I’m Doing Everything Right. Why Am I Still Gaining Weight?

A physiology-informed explanation for a deeply frustrating experience

Midlife weight gain often shows up even when eating habits and activity haven’t changed — and it’s one of the most confusing experiences women report during perimenopause and menopause.

You’re eating well.
You’re exercising.
You’re paying attention.

You didn’t suddenly stop caring.

And yet the scale keeps creeping up.
Your clothes fit differently.
Your body feels unfamiliar — and not in a way that makes sense.

This is often the moment women start questioning themselves.

Am I missing something?
Am I doing this wrong?
Is this just how it is now?

Here’s the part that matters:

If you’re doing “everything right” and still gaining weight, it’s not because you failed.

It’s because the rules you were taught no longer match the physiology you’re living in.

Why “Doing Everything Right” Stops Working in Midlife

For years, effort and consistency were enough.

Eat reasonably.
Move your body.
Push a little harder when progress slows.

In midlife, that equation changes.

Hormonal variability alters how your body responds to:

  • food

  • stress

  • training

  • recovery

  • energy availability

The same behaviors that once created balance can now create strain.

Not because you’re weaker.
But because your body is operating under different conditions.

Why This Feels So Confusing

What makes this phase especially destabilizing is that nothing looks wrong.

You haven’t abandoned healthy habits.
You haven’t “let yourself go.”
You may even be doing more than before.

But weight gain, fatigue, and stubborn plateaus show up anyway.

That disconnect — effort without outcome — is what creates shame.

And shame pushes women to:

  • eat less

  • train harder

  • ignore hunger

  • override fatigue

Which only deepens the problem.

What’s Actually Happening Instead

Midlife weight gain is rarely about excess.

It’s more often about:

  • disrupted blood sugar regulation

  • elevated stress signaling

  • altered appetite hormones

  • under-fueling relative to need

  • recovery that can’t keep up with demand

When physiology shifts, strategy has to shift with it.

More discipline isn’t the solution.
Better alignment is.

This is the kind of work I do with clients seeking individualized clinical nutrition care — where strategy is built around changing physiology rather than fighting it.

Learn more about working together →

This doesn’t mean your body is broken.

It means it’s asking for a different kind of support — one that works with hormonal change instead of trying to overpower it.

That support looks quieter.
More structured.
Less reactive.

And far less punishing.