BEE #162: How Falling Estrogen in Perimenopause Fuels Emotional Eating

Your brain is working against you — and perimenopause is why.

When estrogen and progesterone start shifting, they don't just change your body. They rewire the way your brain handles mood, stress, cravings, and sleep — and that can pour gasoline on emotional eating.

This isn't a willpower problem. It's biology.

In this episode, I break down exactly what's happening inside your brain and body during perimenopause and menopause — so you can finally stop blaming yourself and start understanding what's actually driving the urge to eat.

You'll learn:

• Why estrogen is a neuroactive hormone — and what happens to your mood and cravings when it drops
• How serotonin instability makes sugar feel like relief (it literally is, temporarily)
• Why your dopamine system gets blunted — and why your brain chases salty, sweet, high-fat foods to compensate
• The cortisol-belly fat connection and why "menopause belly" shows up even when nothing else has changed
• How your amygdala gets louder while your rational brain gets quieter — making emotional reactions harder to manage
• Why ghrelin and leptin go haywire, leaving you hungry, unsatisfied, and chasing food that doesn't fill you
• Why sleep is the linchpin — and what happens to hunger and cravings when sleep quality drops

And then we connect it all to what actually helps.

I share why dieting harder in this season usually backfires — and what a moderate, compassionate approach looks like instead: protein at every meal, gentle movement, daily de-stressing, nervous system support, and learning your emotional eating patterns without shame.

I also talk about finding a provider who truly understands menopause care and labs — and why that conversation (whether you choose HRT or not) can be a complete game changer.

If this episode makes you feel seen, please subscribe, share it with a friend who needs the explanation, and leave a review — so more women can find the support they deserve.

If you are interested in learning more about my new Breakthrough Menopause Coaching Program, join the waitlist and you will be the first to know all the details when it opens in August of 2026. Click here to join the list: https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/menopause-coaching-wait-list

Connect with me online:

1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinjonescoaching/
2. You Tube channel, Kristin Jones Coaching: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinJonesCoaching44

3. You Tube channel, Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@breakthroughpodcast-44
3 . Website: https://www.kristinjonescoaching.com

If you want to learn how to stop nighttime eating, get my 3 Day Nighttime Snacking Reset: https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/nighttime-snacking-reset

Needing more specific and direct support for your emotional eating and overeating? Check out my online course, Stop Dieting Start Feeling, and my personalized coaching program, Breakthrough To You.

If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to leave a review on the platform you used to listen and share it with your friends on your Instagram stories. Also, be sure to follow me on Instagram @breakthroughemotionaleating, and don't hesitate to slide into my DMs to share your thoughts and fee...

Transcript

Emotional Eating Hook And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Do you find yourself standing in front of the refrigerator? Not because you're hungry, but because something just doesn't feel right? Maybe you're stressed, maybe you're lonely, maybe you're just bored and you need to feel something different. If that sounds familiar, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Jones, certified life and weight loss coach, rapid transformational therapy practitioner, and someone who has lived everything I teach. In this podcast, we're going to get real about why you eat the way you do. And I promise you, it has very little to do with food. We'll explore the suppressed emotions, the feelings you've been avoiding, and the quiet pain you've been trying to manage one bite at a time. Another diet is not the answer. Restriction didn't cause this and it won't heal it. But what will? A moderate, compassionate approach where no food is off limits. And where you start treating yourself like someone worth taking care of. Because emotional eating isn't about what's on your plate, it's about how you feel about yourself. So if you're ready to stop the cycle and finally get to the root of the issue, let's go. It

