate by increasing lean muscle mass, which burns more calories even at rest
  • Aim for at least 2-3 dedicated strength sessions per week, separate from your metcons

3. Cycle Your Calories: 2 Weeks Deficit, 1 Week Maintenance

Here’s where we get strategic. Instead of staying in a constant deficit (which your body reads as ongoing food scarcity), you want to cycle between periods of slightly lower calories and periods at maintenance.

Studies demonstrate that alternating calorie intake can prevent metabolic adaptation and enhance fat loss. Research published in the International Journal of Obesity found that participants following a calorie cycling approach experienced less decrease in resting metabolic rate compared to those on a continuous low-calorie diet.

The 2:1 Protocol:

Deficit Phase (2 weeks):

  • Moderate calorie deficit: 300-500 calories below maintenance
  • Higher protein (30-35% of calories)
  • Training can be slightly less intense—this is KEY
  • The goal: lose body fat while managing the stress of the deficit

Maintenance Phase (1 week):

  • Eat at maintenance calories
  • Maintain high protein
  • This is when you can push harder in training
  • The goal: preserve muscle, give your body a break, keep your metabolism responsive, get a reprieve from calorie restriction

Why this works:

A calorie deficit is a stressor on the body. When you’re already dealing with hormonal stress from perimenopause, adding training stress AND diet stress simultaneously can backfire. By cycling to maintenance every third week, you:

  1. Manage the cumulative stress a deficit puts on your body
  2. Make fat loss easier when you’re not going HAM in the gym during deficit weeks
  3. Preserve muscle by giving your body adequate fuel during higher-intensity training weeks
  4. Prevent metabolic adaptation so your body doesn’t slow down to match the lower intake

This isn’t about confusing your body or “shocking your metabolism.” It’s about working with your physiology, not against it.

4. Manage Blood Sugar Like Your Life Depends On It

Because honestly, your fat loss does.

When insulin levels are elevated—which happens after eating, especially carbohydrates—your body preferentially uses glucose for energy and stores excess as fat. Insulin also suppresses the enzymes that break down stored fat for fuel. This is normal physiology.

The problem in perimenopause? Insulin resistance means insulin stays elevated longer than it should after meals. You spend more time in “fat storage mode” and less time in “fat burning mode.” Research shows that lowering insulin resistance is key to gaining metabolic flexibility and losing weight.

Here’s how to keep insulin in check:

  • Avoid eating most of your carbs alone—pair them with protein, fat, and fiber whenever possible
  • Front-load your carbs around training (before and after workouts)
  • Emphasize complex carbs: sweet potatoes, rice, oats, not processed foods
  • Include fiber at every meal—Research shows that taking a psyllium-based fiber supplement before meals can help reverse insulin resistance and support weight loss
  • Consider eating protein first at meals to blunt the glucose spike

5. Fix Your Sleep and Stress (It Makes this Whole Thing Easier)

Quality sleep is correlated with lower leptin resistance and reduces cortisol levels, allowing for healing, digestion, and improved mental capacity. High cortisol limits time spent in deep sleep, disrupting production of human growth hormone and affecting hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin.

Sleep affects your fat loss through:

  • Hormone regulation (cortisol, growth hormone, leptin, ghrelin)
  • Recovery from training
  • Insulin sensitivity
  • Food choices and cravings

Non-negotiables for sleep:

  • Aim for 7-9 hours
  • Keep your room cool and dark
  • Establish a consistent sleep schedule
  • Limit screens 1-2 hours before bed
  • Consider magnesium supplementation—foods rich in magnesium can help regulate cortisol levels, blood sugar, boost energy, and aid with stress reduction

Stress management strategies:

  • Daily movement that ISN’T intense training (walking, yoga)
  • Breathwork or meditation—even 5 minutes counts
  • Set boundaries around work and obligations
  • Research shows that 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week, divided into 3 or more sessions, can improve insulin sensitivity and decrease cortisol levels

The Bottom Line

Your perimenopausal body isn’t broken. It’s just playing by different rules now.

The key to fat loss during this transition isn’t about doing more or eating less. It’s about working with your changing physiology instead of against it.

Here’s your action plan:

  1. Increase your protein to at least 1.0-1.2 g/LB body weight, higher if you’re in a deficit
  2. Lift heavy at least 2-3 times per week with progressive overload
  3. Cycle your calories between 2 weeks of moderate deficit and 1 week at maintenance
  4. Stabilize blood sugar by pairing carbs with protein and timing them around training
  5. Prioritize sleep and stress management as much as your training

This isn’t a quick fix. It’s a sustainable approach that respects your hormones, preserves your muscle, and keeps your metabolism responsive.

