Behind the Body: Fat Loss, Muscle, & Metabolism for Women Over 40
If you're a woman in your 40s or 50s struggling with perimenopause or menopause weight gain, this podcast is for you.
I'm Andrea Cutuk, MA, MBA, and a NASM-certified nutrition and fitness coach. I lost 20 pounds in my mid-30s and have maintained it for 10 years, through perimenopause, hormonal shifts, and real life. I'm not someone who lost weight six months ago and started a podcast. I'm someone who's lived in this body, tried it ALL, figured it out, and maintained the results long enough to know what works and sticks to become your best, healthiest self today.
Every Monday, Behind the Body covers the real reasons women over 40 gain weight, can't lose it, and what to actually do about it. No generic advice. No extreme diets. Just honest, science-backed strategies and my own experiences, built for your hormones, your metabolism, and your lifestyle in this phase of life.
Topics we cover:
Building a body you're proud of in a sustainable way
Perimenopause weight gain and why your body is changing
Fat loss after 40 without restriction or deprivation
How to boost metabolism and build a stronger body composition
Sustainable weight loss strategies that work long-term
Strength training for women over 40 - where to start and why it matters
Hormone-related weight gain, cortisol, and belly fat
How to lose fat without giving up restaurants, wine, your social life, or sanity
This isn't about motivation or 90-day challenges. It's about understanding the reality of menopause and perimenopause weight gain and building habits that last.
New episodes every Monday.
📩 Join the BTB newsletter: https://behindthebody.com/newsletter
🧪 Take the free Metabolism Type Quiz: https://behindthebody.com/quiz
Starting HRT in perimenopause was a big decision, and I just started it at 45. If you're over 40 and you feel numb, unmotivated, or not like yourself, this is why I started and how it's going.
This one is different from my usual episodes. It's just me talking to you like I'm FaceTiming a friend, because I didn't want to wait to share it.
I never had hot flashes or night sweats, so I almost missed the signs. The symptoms I had were harder to name, and they started getting in the way of my work and my life.
Maybe you're wondering if what you feel is perimenopause. Maybe you're on the fence about HRT. Either way, I hope this makes you feel a lot less alone. I'm not a doctor, and this isn't a recommendation. It's my experience, shared as openly as I can.
In this episode:
The symptoms I had that didn't look like perimenopause at first
What I did during the 2 months I waited for my appointment
How my first week on the lowest dose actually went
The side effect I had no idea was connected to HRT
Quick note: full episodes now come out every other Monday, with a bonus episode like this one when something can't wait.
Resources: 💪🏼 The Strong Core Method: my 4-week at-home core program for women over 40, built for every level, even if you've never worked out a day in your life. 12 guided workouts per level with video demos, 20 minutes, 3 times a week, to build a stronger, more defined midsection. 📝 Grab the FREE Fat Loss Formula Workbook to calculate your maintenance calories, your protein target, and your exact calorie deficit. 🎯 Take the FREE 'What's My Metabolism Type' Quiz to identify your unique metabolism type and get a personalized plan to manage your weight confidently. 💌 Stay connected: join my BTB Newsletter for weekly insights. 🎧 Listen Next: Perimenopause Weight Gain: The 7,000 Steps a Day I Lost
🔔 SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Every review helps another woman like us find our community of strength, power, learning, and "glowing up." New episodes every other Monday.
👋🏻 ABOUT ME: I'm Andrea, a double-certified NASM Nutrition and Fitness Coach and founder of Behind the Body. For 20 years, I under-ate, avoided weights, and lived on cardio, chasing skinny, and none of it gave me a body I was proud of. In my mid-30s, I changed my approach: more protein, real strength training, and a plan that fit my life. I lost 20 pounds, and 10 years later, at 45, I'm still maintaining it through perimenopause. I help women over 40 simplify their approach, build real strength, and get results that last. Every week, I cover the science, the strategy, and the honest truth about fat loss and maintenance for women over 40.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health routine. Results vary. Andrea is a NASM-certified Nutrition and Fitness Coach, not a doctor or registered dietitian.
