Over the past few years, I’ve had more conversations than I can count with women who feel confused by their bodies — especially women in their 30s & 40s.
They consistently move, they try to eat clean... and yet something has unexpectedly shifted. Fat seems to accumulate in new (and unusual!) places, energy isn't as predictable, recovery takes longer, sleep is interrupted.
Almost always, we as women turn that frustration inward on ourselves.
“I must not be trying hard enough.”
“I just need more discipline.”
“I need to cut back more.”
But in many cases, what’s happening isn’t a motivation issue. It’s literally a physiology issue.
What Your Hormones Are Actually Doing
For most women, hormonal changes begin years before menopause. Research shows that perimenopause commonly begins in the mid 30s to early 40s, sometimes earlier. During that time, estrogen and progesterone do not decline in a straight line. They fluctuate (sometimes quite significantly) long before menopause "officially" occurs. Those fluctuations affect way more than just reproductive function.
Let's break down some hormones here:
- Estrogen plays a measurable role in insulin sensitivity, fat metabolism, muscle repair, bone density, and even how the brain regulates appetite & mood. Studies have shown over and over again that as estrogen declines, women can experience decreased insulin sensitivity, which means that blood sugar regulation becomes less efficient. When blood sugar regulation shifts, energy becomes more unstable and fat storage (particularly abdominal fat) can increase.
Ladies, this isn’t just something you’re imagining! We see this reflected clearly in endocrine & metabolic research. Your body isn’t randomly betraying you... it’s responding to very real hormonal shifts. I hope this is comforting news to you. Keep reading. :)
Estrogen also plays an important role in how your body repairs and rebuilds after training. It has natural anti-inflammatory properties and supports your body’s ability to maintain and build lean tissue. So when estrogen starts fluctuating, it makes sense that recovery may feel slower than it used to. You might notice that workouts linger a little longer in your body or that maintaining strength takes more intention than it used to. Over time, bone density can begin to decline as well, particularly if resistance training isn’t part of your routine. None of this happens overnight, but it does begin to shift quietly in the background.
- Progesterone is another hormone that deserves more attention than it usually gets. It has a calming effect on the central nervous system. When progesterone levels become erratic or start to decline, many women notice lighter sleep, increased anxiety, or a lower tolerance to stress. And when you layer that on top of real life duties like balancing careers, parenting, businesses, constant notifications, very little true downtime... it’s easy to see why so many women feel like they’re living in a near constant state of fight-or-flight.
This is where traditional fitness advice starts to fall apart. For decades, women were told that if weight creeps up or energy dips, the solution is simple: eat less and move more. On the surface, that sounds logical. But when we look at what actually happens inside the body, especially during a hormonally transitional season, the story becomes more complex.
- When calorie intake drops too low, especially if you are doing high-intensity training, cortisol (the stress hormone!) rises. Cortisol is a necessary hormone, but chronically elevated levels can disrupt sleep, interfere with your thyroid hormones, increase abdominal fat storage, and change hunger hormones like leptin and ghrelin. In other words, the body senses stress and adapts by conserving energy and prioritizing survival (aka storing fat). From the outside, this often looks like “stubborn weight gain.” Internally, it’s a layered stress response happening alongside fluctuating sex hormones.
- Thyroid function is a larger part of this conversation as well. Even when lab values fall within normal reference ranges, subtle shifts can influence metabolic rate, body temperature, and fatigue, especially when other urine and/or blood markers are looked at that are not typically tested in a traditional medical setting. The female endocrine system doesn’t operate in isolation. Estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormones all communicate with one another. When one changes, the others respond. This is why the same plan that worked at 25 can often stop working at 35.
Less about Restriction, More about Regulation
The solution is rarely more restriction or more punishment. It’s usually better regulation.
That means stabilizing blood sugar with adequate protein and balanced meals instead of swinging between restriction and cravings. It means protecting sleep and building recovery into your week instead of treating rest like a luxury. It means training in a way that challenges you without chronically draining your nervous system (our programming at Remedy takes this into account, and is extremely thoughtful & intentional).
Resistance training becomes especially valuable during this stage of life because it improves insulin sensitivity, supports bone density, and promotes healthier body composition without placing the same prolonged stress demand on the system as something like excessive cardio might. Long-term research consistently shows that women who strength train experience better metabolic health and slower age-related muscle decline compared to those who rely only on aerobic exercise.
That doesn’t mean cardio has no place. It simply means context matters more now.
When hormones are shifting, the goal isn’t to exhaust your system into submission, but to build resilience within it.
Fueling matters just as much as training right now. As we move into our 30s and 40s, our bodies don’t recover the way they used to, and protein becomes even more important. If you’re strength training (which I hope you are!), your body needs enough protein to actually rebuild. When women under eat protein during this season, it’s common to feel more fatigued and like progress is slower than it should be. Often, it’s not that your workouts aren’t working — it’s that your body simply doesn’t have what it needs to adapt.
A New Season, Not a Failure
If your body feels different than it did ten years ago, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It simply means your physiology has shifted, and your approach might have to shift with it.
So what does that actually look like?
It looks like strength training that’s intentional (not random) but also scalable. It means understanding that lightening the load isn’t weakness, it's smart! Especially in a season where recovery, hormones, and overall stress matter more than they used to.
Here at Remedy, this is how we coach every day with purposeful movements. We squat, hinge, press, pull, and carry because those patterns matter for real life. But every workout is adjustable: loads can be scaled, movements can be modified, intensity can be dialed up or down based on what your body needs that day. Some days you’ll feel strong and push the weight. Other days you’ll pull it back, focus on quality, and protect your nervous system. Both types of days are productive.
We actively encourage women to pay attention to sleep, stress levels, and even where they are in their cycle. If recovery feels off that week, adjusting your workouts isn’t quitting, it’s just training intelligently, and we always encourage our members to listen to what their bodies are telling them! That’s how strength becomes sustainable instead of something you burn out on.
What women in this season need isn’t more restriction or more cardio. They need consistent strength work, adequate protein, productive sleep, and programming that builds resilience without constantly draining them.
If you’ve been frustrated by a body that no longer responds the way it once did, pause before turning that frustration inward. You are not broken, you’re just in a new physiological season. And when your training supports that season, instead of fighting against it, strength becomes something you can sustain for the long term.
If you are local to Marysville and this approach resonates with you, we’d love to chat!
— Steph Swobody, RN
Owner, Remedy Athletics / CrossFit Marysville