Why Menopause Becomes The Focus

SPEAKER_00 1:48

has been a hot minute since I have been on and released a podcast episode, but that's because there's been a lot of things happening in my business and a lot of changes happening to the direction that I'm taking things in my business. Probably five years ago, I had someone mention to me about, well, why don't you, you know, because of your because of the age that you are, why don't you start talking more about menopause? And I was like, well, why would I talk about menopause? I don't, I don't, I'm not having, I'm not being impacted by menopause. That was what I thought. I didn't realize that all of the things that were happening to me, my achy joints, my excessively dry skin, um my lack of sleep, um, the changes in my um in my reproductive system, all of those things, I didn't realize that those were, I mean, I thought they were connected to getting older, but I didn't know that there was anything that I could do about them. And it wasn't until about a year and a half ago when I got on HRT and my life was completely changed. And I realized, oh my gosh, I can't believe I went all this time and didn't know anything about this, didn't know there was anything I could do. And then once I did, it was like, well, I've got to tell everybody about it. So um I just recently made the decision to um to get a um menopause, perimenopause, and menopause coaching certification. And I've learned a ton about menopause going through my own process. But now I'm going to officially step into the role of a menopause coach and how menopause connects with emotional eating. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Today's

Estrogen Is Also A Brain Hormone

SPEAKER_00 3:45

episode is about the connection between the reduction in estrogen that naturally happens as a process of your ovaries no longer working, stop the ending or the reduction in the amount of estrogen that your ovaries produce, and how that impacts not only your body, but it impacts your brain. And we're going to talk about how it impacts your brain, how it impacts your thinking, and then physiologically, how it impacts you. And all of these things are like they're like gasoline to put on the fire of emotional eating. They all contribute to an increase in your actual need to respond with food. Um, the reduction in estrogen that naturally happens when you enter into perimenopause is it it directly relates and impacts your relationship with food, how you think about food, how you crave food, what your body does to get food. So all of those things we're going to talk about today, and then I'm going to give you some things that you can actually start to do to start to manage these uh these situations. So the first thing to know is that estrogen is not just a reproductive hormone. That estrogen is also a neuroactive hormone, meaning it has an impact on your brain. It affects your brain's neurotransmitters, it affects brain chemistry, it affects your stress reactions, your moods, your cognition, and your sleep. And all of those things are regulated within your brain. So again, we're not just talking about your reproductive system, but we're also talking about your neurological system and how all of those things are impacted by the naturally occurring reduction in estrogen. And I'm just gonna tell you first and foremost, there is nothing anyone can do to stop the reduction in estrogen that happens as your ovaries begin to reduce their production. We are all born with a certain number of eggs in our ovaries follicles in our ovaries, and we all over time we get to the end of that supply, and as that supply begins to end, that's when the uh our estrogen begins to begins to dissipate.

Serotonin And Dopamine Shift Cravings

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So there are six areas of your brain that are dramatically impacted by the reduction of estrogen that naturally happens, and all of these six areas also impact your interaction with food and your interaction with your own emotions, and then how those two things, when in combination, in turn leads to emotional eating. So the first area is serotonin, and serotonin is the feel-good neurotransmitter that is produced in your brain that makes you feel good. Well, what happens is when estrogen drops, it reduces the stability of serotonin in your brain. Your moods become more volatile, you become more irritable, you aren't able to make rational decisions. And so when you have when you're in that state of instability and volatile mood, your brain is looking for some way to feel better. And an easy, quick fix to make your brain feel better is to turn to refined carbs and sugar. And so that's what your body does. And it gives it an immediate, gives your brain an immediate increase in serotonin, and it immediately calms down, and that becomes, starts to become a learned response, which it tastes good, why not? Why wouldn't you do it? And and your brain is actually asking for that to happen. So it becomes a very natural and easy response, and it does the job. The second area is our other friend. When we have the friend serotonin, we also know that dopamine is going to be nearby. So dopamine, which is our reward and motivation center in our brain, also a neurotransmitter, when it is impacted by the reduction of estrogen, it ends up having all dopamine responses. So the dope, so dopamine, when dopamine is activated, it gives us that feel-good, pleasurable sensation. Well, when estrogen is reduced, that becomes muted. It doesn't become as strong, it doesn't become as intense. And so your brain continues to seek more of that pleasure seeking. It wants it because it's not used to this level. It's usually used to the high level of a dopamine response. And now it's getting a wah wah response. And so it's not really interested in that. So it's going to go for how can I increase my dopamine even more? Because it's noticed that it's not getting the same hit that it always has. And so what it does is it turns to the trifecta of salt, sugar, and fat, which always give it an increase in a dopamine hit. So we go for things that are salty, that are sweet, and that are filled with fat. And that gives your brain that elevated dopamine hit. And that results in, and and so in order for that to happen, or when it does happen, your cravings are increased for those for things that carry those three vital um elements that your body is actually cre craving and seeking.