SPEAKER_00
I'm Andrea and welcome to Behind the Body. If you're over 40 and trying to lose fat, build muscle, or take better care of your health, you're in the right place. Every week we'll tackle the questions women over 40 are asking about nutrition, fitness, metabolism, and aging, helping you spend less time doing what doesn't move the needle and more time focusing on what does. Hello, my friend. This week's episode is gonna be a little bit different than my normal, I don't know, well-organized and thought-out episode. The reason for this, if you have been a long time and regular listener, you know I've been publishing podcast episodes every Monday, but I have recently decided that I'm going to publish bi-weekly. So every other Monday. And the reason for this is that I have a couple projects that I'm working on that have been very time consuming that I am really, really enjoying and really excited to get out in the universe. And as a result, I needed to free up a little bit more time in order to do that. So every other Monday, you can expect to hear the regularly scheduled episodes, but on occasion, like today, I'm gonna do a little impromptu episode when I feel like just chatting or when there's something I want to talk about that I don't want to wait until next week. So that's what this episode is, and it's coming off of my last week's episode about losing 7,000 steps in my daily activity and going through this numb stretch of perimenopause because I have now seeked out treatment and that's what I want to talk about today. So if you didn't listen to my last week's episode, that's okay. I just talked about how within the last six months or so, I have just realized that I haven't been wanting to do anything. Like I don't want to leave my house. I don't want to go engage in my normal social activities, like seeing my friends or going out to dinner or like going for walks, any of the things that I've done socially, I just have found myself slowly not wanting to do. And then even more than that, I find myself not even wanting to do basic things, like, you know, go return Amazon packages or go to the grocery store or go get my nails done. Like I just not wanted to do anything. And while that has been, I guess, like life-altering for me in a sense where I'm like, okay, where's all my energy? Where's all my activity? Where are the things that I used to like to do and why don't I want to do them anymore? That's been like a strange, wait a minute, who am I? What's happening? kind of feeling. But I would say over the last two months, I have had more severe symptoms that I didn't talk about in that episode because, you know, I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'm talking about them now. So much so that I seeked out an appointment with my endocrinologist, who is amazing. I have hypothyroid, and she's been managing me for, I guess, two and a half years since I was diagnosed. And she said to me maybe a year ago, like, How are your perimenopause symptoms? And I was like, What symptoms? I'm great. I may not even have perimenopause at all. I might just skate right through that. And I'm I'm 45 and a half for the record today. So she said, Well, that's great, but when and if you're ready, you know, let's talk about it. And I just thought to myself, I'm so grateful to have such an amazing doctor who is, you know, prioritizing women's health, who is prioritizing me and who is ready and willing to help me. And I just adore her. And I feel very fortunate because I've read on Reddit and I've heard on social media that most women do not have that luxury. So about two months ago, the symptoms that I started to feel were pretty, how do I say this? I guess debilitating is the best way to put it. I just really started to feel unmotivated, unhappy, unfulfilled. And again, it's not that I was depressed, like I mentioned in last week's episode. It's just I felt numb, but that numbness felt more severe than just not wanting to leave the house. I was getting to the point where I just didn't want to do anything. I didn't want to work. I had no excitement for anything. And I'm talking about like stuff I gotta do, you know, like my responsibilities. I didn't want to do them. And that's where it becomes debilitating, right? Because it's one thing if it's like, okay, I don't feel like leaving the house, or I don't feel like going to be social, or I don't feel like going out to dinner and getting all dressed up. But it's another thing when the symptoms start to interfere with your work and interfere with your responsibilities that don't have the luxury of being pushed to the sideline until you feel better. I literally just wanted to lay on the couch and not even watch TV, just to lay on the couch and I would play my Peloton meditation app, like one after another after another until I finally forced myself to get up. In fact, it became so severe for I guess maybe the last month, where I didn't even want to, I didn't want to cook. I didn't want to think about food. I didn't want to think about what to make for myself or for my husband. And even as a result of that, like I would just rather not eat. Isn't that weird? I love eating. And not only that, but like my body needs it. My body's like, dude, we're hungry, feed us. But I just could not be bothered with it. In addition to that, and I'm not gonna keep going with these symptoms because it stops here. Well, there's two more. In addition, I have become very, very forgetful. Meaning, I will be mid-conversation and I will forget either what I'm saying completely, just totally lose track out of nowhere, or forget the word that I want to say or that I want to use. And they could be the simplest words. And I'm like, I don't know the word that I want to say. And that is crazy. And then another