I'm 62 on GLP-1 and in menopause. Here's What I Wish I'd Known at 57.

By Melissa |GLP-1 Menopause Playbook

The post I needed to read in 2021.

Five years ago, I was holding between 130 and 135 pounds. I had lost 100 pounds on Weight Watchers in my forties and kept it off for years. Then menopause walked in, sat down, and started taking it back. Gradually. Quietly. By the time I started Zepbound in 2025, I was at 165.2. My goal weight was 125. That put me 40 pounds from where I wanted to be. I had four back surgeries over the years: the first in March 1998, two more in 2012, and the last in July 2015. Alcohol was part of it. Stress was part of it. I was also just tired.

At 57, I started over. At 62, I've been on Zepbound in maintenance for over a year, holding between 116 and 118 pounds, shooting every 10 days. I walk every morning with Allie, my Westie. She's 11 pounds of pure stubbornness. She has never once canceled on me.

If you're a woman over 45 thinking about a GLP-1, or already on one and feeling like it's not working the way everyone on TikTok said it would, I wrote this for you. Every GLP-1 video I found online was made by someone who has never been through menopause. So I made my own guide.

Here's what I wish someone had told me at 57.

1. Appetite suppression is not a strategy.

Let me say this carefully, because I lived it. When you start a GLP-1, food stops calling your name. That feels like magic at first. You're not hungry. You're eating half of what you used to eat. The scale starts moving. You think, finally, this is the thing.

That feeling is the trap.

If you ride on appetite suppression instead of eating on a real schedule, you starve your muscles. You lose weight fast on the scale and lose the wrong kind of weight in the mirror. You feel weak. You feel foggy. Your skin does that thing.

What I do instead: I eat at roughly the same times every day, whether I want to or not. Breakfast with protein. A real lunch. A real dinner. Not big. Not complicated. Just on schedule. The medication was a tool. It did not do the work for me.

If you only change one thing after reading this, change that.

2. Protein is not a vibe. It's the job.

In menopause, your estrogen drops. Estrogen was doing a lot of quiet work, keeping your muscles and your bones where they belonged. When it leaves, muscle leaves faster than it did in your thirties. You can feel it on the stairs. You can feel it when you pick up something heavy, and your hands go numb the next day.

On a GLP-1, this gets worse if you don't eat on purpose. Food feels unappealing. Meat feels heavy. A yogurt feels like a full meal. So you skip the protein, and you keep shrinking, but you're shrinking muscle.

What I eat on a normal day: eggs at breakfast. Greek yogurt or cottage cheese mid-morning. Chicken or fish at lunch. A protein shake in the afternoon if I'm busy. A real dinner with meat or fish again. I don't count grams every day. I aim for protein at every meal, and I notice the days I miss it because I feel them.

This was mistake number two. I made it for three months before I caught it.

3. Cardio won't save you in menopause. Strength will.

I walk every day. I love walking. Walking isn't enough.

In your twenties and thirties, adding cardio might have helped you maintain your weight. In menopause, it doesn't work the same way, because the problem isn't calories. The problem is the

Muscle. You can walk ten miles a day and still lose muscle if you're not training it and feeding it.

I started lifting weights at 58. I was terrified. I hired a trainer for eight sessions because I needed someone to tell me which machine was which. I was the oldest person in the gym by about twenty years. I did not care.

Now I lift twice a week. A few exercises. Deadlifts. Rows. Presses. Split squats. Nothing fancy. I use weights that feel hard on the last two reps. I'm stronger at 62 than I was at 52, and it's not close.

If you're just starting, start with bodyweight at home. A set of squats. A set of pushups against the counter. Three times a week. Add a little every week. You don't need to look like anyone. You need to get stronger.

4. The scale is lying to you.

I weighed myself every morning for thirty years. I made every decision based on that number. I let a number decide whether I was a good person that day.

On a GLP-1, the scale becomes especially cruel because water weight swings five pounds in either direction depending on hormones, salt, sleep, and stress. If you weigh every day, you're measuring hormones. You are not measuring fat loss. And you're letting a random number in the morning decide whether you stick to the plan or quit.

What I do now: I weigh myself once a week. Same day, same time, same clothes. I write the number down. I look at the trend over four weeks, not today's number. If the trend is flat or up for four weeks in maintenance, I adjust something. If it's flat for two weeks in fat loss, I stay the course.

Your body isn't going to reward you daily. Stop asking it to.

5. Maintenance is not the finish line.

Here's the one that breaks most women in our age range. You hit your number. You feel proud. You go back to how you were eating before, just a little. You stop tracking. You stop lifting twice a week. You tell yourself, "I did it; I can relax now."

Six months later, five pounds are back. Then ten.

Anyone can lose weight. Keeping it off is the hard part. Maintenance is the work. The last pound off is the first pound of maintenance, and maintenance never ends. Not if you went through menopause. Not if you're on a GLP-1. Not if you care about keeping this.

I'm on maintenance at 2.5 mg of Zepbound, shooting every 10 days. I still eat on schedule. I still lift twice a week. I still walk with Allie every morning. I still weigh once a week. None of that is going to change because none of it can. The rules changed at menopause. This is the new rulebook.

I say this with love because I lived it. You are not broken. You just need a different plan.

What to do with this.

If any of these five mistakes sounded familiar, you're not alone, and it's not your fault. Nobody over 45 got a real guide for this. Doctors hand you a prescription and a three-month follow-up. The internet hands you stories from 29-year-olds. Your friends hand you hope and a shrug.

I wrote the free guide I wish someone had handed me at 57. It walks through all five of these mistakes in more detail, with what to do instead, in about ten minutes of reading. It's free. There's no catch.

Everything shared here is based on my own personal experience as a woman 45+ navigating GLP-1 and menopause. I am not a doctor, dietitian, or medical professional. Nothing here should be taken as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or medication routine. Results vary.