Perimenopause Weight Gain: Why I Was Gaining Despite Doing Everything Right

I gained fifteen pounds in roughly ten weeks. Not over a year. Ten weeks. And I was logging nearly a thousand miles of running, hundreds of miles of walking, and over a hundred hours of strength training during that same stretch.

The math made no sense. So in this episode, I am breaking down what was actually happening in my body and why everything I thought I knew about weight management stopped working almost overnight.

We are talking about RED-S, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, and why active women in perimenopause are almost never told this is a thing. We are talking about hormonal fat redistribution and why sizing up does not actually solve the problem when all the weight goes to one place. And I am being honest about where I am right now, because I do not have a tidy resolution for you yet.

If your body is doing something that does not match the math, this one is for you.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

Transcript

Jeans Stop Fitting Overnight

Jama Pantel 0:00

I want to tell you about a pair of jeans. I've always been someone who buys classic pieces and keeps them forever. Same style, same fit, same clothes I've worn for years. I found what works for my body and I stuck to it. So I didn't even own a scale because I've never needed one. My body has been pretty consistent my whole life and I knew what that felt like. Until I didn't. Hey y'all, it's your podcast, Bestie Jama again, and today we are getting into something I have been wanting to talk about for a while since I started this little health talk on what's going on with me. So it started with my clothes not fitting. Not all of them, not slowly, specific things suddenly. So I went and bought a bigger pair of jeans. Problem solved, right? Except two weeks later those didn't fit either. And here's the part that really messed with my head. It wasn't even a size issue I could solve by going up a bigger size. My legs didn't gain weight, my arms didn't gain weight, it was all right smack in my midsection. So when I sized up, the waist worked and nothing else did. I essentially have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear. I know, I know every woman says that, but I mean it this time. That's when I knew something was very, very off. Here's what makes this story interesting to me. It wasn't the whole year. I want to be clear about that because I think it matters. In the twelve months before this happened, I logged 940 miles of running, eight hundred and fifty miles of walking, and a hundred and thirty four hours of strength training. That's all I logged and I will admit I don't always log everything, so I guarantee it was probably higher. I maintained my weight through an entire marathon training cycle. My body held. I was doing the work, eating the way I always had, and things were fine. And then they weren't.

Race Weekend And Rapid Gain

Jama Pantel 2:21

So Valentine's weekend, the Austin Half Marathon. If you listened to last week's episode, you already know what that weekend did to me as a runner. It was the day my body just wouldn't cooperate no matter what my garment said about how ready I was. Every metric said I should feel fine, and I did not feel fine. And in that episode, I talked about what that does to your identity as a runner and what it feels like to stop being able to trust yourself and your legs. What I didn't get into yet is what that weekend also started. After Valentine's weekend, the weight started coming on fast. Not a slow creep, not a pound here and there over months. Fast. Between February and May, fifteen pounds. A body that had held steady through everything suddenly couldn't hold anymore. The estrogen crash that wrecked that race also knocked something loose that my body couldn't recover from on its own. I didn't know that yet. I just knew that my pants didn't fit. Of course I blame perimenopause, broadly, generally, in the way you blame something when you don't have a real answer yet. Because what else do you blame? I wasn't eating terribly, I was still moving every day, the math wasn't mathin' and made no sense. And the story I kept telling myself was some version of I must be missing something because I refused to believe I was doing everything right and this was just my life now. That my body had just decided to do this and there was nothing to understand about it. That's not me. I also wasn't eating as much as I had been during training. After the half marathon, my appetite dropped. That's normal. You stop running as many miles, you're not as hungry. But my body was still in repair mode. That part is what I missed. Still trying to recover from everything it had been through through the marathon in December through February's half marathon. I needed fuel. I wasn't giving my body as much as it needed. And I didn't know that combination was a problem. As big a problem as it turned out to be anyways.

RED-S And The Survival Response

Jama Pantel 4:51

The answer came through the blood work I did and asking the right questions. And the answer has a name. Most doctors aren't bringing it up. Here's what it means in plain terms. Your body doesn't have enough fuel to support everything you're asking it to do. Not because you're eating terribly, because the energy coming in doesn't match the energy going out, and your body responds to that gap by going into survival mode. And boy did mine. Now on top of that, this is the perfect storm of everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Let's layer in everything else that was happening in my body at the same time. Obviously the vegetarian for my entire life, which made some of my certain nutrients already harder to come by, perimenopausal, so my hormones were already in flux before the crash. Ferritin critically low, omega 3s below range, systemic inflammation showing up in my blood work, a body that had been running on depleted reserves for way longer than I realized. My body wasn't storing fat because I was lazy or undisciplined, it was storing fat because it was scared. It was holding on to everything it could get because it didn't trust that more was coming. And I did that to myself. That's not a willpower problem. That's a physiology problem, and it has nothing to do with working harder or eating less.

Why It Shows Up In Belly

Jama Pantel 6:36

Now can we talk about the whole midsection thing for a second? Because this is the part that broke my brain a little bit. Hormonal fat redistribution is real and it is specific. When estrogen declines, your body shifts where it stores fat. It moves it from your hips and thighs where it has been mostly your whole life as women, to your midsection, which means you can gain weight and it shows up in exactly one place. My legs look the same, my arms look the same, everything I own that fits those parts of my body still fits those parts of my body exactly the same. The waistband was the problem every time. And here's what nobody tells you about that. It's not consistent day to day either. Some mornings I get dressed and feel fine. By evening I'm bloated and uncomfortable and nothing fits right. On workdays I stand in my closet and I have workout clothes on and that's what I'm comfortable in, and nothing else. But what do you do? That's where I'm at right now. Not because I've given up on myself, because my body is doing something that normal rules don't fix. I'm not going to wrap this up in a neat little bow because I don't have one yet.

Treatment Update With HRT And Iron

Jama Pantel 7:55

By the time this episode drops, I'll have been on HRT for several weeks now. My first iron infusion happened about a week ago. The protocol is in place, the work is happening behind the scenes, but nothing has dramatically shifted yet. And I've said it before, I'm impatient. At least I'm not gaining more weight, and I'm not losing it either, unfortunately. I still have days where I feel like a hot mess, most days actually. I still have mornings where I look at my closet and feel defeated before I've even started the day, and that's really hard. The answers don't make the weight disappear, but they change something else. A few weeks ago I was watching my body do something I couldn't explain, and the story I was telling myself was that I was failing. Now I know exactly what happened and why. I know this isn't about discipline or effort. I know there's a real physiological explanation and a real path forward. That's not nothing. That's actually everything.

What To Ask Your Doctor

Jama Pantel 8:59

If you are an active woman in midlife and your body is doing something that doesn't match the math and the math ain't mathing, I want you to hear this. There is probably a reason, and it probably has a name, and your doctor may not be bringing it up. Red S is real. Hormonal fat redistribution is real. The combination of perimenopause, endurance training, and nutritional depletion creating a perfect storm in my body was real. The internet is full of eat less, move more, social media loves telling you that advice, and that will make it worse, not better. Getting the blood work done, asking the hard questions, finding providers who actually look at the full picture. That's where the real answers are and come from. If you're in this with me right now, the clothes that don't fit, the midsection that appeared out of nowhere overnight, the frustration of doing everything right and watching it not work, you are not crazy. You're not failing, and I'm right there with you, still figuring it

You Are Not Failing

Jama Pantel 10:08

out. That's all I've got for now. Thanks for tuning in. Until next week, y'all. Bye for now.