symptom, and this is like kind of like the final one that I had, was that oh my gosh, I I'm like talking and I literally just forgot what I was gonna say. Oh yeah, I remember. So I swear this is such a crazy time in life. I would feel like I would have like the doom feeling, you know, like this, like like this dread in my stomach. I worked for a corporation for 17 years. And so I know the term Sunday scaries very well, right? You're like, oh my gosh, Sunday night hits rolls around and you're dreading a week's worth of work, of going to the office, of conference calls, of projects, of maybe work that you're not super passionate about. I know that feeling from working at a corporate office, but I don't know that feeling working for myself. I love the work that I do for behind the body. I love my output. I love my responsibilities. I mean, and let's be honest, if I didn't want to do it on Monday, I could just go to the beach, I could go lay out in my backyard, I could read a book all day. Like nobody's forcing me to do any task on Monday. So the fact that I have like this doom, you know, this dread in my stomach on a Sunday night for the work I don't even have to do if I don't want to on Monday, it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't fli align with my life, with how I am, with how I have been, with how I normally think. So I say all that, and I say all this actually, this entire episode, because I want to be super transparent about my personal experience because I don't think we talk about it so candidly uh enough. And I know this may be like some old woman of me, but I have recently found Reddit. I mean, I've had the app on my phone for years, but I never have opened it. I've never been a part of forums. But I have been in the Perimenopause forum probably for the last few months. And I am so shocked to see other women talk about their experiences, but also I feel so, I don't know, at ease. Like I feel so comfortable, just better knowing what other women are going through and their symptoms and their experiences through perimenopause and with medication. So, in an effort for full transparency to my amazing community of women over 40, I'm sharing this with you. So I made an appointment with my endocrinologist. I could not get in for two months. I would call all the time to say, if anybody cancels, has anybody canceled? I can be available last minute, please let me know. But she was backed for two months, but I was so desperate for some relief to these symptoms that I was calling all the time. Well, I couldn't get in. So I suffered through it. But suffering through it actually is not such a bad thing as I'm looking in hindsight. Cause first of all, a couple months in the grand scheme of things is not that long, right? Since I said, okay, these symptoms are too severe. I need treatment or I need to talk to her about it. To actually talking with her, two months is nothing. And what it's allowed me to do, or I guess enabled me to do, is to really look at my symptoms and really be at one with my symptoms because I think knowledge is power. And I also, I don't know if this is unique to me. I'm sure more women out there are like this too, but I am hyper sensitive about changes to myself, to my body, to my mind, to my physicality, like all of it. If there's something off, I don't like it. And I'm really hyper aware of it. So I was hyper aware of my symptoms. I kept a log. I wanted to know exactly what it was that I was feeling, what the environment was or what I was doing when I was feeling this. And that log was very helpful in not only allowing me to relay exactly my symptoms to my physician, but in helping me see that I am experiencing symptoms that are not aligned with the person who I was six months ago or nine months ago or a year ago or in all of my life leading up to today, right? Like these symptoms are unique and as a result, they don't define me. I don't know if that makes sense, but they don't define me. I don't want to think I'm just changing, I'm losing joy, I'm just becoming more irritable, I'm just don't love the work that I'm doing. I just don't have motivation. I just I'm not that social anymore. Like, no, no, no, no. I am all of those things still, but my hormones are a mess. So I wanted to make sure that I could still remain true to myself, still feel confident in who I was, and understand that these are symptoms that can hopefully be treated. So, with that said, I met with my doctor, who is, again, such an amazing woman's advocate. And she was like, your symptoms are normal. I should mention that I'm not having your typical hot flashes or night sweats. I'm not really waking up in the middle of the night like many women do who are suffering through perimenopause and menopause. But the symptoms I had were the ones that I explained. She said, okay, these sound like logical perimenopause symptoms. A lot of women have them. You don't have the traditional ones of the night sweats and waking up, whatever, but that's okay. We will put you on the lowest dose, estrogen and progesterone. So she put me on 0.25 gel because I did not want to wear a patch. And she put me on 100 milligrams of progesterone at nighttime. So that was exactly a week ago today that I started taking this. And I'd love to tell you my experience. Within the first three days of application, and I've been applying the gel in the morning, like after I shower, and of course the progesterone at night. So on the third day in the afternoon, so about a half a day after I use the gel for the third time, I am not kidding when I say I felt amazing. I felt so good. I had so much energy. I had so much excitement for life. I just felt like I could tackle the world. And I know when some women I've read are dosed too much, they go into kind