Emotional eating during menopause is not a willpower problem. It is a hormone problem, and once you understand what is actually driving those cravings, you can start making mindful choices instead of automatic ones.

As a board-certified family and lifestyle medicine physician and a menopause certified practitioner, I have watched this pattern play out in my patients for years. Declining estrogen raises your stress response, shifts your serotonin, and disrupts your sleep, and all three of those changes push you straight toward refined carbohydrates. I have also lived it myself. I fell off the menopause cliff at 53, just weeks after running the Boston Half Marathon with my daughter, and I want you to know you are not imagining this.

In this episode, I walk you through:
- Why declining estrogen increases stress, anxiety, and comfort food cravings
- How low serotonin drives you toward bagels, cake, and donuts, and what that costs you
- The way poor sleep hijacks ghrelin and leptin, your hunger and fullness hormones
- The HALT method: four questions to ask before you reach for food
- Five practical mindful eating strategies you can start today
- Four coping strategies to break the emotional eating cycle for good

TIMESTAMPS:
- 0:00 Emotional eating during menopause is more common than you think
- 0:47 Why menopause makes emotional eating so much harder
- 1:46 Hormone shift 1: rising stress and anxiety from declining estrogen
- 2:24 Hormone shift 2: low serotonin and refined carbohydrate cravings
- 2:59 Hormone shift 3: sleep disruption, ghrelin, and leptin
- 3:20 My own story: falling off the menopause cliff at 53
- 5:00 Practical mindful eating tips for menopause
- 5:15 Tip 1: the HALT method (hungry, angry, lonely, tired)
- 6:17 Cravings come in waves, and waves recede
- 7:44 Tip 2: journaling your emotional triggers and the habit loop
- 9:04 Tip 3: the five minute pause
- 9:46 Tip 4: eating slowly and mindfully (and eating hygiene)
- 11:42 Tip 5: building balanced meals that reduce cravings
- 12:48 Coping strategies to break the emotional eating cycle
- 13:09 Stress relief activities and lowering cortisol
- 13:25 Building a support network
- 13:44 Cognitive behavioral therapy for emotional eating
- 14:05 When to seek professional guidance
- 14:33 Your takeaway: emotional eating does not have to be permanent

Dr. Marbas Substack: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/

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