Struggling to know what to eat in the morning? Here are 7 breakfasts to avoid for women around menopause.
A common question we get asked about how to lose weight around menopause is: “What’s the best thing to eat for breakfast to lose weight as a woman around menopause?” And more importantly, which are the breakfasts to avoid?
We’ve worked with so many women in their 40s and 50s who felt stuck because they didn’t know what breakfast would set them up to get the scales moving. Some even didn’t know if they should eat breakfast at all.
And when you’re unsure, you might eat things you think are “healthy” – which is typically all the normal breakfast options. But you might step on the scales at the end of the week and see zero movement (or maybe even heavier than before)!
When you’re not seeing results, it’s very hard to stay motivated.
The reason this happens is simple. Women’s bodies and hormones start to change as they get older. This can make it easier to gain weight (especially around the middle) and harder to lose it again with the “normal” methods of dieting.
But when you know the best foods to eat for all your meals, you can quickly and easily get the scales moving and drop 2 stone in as little as 12 weeks!
In today’s blog, we reveal 7 breakfasts to avoid for women around menopause, and what to have instead to achieve your fitness goals.
You can also listen to these tips on our podcast.
Breakfasts to avoid
There are a couple of non-negotiables which women over forty need to consider if they want to see progress on the scales.
Firstly, you should avoid hormone-disrupting foods, such as wheat, alcohol, dairy and sugar.
You also need to get the right nutrients in the right quantities. You calories, protein, and fibre intake should be suitable for your body.
Most breakfast foods are way too low in either protein or fibre, or both. And if they are, these are breakfasts to avoid.
Ideally you want to combine food groups to see the best results. So include some unprocessed carbs, with a little bit of healthy fat and lots of protein to avoid blood sugar spikes and keep you fuller for longer.
Inside our Fit Over 40 program, we call this overall approach Hormonally Balanced Eating (HBE).
But let’s get into the practical steps, so what’s the first breakfast food that women around menopause should be avoiding?
Cereal
Cereal falls into the UPF (ultra-processed food) category. You can’t replicate it in the kitchen at home, which makes it ultra-processed.
When it comes to cereal, your body doesn’t register it as food – so your hunger hormones stay elevated. Like putting a fake pound coin in a vending machine, you keep having to put it in again and again.
It’s designed this way so you eat more, which is more profitable for food companies.
Granola
Granola isn’t quite as processed, however it’s often even more calorie-dense than regular cereals. You might not know, but it’s baked in oil (fat) and sugar to give it that nice crunch.
A client of ours actually tracked her bowl of granola and found it was a whopping 750 calories! Or almost half her daily calorie goal just for breakfast!
Granola is also low in protein, so it’s still not filling at all.
Toast
Toast is, again, very processed – even brown bread! You couldn’t make your own flour from wheat in the kitchen, making it processed.
When looking at the nutrition profile, it’s almost ALL carbs. And it’s often combined with more carbs, like jam and marmalade.
This results in a big blood sugar spike and crash, meaning you’ll feeling hungry again very soon.
So toast isn’t a great choice, but what about pastries?
Pastries
Again, pastries are from flour, so they’re highly processed.
They’re usually combined with butter – which is very high in calories – or worse, a vegetable oil-based butter substitute often used in processed foods to keep costs down.
There’s also no protein.
Breakfast biscuits
Breakfast biscuits, like Belvita, are almost pure carbs (they do add a bit of fibre to try and make them slightly healthier).
They’re actually worse than eating digestive biscuits in terms of sugar content – and let’s be honest, most people would not eat digestive biscuits for breakfast!
They’re very low in protein and nutrients, and won’t fill you up.
Yoghurt
Most yoghurts are pure carbs, high in sugar (especially flavoured ones), and low in protein. This means it’s not very filling and you’ll be hungry again soon.
Even Greek-style is a bit of a con, and it’s relatively low in protein. Proper Greek yoghurt or higher protein yoghurts are a bit of an exception, which we’ll come onto later when looking at better choices.
Breakfast drinks
Fruit juices or drinks are pure carbs.
All the stuff that makes fruit digest slowly and maintain healthy blood sugar levels has been processed out. For example, supermarket orange juice often has the same sugar levels as a full-sugar Coke!
It’s been marketed as being healthy due to having vitamin C, but loads of foods have way more vitamin C.
The key is in the mindset
We’ve been conditioned to think there are special “breakfast foods” by the food industry.
They can then produce these very cheap-to-make, highly profitable products which you get hooked on.
People also used to eat breakfast to prepare themselves for a hard day’s work labouring in the fields or in the factories, but now, most of us sit at a desk all day. So, we need to be more careful about our choices, especially around menopause.
So what are some good breakfast ideas for the modern day working woman in their 40s or 50s?
Ideal breakfast options
Here are some of our go-to breakfast options for our clients, women over forty:
- Porridge
- Overnight oats
- Protein porridge
- Porridge & protein shakes
- No-added sugar muesli
- Pros: There’s not too much sugar in these
- Cons: It’s low in protein, so combine with a protein source e.g. shake, eggs
- Smoothie
- These can be healthy if you include protein powder, berries, ice, chia/flax seeds, and almond milk
- Eggs
- Omelete & vegetables
- Eggs, smoked salmon & avocado
- Egg muffins
- Egg rolls
- Healthy “fry up”
- Grilled/oven-cooked chicken sausages
- Bacon medallions and eggs
- Greek yoghurt/protein yoghurt and berries
- High in protein and fibre, low in calories