of like a manic mode. I've read this on Reddit. So, you know, I don't, I can't say this from experience, but they go to like this manic, like hyper-energetic, you know, cleaning out their attic, scrubbing their baseboards, like that kind of behavior. I was not like that. I just felt like the old version of me at my best, if that makes sense. I was ready to tackle the world. I got back to loving my work, excited to work, excited to do things, happy, not irritated with my husband. I mean, I just felt really, really good on the lowest dose. I won't say that that has lasted at that level this entire week, but I'm not gonna blame it on the HRT not working. I'm also scheduled to start my period, which now I'm like seven days late. So I think that kind of messed with my cycle. But I kind of feel like I'm just like PMSing from, you know, being about to start my period, which is which is unfortunately for my husband, very normal for me. But I still feel more energetic. Like I feel enough energy to record this episode. The me from a week ago or before I started HRT would have absolutely just laid on the couch thinking about how much I'm not going to record anything. So this is definitely an improvement. Now, I know that medication isn't for everybody. I know not everybody wants to be on it or can be on it. I'm not endorsing anything. I'm not saying that this is the secret to success and all women should go on HRT. Absolutely not. I'm just simply sharing my experience. So if anybody is feeling similarly or anybody is thinking about going on HRT or anybody's worried about it, I'm just sharing how it's affected me. Now, where do I go from here? I'm gonna continue to monitor my symptoms and see how things transpire. She wants to check in with me in three months. So we have a set appointment within three months. She did say if I'm feeling any type of way within six weeks, like if the symptoms have not been relieved or if I'm feeling worse, then to reach out to her because I think that since we started at the lowest dose, there's definitely room to go up. And I don't know how I will feel day to day. I mean, as you know, if you're in your 40s or 50s, hormones are insane. Like they're so crazy to me. I just, I can't like, I literally cannot believe how different of a human that I feel with these hormonal fluctuations. But I feel like this is just the beginning of trying to figure this all out. And I know as my estrogen continues to fluctuate or lessen as I get older, the HRT dose will have to be adjusted. And I think that adjustment period will always make you kind of feel the symptoms, right, of those hormonal fluctuations. So this is all, you know, a trial. I mean, I guess I shouldn't say it's a trial because millions and millions of women are on HRT, but this is a trial for me to see what the right dose is and how this will transpire as I continue to age. A couple side effects of the medication, as I will say, which I think are very strange to me and I think they're worth noting. And I think it's maybe coming from the progesterone from what I have researched, which is not a lot, but I've researched a little bit. So one thing that I've noticed is more frequent urination. So I do drink a lot of water naturally. So having to go to the bathroom a lot is just part of my daily routine. But even then, I've noticed I've had to go to the bathroom more, like I've had to pee more. So when I Googled it, they said about 13% of patients experience that. I also, and this is a very weird symptom, but and I didn't know it was actually related to HRT until I was like really diving into like what is happening to me. I am having very slow gastric movement. Meaning when I eat, I feel like it's stuck in my chest and in my stomach. Like I'm not digest, it's not going through my digestive system, which makes me feel very uncomfortably full and also feel like I have some sort of reflex. For example, I eat a bunch of grapes every day. It's been my obsession for a long time. And after dinner, I'll have like 30 grapes, which is I know that sounds like a lot. That's not, that's not really unique. Uh, but the other night before I researched this, I had even less, just a handful of grapes. And I was so, so full. Even laying in bed to go to bed, I was so full. And I was burping up grapes, which is so odd. So upon my research, they said about half a percent of people on HRT have gastric slowing, is what I think they call it. And then the third symptom I have, which is the last, is I have a little bit of a little bit of bloating. They say that's normal with HRT. They say water retention is normal with HRT, which I don't think I have water retention, but a little bit of bloating. But again, that might be even due to my impending period. So, anyhow, that is all. I just simply wanted to share my experience with you in the case it could be helpful for somebody maybe experiencing the same symptoms, thinking about medication, about to start medication. Again, I'm not endorsing anything for anybody. I'm not a medical doctor, it's just my own experience. So if you are going through it too, let me know. Leave a comment below, hit that button that says send fan mail, and it sends a message directly to me via text and I can respond back to you. Come and join the Behind the Body newsletter where I talk about all the things, and you know this will be one of them as I'm continuing to navigate this whole process. You can sign up for free at behindthebody.com forward slash newsletter. And if you haven't heard my last episode about why I gained so much weight in perimenopause, listen to my episode last Wednesday about losing the 7,000 steps. I hope this was helpful for you. Thank you so much for tuning in. And you can definitely hear from me next Monday. I'll chat with you then.
