Nutrition during perimenopause and menopause plays a major role in how your body responds during this transition, especially when it comes to muscle, metabolism, and energy.
If you’re in perimenopause or menopause and feel like your body suddenly stopped responding to the things that used to work, you’re not imagining it.
Muscle seems easier to lose. Fat feels quicker to gain. Energy comes and goes. And it can feel frustrating when you’re doing “all the right things” but your body is not responding the way it once did.
This isn’t a failure of discipline or willpower. It’s a shift in physiology.
What’s changing beneath the surface is hormonal signaling, especially around muscle, insulin, and inflammation. One of the most overlooked players in this transition is a protein called myostatin, which limits muscle growth, and its natural counterbalance, follistatin.
Here’s the good news. These signals are not fixed. They are modifiable. With the right strategy, midlife can become a period of rebuilding, not decline.
Why Muscle Matters More Than Ever in Midlife
After 40, and more noticeably after menopause, women tend to experience:
- Accelerated muscle loss
- Reduced insulin sensitivity
- Slower metabolic flexibility
- Increased inflammatory signaling
Muscle is not about aesthetics. It is your blood sugar regulator, your metabolic engine, and a powerful buffer for hormonal stress.
When you support muscle, you support energy, confidence, bone density, and long-term independence. This is foundational work, not vanity.
Myostatin, Follistatin, and the Midlife Shift
Myostatin naturally increases with age, stress, inflammation, and inactivity. Its job is to limit muscle growth.
Follistatin does the opposite. It helps block myostatin and supports muscle preservation.
During perimenopause and menopause, declining estrogen, poor sleep, chronic stress, under-eating, and too much cardio all push the system toward higher myostatin and lower follistatin. This is why so many women feel like they are doing everything right, but the strategy no longer matches the physiology.
The body has changed. The approach needs to change with it.
Perimenopause and Menopause Nutrition: The Strategic Food Plan
This is where I use my Strategic Food Plan approach. It is not a diet. It is a metabolic framework designed to work with your hormones, not against them.
The goals are simple and intentional:
- Lower inflammatory load
- Improve insulin sensitivity
- Provide enough protein to signal muscle preservation
- Support adrenal and thyroid balance
There is no calorie obsession here. No deprivation. No punishment.
Core Principles for Perimenopause and Menopause
Protein Is Foundational
Protein is not optional in midlife. Most women are under-eating it without realizing it.
I typically aim for 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal, depending on body size and activity. Protein supports follistatin signaling, stabilizes blood sugar, and protects lean muscle mass.
Carbohydrates Are Strategic
Carbohydrates are not the enemy. They simply need to be used intentionally.
Timed, whole-food carbohydrates support cortisol rhythm and thyroid health without spiking insulin all day. The goal is nourishment, not restriction.
Fats Support Hormones
Healthy fats are essential for satiety, brain health, and hormone signaling. They help the body feel safe enough to metabolize efficiently.
Inflammation Has to Come Down
Inflammation makes everything harder.
Gluten, dairy, and sugar are common triggers during hormonal transition, even in women who tolerated them well earlier in life. Reducing inflammatory load allows the system to respond again.
A Sample Strategic Food Plan (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)
Breakfast options (rotate):
- Pasture-raised eggs sautéed with spinach and zucchini in olive oil
- Turkey sausage patties with roasted vegetables
- Veg-E Pro smoothie with unsweetened almond milk, collagen or plant protein, and berries
Lunch options:
- Grilled chicken over mixed greens with avocado, olive oil, and lemon
- Wild salmon with roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower
- Grass-fed turkey burger (no bun) with sautéed mushrooms and squash
Dinner options:
- Herb-roasted chicken thighs with cauliflower mash and asparagus
- Lean beef or bison with zucchini noodles and garlic olive oil
- Baked white fish with lemon, herbs, and roasted root vegetables (two to three times per week)
Optional snacks:
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Veg-E Pro shake
- Olives or avocado
- Apple with sunflower seed butter
What This Supports in the Body
This approach helps:
- Improve insulin sensitivity
- Lower chronic cortisol
- Reduce myostatin signaling
- Support follistatin production
- Preserve muscle while allowing fat loss
This is anti-aging work from the inside out.
What I Want You to Know
Perimenopause and menopause are not failures of willpower. They are biological transitions that require a smarter strategy.
You do not need to eat less.
You do not need more cardio.
You do not need to punish your body.
You need structure, strategic nourishment, and strength.
That is the heart of the Strategic Food Plan.
If you would like this approach customized to your body, labs, and health history, this is exactly the work I do. Midlife is not the end of your power. It is the time to reclaim it.
