Fasting in Perimenopause: What Actually Happens in Your Body: A Deeper Look at Its Impact on Women's Health
- Shaini Verdon
- Jun 15
- 4 min read
Science is clear on this. And so is my body. Here's what I've learned about fuelling before training after 40.
There's a deeply ingrained idea in movement culture that you should train fasted. Empty stomach, clear mind, pure practice. I understood it for years — I came from a yoga background where fasting before practice was considered a way to purify the body and arrive on the mat with clarity.
And in that context, it made a kind of sense. Stillness, breath, spiritual practice. The body's demands in a yin class or a slow flow are different.
But Strength x Pilates is not that.
Strength x Pilates is load-bearing work. You are asking your muscles to contract under resistance, your nervous system to coordinate complex patterns, your bones to handle impact. That requires fuel. Different practice, different rules.
Honestly? Even during my yoga years, training fasted never felt good to me. My body was already telling me something. It just took me a while to find the practice that finally matched what it was asking for.
Fasting in Perimenopause: What Actually Happens in Your Body
During perimenopause, oestrogen and progesterone begin to fluctuate and decline. This affects how the body metabolises food, handles stress, and responds to exercise. Research on women's physiology is unambiguous on this: fasting before exercise in perimenopause raises cortisol — already more reactive in this phase of life — and pushes the body into a stress state before you've even picked up a weight.
Elevated cortisol is linked to increased abdominal fat, disrupted sleep, mood instability, and — critically — muscle breakdown. Your body, under-fuelled and under hormonal stress, will start using muscle tissue for energy. The very tissue you're training to build and preserve.
So you train. You work hard. And your body quietly dismantles what you just built.
That's not a small thing. After 40, holding onto and building muscle is one of the most important things you can do for your long-term health — your bones, your metabolism, your strength, your hormonal balance. Training fasted works directly against that goal.
My Own Experience
I train either first thing in the morning or straight after school drop-off. Which means I'm almost always eating something small before I train — not a full meal, but enough to fuel properly.
For a while, in my yoga years, I resisted this. I'd arrive at practice empty and tell myself it was discipline. What it actually was, I now understand, was my body operating under unnecessary stress.
Once I started fuelling before training, the difference was immediate. More energy, better focus, stronger sessions, faster recovery. And over time — more muscle. More capability. More of the results I was actually training for.
What I Actually Eat Before Training
This doesn't need to be complicated. Here's what works for me depending on the morning:
When I have a few minutes: Sliced banana with vegan yoghurt and almond butter. Fast carbohydrates for immediate energy, protein to protect and build muscle, a little fat to sustain it through the session. It takes three minutes to put together and does exactly what it needs to do.
When I can barely face food: A date with peanut butter. Two ingredients, one minute, enough to take the edge off and give the body something to work with. Simple and effective.
When I need the quickest possible option: A plant protein shake with a banana blended in. No thinking required, two minutes, and it gives you the protein your muscles need before they're asked to work. This is especially useful for women who genuinely have no appetite early in the morning.
The common thread: carbohydrates for energy, protein for muscle protection. It doesn't have to be much. It just has to be there.
A Note on Natural Fasting Rhythms
None of this means fasting has no place. A natural overnight fast — finishing dinner around 7pm and not eating again until morning — gives the body time to rest and reset without the stress of extended fasting. That rhythm works well for most women.
What doesn't work, particularly in perimenopause and with strength training, is pushing that fast deliberately into your training window. Finishing dinner at 7pm and training at 9am with something small beforehand is very different from finishing dinner at 7pm and training at 9am on nothing.
The first supports your body. The second stresses it.
Trust Your Body — But Give It What It Needs
Every woman's experience of perimenopause is different. Some will feel fine training fasted. Others will notice immediately — dizziness, weakness, that flat feeling where nothing quite fires properly.
If you fast, feel strong, and your training is going well — keep doing it. Your body is telling you it works for you. Don't fix what isn't broken.
But if you feel any of those warning signs — weakness, dizziness, that flat uninspired feeling — your body is telling you something different. Listen to that too.
The most important thing I've learned in over twenty-five years of movement is that no external philosophy — not yoga tradition, not intermittent fasting trends, not anything — should override what your own body is clearly communicating.
Your body is asking to be fuelled. Fuel it. Train well. Build the strength that carries you through perimenopause and beyond.
If you want to experience what properly fuelled, intelligently programmed Strength x Pilates feels like — come and train with me.
Every Thursday at 10:15 CET, live online. Every session recorded — unlimited replays, no expiry, train whenever your week allows.
Your first week is free.
With strength & softness, Shaini ♡
Shaini Verdon is the founder of SoulSculpt Method. E-RYT 500, Pilates instructor, NASM Women's Fitness Specialist, FRC Mobility Specialist. Based in Cantabria, northern Spain.
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