Women who can't lose weight during or after menopause… For any woman carrying weight that showed up when menopause hit. Take the year your symptoms started. Add the pounds you've been trying to lose since then. The number in your head is how long you've been at war with your own body. Here's why it keeps adding up. Three hormones rewire during menopause — estrogen, cortisol, and insulin — and the chain gets tighter every year you don't address it. A lot of the diets you've tried have actually tightened it further.