You’ve earned your strength in the gym. Now it’s time to let your nutrition strategy catch up to your training.

Ready to Get Body Fat OFF for Good?

If you’re tired of spinning your wheels—training hard but seeing your body work against you—it’s time for a different approach.

The CFT Body Recomposition Program is the full training + nutrition system I use with athletes who want to lose body fat, build muscle, and keep lifting—without burning out or chronically undereating.

This program was built for women whose bodies don’t respond to “eat less, do more.” Whether that’s due to perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, thyroid dysfunction, or years of high-stress training, the solution isn’t more discipline—it’s a better structure.

Inside the Body Recomposition Program, you’ll get:

✅ A proven 2-week deficit + 1-week maintenance cycle that supports fat loss while preserving muscle and performance

✅ Multiple training options—including Hybrid (Oly + Gymnastics) and Dumbbell-Only / Minimal Equipment tracks—so you can train consistently no matter where you are

✅ Clear guidance on how to fuel strength, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and conditioning days so training stress supports progress instead of stalling it

✅ Built-in recovery strategies that help manage cortisol, improve sleep, and support hormone health

✅ A simple framework for blood sugar regulation to reduce fat storage and energy crashes

✅ Smart progress-tracking beyond the scale, so you know what’s working even when weight fluctuates

This is not a diet. It’s a system designed to help your body feel safe enough to change.

👉 Learn more about the Body Recomposition Program

REFERENCES

Carr MC. (2003). Emergence of the Metabolic Syndrome with Menopause. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 88(6), 2404-2411. https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/88/6/2404/2845159

Ryan AS, Nicklas BJ, Berman DM. (2002). Hormone Replacement Therapy, Insulin Sensitivity, and Abdominal Obesity in Postmenopausal Women. Diabetes Care, 25(1), 127-133. https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/25/1/127/22908/

The Menopause Society. (2024). New Meta-Analysis Shows That Hormone Therapy Can Significantly Reduce Insulin Resistance. Annual Meeting Press Release. https://menopause.org/press-releases/

Stute P, Wildt L, Neulen J. (2023). Resistance training alters body composition in middle-aged women depending on menopause – A 20-week control trial. BMC Women’s Health, 23, 533. https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-023-02671-y

Alcaraz A, Lopez H, Sanchez A, et al. (2023). The Efficacy of Strength Exercises for Reducing the Symptoms of Menopause: A Systematic Review. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(2), 548. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9864448/

Thomas E, Gualdi-Russo E, Mangone M, et al. (2021). The effect of resistance training programs on lean body mass in postmenopausal and elderly women: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 33(11), 2941-2952. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8595144/

University of Exeter. (2025). First-of-its-kind study shows resistance training can improve physical function during menopause. Science Daily. https://news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-health-and-life-sciences/

Byrne NM, Sainsbury A, King NA, Hills AP, Wood RE. (2018). Intermittent energy restriction improves weight loss efficiency in obese men: the MATADOR study. International Journal of Obesity, 42(2), 129-138.

Murphy CH, Roche HM. (2024). The Impact of Protein in Post-Menopausal Women on Muscle Mass and Strength: A Narrative Review. Physiologia, 4(3), 266-285. https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9488/4/3/16

Beasley JM, Wertheim BC, LaCroix AZ, et al. (2013). Biomarker-calibrated protein intake and physical function in the Women’s Health Initiative. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61(11), 1863-1871. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4433492/

Simpson SJ, Raubenheimer D. (2023). Weight gain during the menopause transition: Evidence for a mechanism dependent on protein leverage. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 130(1), 4-10. https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-0528.17290

Maltais ML, Desroches J, Dionne IJ. (2009). Changes in muscle mass and strength after menopause. Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions, 9(4), 186-197.

Dubnov-Raz G, Pines A, Berry EM. (2007). Diet and lifestyle in managing postmenopausal obesity. Climacteric, 10(sup2), 38-41.

Woods NF, Mitchell ES, Smith-DiJulio K. (2009). Cortisol Levels during the Menopausal Transition and Early Postmenopause: Observations from the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 94(7), 2655-2664. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2749064/

Lovejoy JC, Champagne CM, de Jonge L, Xie H, Smith SR. (2008). Increased visceral fat and decreased energy expenditure during the menopausal transition. International Journal of Obesity, 32(6), 949-958.

Villareal DT, Aguirre L, Gurney AB, et al. (2017). Aerobic or Resistance Exercise, or Both, in Dieting Obese Older Adults. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(20), 1943-1955.

Pasiakos SM, Cao JJ, Margolis LM, et al. (2013). Effects of high-protein diets on fat-free mass and muscle protein synthesis following weight loss: a randomized controlled trial. FASEB Journal, 27(9), 3837-3847.

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