Your workouts used to feel easy. Now the same effort leaves you wrecked for two days, and you can't quite figure out why. If you're a woman in perimenopause or menopause who trains, whether that's running, lifting, cycling, swimming, HYROX, or just showing up for a hard class a few times a week, this solo episode of Unstoppable at Any Age is for you. I'm walking through eight things I think every female athlete needs to understand about perimenopause, training, and metabolic health: why your physiology shifts even when your training hasn't changed, why iron deficiency gets missed at this age, whether you're actually eating enough for the work you're doing, how to think about carbs and recovery nutrition, what a continuous glucose monitor can teach you about your own body, why sleep is doing more for your performance than you think, and why more training isn't always the fix. I also share my own numbers: what I found the first time I wore a CGM at 48, and how switching from marathon training to track this past year changed how I think about volume versus recovery. As always, this episode is for educational purposes and isn't a substitute for personalized medical care. Please work with your own healthcare provider before making changes to your training, nutrition, supplements, or medications. In this episode, we cover: Why menopause is a metabolic transition, not only a hormonal one, and what that means for your training What an 18-year SWAN study using repeated DEXA scans found about fat and lean mass changes around the menopause transition, even when the scale barely moves Why declining performance in your 40s or 50s isn't automatically "just perimenopause," and why ferritin is often the first thing I ask about The "perfect iron storm" that perimenopause plus endurance training can create, and which bloodwork actually tells the story Why athletes can be under-fueled even while eating "healthy," and the warning signs once your cycle stops being a reliable clue How to think about carbohydrates around training instead of avoiding every glucose spike What the research says about protein and carbohydrate needs for recovery, plus practical post-workout meal ideas What I learned wearing a continuous glucose monitor myself at 48, and a recent Zone 2 workout that revealed I wasn't fueling it properly Why four nights of restricted sleep dropped insulin sensitivity by 20 percent in one study, and cut strength by 15 percent in another Why more training isn't always the answer, and how my own shift from marathon training to track training changed my performance Eight questions I want every perimenopausal athlete asking herself (also listed below) One thing I keep coming back to in this episode: "Menopause is a metabolic transition, not only a hormone transition." Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Almost everything in this episode traces back to that one idea. Estrogen and progesterone interact with your muscle, your fat tissue, your blood sugar regulation, your cholesterol metabolism, your sleep, and your appetite. When those hormones shift, the metabolic environment your workouts land in changes too, even if the workout itself hasn't. If your body is giving you different feedback than it used to, that doesn't mean your athletic years are behind you. It means we need to listen to the feedback and change the strategy. 🎓 Free Masterclass — September 21: If this episode is hitting close to home, I'm teaching a free masterclass called "Your Body Suddenly Feels Different After 40." We'll go deeper into the metabolic side of this transition, and most importantly, what you can actually do about it. 📅 Register for the free masterclass, September 21: https://drshawnadarou.com/metabolic-masterclass-676709 💜 Join my free community, #WomenWhoMove: drshawnadarou.com/start-here 📖 Download my free guide, Fueling for Hormones & Metabolic Health: drshawnadarou.com/fueling-for-health 💪 Learn more about Metabolic Mastery: drshawnadarou.com/metabolic-mastery
