Trail Notes | Fuelling

for the body that fuels differently now

Fuelling Through

Menopause.

You have not lost your discipline. The same plate that once worked for you is being read by a different body. This is biology, not failure.

One of the most common questions we receive at Her Trails is some version of this. I am eating the way I always ate. I am training the way I always trained. So why does my body feel different. Why am I recovering more slowly. Why does the scale move when it never used to. Why am I waking up at 3am.

Across the menopausal transition and into post-menopause, the way the body uses food, builds muscle, holds bone, regulates blood sugar and recovers from training all subtly shifts. This Trail Note is a slow read on how to fuel through the change, and how to do it in a way that protects performance, energy and long-term health.

Trail Note  ·  01

What changes underneath the plate

Across perimenopause and menopause, oestradiol declines, progesterone falls, and the body shifts how it manages a number of metabolic systems. Insulin sensitivity often decreases, meaning the body responds less efficiently to carbohydrate. The muscle-building response to protein and training, what researchers call anabolic resistance, becomes more pronounced. Bone turnover accelerates. Visceral fat storage is more readily defended. Sleep often fragments.

These are not signs that something is wrong with you. They are predictable physiological shifts that the menopausal transition brings, and they are responsive to good fuelling. The lever you have is not less food. It is more deliberate food.

When you understand what is happening, the goal stops being to recreate the body you had at 30. It becomes to support the body you are training in now, so it can carry you well across the decades ahead.

Trail Note  ·  02

The protein conversation

If there is one fuelling shift the menopausal body needs from most active women, it is more protein, distributed more evenly across the day.

Research suggests active women across the menopausal transition often benefit from total protein intakes in the range of 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight per day, distributed across 3 to 4 meals or snacks, with a meaningful dose of around 25 to 40 g in each. Around training, additional protein in the post-session window can support muscle repair.

For many women, the simplest shift is anchoring protein at breakfast. Eggs, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, smoked salmon, tofu, leftover lean meat, a protein shake, something that lifts the morning intake from the typical 5 to 10 g up to 25 g or more. The mid-morning energy difference is often noticeable within a week.

Trail Note  ·  03

Carbohydrate, more nuanced than the internet says

Few topics in menopausal nutrition are more loudly debated than carbohydrate. The honest answer for the active woman is more nuanced than the loudest voices online suggest.

Cutting carbohydrate across the board can feel briefly clarifying. For an active woman training trail running, strength and long days, it can result in flat training, poor recovery, disrupted sleep, mood dips and a loss of high-intensity capability. The body still needs glucose for hard sessions. The brain needs it for clarity. The hormonal system needs adequate energy availability to function.

A more useful framing is to think about carbohydrate timing and quality rather than abolition. Concentrate carbohydrate around training sessions, especially before, during and after harder work. Choose mostly minimally processed carbohydrate sources, alongside protein and fibre. Keep carbohydrate steady on easier days too, rather than cutting it. For long efforts, build up gradually in training toward about 60 g per hour, and up to 90 g only if your gut is trained for it.

Trail Note  ·  04

Fats, fibre and the gut

Fat is not the enemy of menopause. Dietary fat supports hormone synthesis, brain function, nutrient absorption and satiety. The shift is toward quality over fear. Olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, oily fish and minimally processed dairy can sit at the centre of a menopausal plate without controversy.

Fibre matters more than ever. The gut microbiome influences hormone metabolism, inflammatory tone, sleep, immune function and recovery. A wide range of plants across the week supports a microbiome that helps the body manage the menopausal transition. Beans, lentils, whole grains, varied vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Hydration is similarly under-discussed. Thermal regulation often shifts in menopause. Hot flushes and night sweats can add hidden fluid losses. Daily fluid intake, often higher than women expect, supports performance, mood and recovery.

Trail Note  ·  05

The micronutrients that matter most

A few specific micronutrients become especially important across menopause for active women.

Specific supplementation should be guided by a clinician or sports dietitian who knows your context. Bloodwork, history and goals all influence what is appropriate.

Trail Note  ·  06

Around training, around the day

For active women, fasted training may carry more cost across the menopausal years than it once did. Long sessions or hard sessions on an empty stomach can amplify the cortisol response, make blood sugar control harder later in the day, and make recovery and training adaptation harder to achieve.

A small carbohydrate and protein based pre-training feed before harder or longer sessions usually supports performance and the rest of the day. Race-week, long runs and strength sessions deserve to be entered with the tank at least partly full.

Within 60 minutes after training, prioritise a meal or snack with protein and carbohydrate. This is when the body is most ready to use what you give it. Many women find a structured post-training feed is one of the most impactful changes they can make for energy and recovery.

Trail Note  ·  07

Why under-fuelling is the bigger risk

In the women we coach across midlife, the more common nutritional mistake is not eating too much. It is quietly eating too little around training. Light breakfast. Skipped snacks. Coffee through the morning. A long run done on fumes. Dinner not large enough to refill the day.

Low energy availability across the menopausal years is associated with poorer recovery, lower bone density, disrupted sleep, mood instability and reduced training adaptation. Restricting in pursuit of body composition can quietly trade away the very things you need most.

Many women come away from a careful audit not needing to eat less. They need to eat more around training, with better protein distribution, with more fibre, and with fewer prolonged gaps between meals.

Trail Note  ·  08

Alcohol, caffeine and the evening

Two small adjustments often make a noticeable difference to menopausal women in training. Alcohol becomes more disruptive to sleep, recovery and thermal regulation as oestrogen declines. Caffeine clearance can slow, meaning a late afternoon coffee may quietly disrupt the night.

You do not need to remove either. But experimenting with reducing alcohol on training nights, and pulling caffeine to the morning only, often produces clearer sleep, calmer evenings, more honest hunger signals and better recovery.

These are small experiments worth running for 2 to 4 weeks. Many women describe the difference as quietly transformative.

Trail Note  ·  09

A practical menopause-aware day

There is no single perfect day. But a useful starting template, one we often offer the women we coach, looks something like this.

Trail Note  ·  10

When to bring in support

If energy and recovery are not responding to better fuelling. If sleep is not improving with sensible adjustments. If body composition shifts feel distressing. If your relationship with food feels harder than it should. Reach out for professional support.

A menopause-informed dietitian, a sports doctor, a clinical psychologist, an endocrinologist or your GP can all play a role. None of these need to be approached as a last resort. They are accelerants. They help you turn the corner faster.

This Trail Note is an orientation, not a prescription. The right adjustments for your body deserve professional, individualised attention when the picture becomes complex.

Trail Note  ·  11

The deeper rhythm

Fuelling through menopause is not a war. It is a recalibration. The body that carried you through your earlier decades is becoming the body that will carry you through the next ones. It is asking for slightly different inputs. It is not asking for less of you.

Protein at every meal. Carbohydrate around training. Fats and fibre for the wider system. Adequate fuelling around the work being asked. Sleep treated as a session. Recovery treated as part of the plan. Strength held alongside the running.

This is how we eat for the body we are becoming. Not the body we had. Not the body the internet wants us to have. The one we are training in, right now, today.

eat for the body you are training in now

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