Cortisol Spikes And Menopause Belly

SPEAKER_00 9:44

The third area is your stress response. So estrogen by nature calms the HPA axis, which is how your body responds to stress. It keeps it even and level and balanced. So unfortunately, when estrogen drops, that area becomes very, again, there's instability, there is a lot of a reduction in the calmness that exists, and it actually becomes more hyperactive. And as a result of it not being maintained and balanced and it becoming more hyperactive, your cortisol then spikes. When your cortisol spikes more easily and it becomes chronically high, cortisol, it results in cravings for calorie-dense foods, as well as it promotes visceral fat storage. So stress response not only increases your cravings for calorie-dense food, but it also increases the visceral fat storage that results in what is known as menopause belly. And that is all a result of the stress response. Now, the unfortunate irony of this is that then someone has this menopause belly, this stress belly. Well, there is nothing but shame and guilt that results from having that belly, and especially when you feel like you haven't done anything to deserve this change and you don't understand what's happening. You then compound by being more stressed about this belly, that spikes your cortisol, and the whole cycle starts all over again. So you continue to crave those calorie-dense foods and you continue to store more visceral fat. So we've got to break that cycle. That cycle can be quite, quite dangerous. Also, visceral fat is an extremely dangerous form of fat because it surrounds your organs and it definitely is what needs to be addressed during menopause for long-term health and wellness. The fourth area of your brain that's impacted is your amygdala amygdala. It's a tough one to say. So your amygdala is responsible for the intensity of your emotional responses. So estrogen, again, maintains balance, maintains calm in the amygdala. So when it reduces, let's just say all hell breaks loose, um, emotions get bigger. Responses are more extreme. When things happen, it's, you know, I like to say it's zero to a hundred. You know, I go from zero to howler monkey in a moment. So notice. Um, suddenly I can't control my responses to things. And compound that with the fact that when estrogen also drops, that my prefrontal cortex is not as rational as it usually is. And my brain can't override these huge emotional responses that are happening. And so these emotions and the lack of that rational thinking and that ability to be able to override the emotions results in turning to food and making food be such an easy and quick and automatic response for us because it's it's easy. And because our brain, unfortunately, the prefrontal cortex can't overcome that, can't overcome those big large emotions. And so the big large emotions just take over. And we can justify very easily emotional eating. The fifth area that is impacted is the the hormones, the regulation, the food regulation hormones of ghrelin and leptin, and those exist within your brain as well. So when estrogen drops, and again, ghrelin and leptin are both maintained by estrogen in the brain. When estrogen starts to drop, specifically leptin sensitivity drops. And leptin is the hormone that helps you recognize when you're full. And so when that sensitivity decreases, you lose the ability to be able to eat and feel satisfaction. So you can eat an entire meal and be like, okay, what's next? Because your and it's coming from your brain, it's not coming from your stomach, it's coming from your brain because your body is not because of the lack of estrogen. Your brain is not able to respond and say, Yes, you've had enough food and you feel good and you can move on with your day. Your brain continues to look to feel that satisfaction. And so your brain stops receiving that message that you're full. And that unfortunately then just results in that insatiable appetite and that insatiable cravings for foods that are going to somehow that are going to calm the brain down. And

Sleep Loss Creates A Perfect Storm

SPEAKER_00 14:48

our sixth area, which is hands down, the most important area to deal with when you are approaching perimenopause in perimenopause or in menopause, is sleep. Sleep is absolutely vital and essential to everything that goes on when it comes to perimenopause and menopause and how it impacts your physical well-being and especially your weight. So it's a trigger for all the previous things we've we've talked about. Sleep and lack of sleep dramatically are going to impact all of these triggers from going off, and they can all go off at the same time. So again, when estrogen, estrogen, the lack the drop of estrogen and progesterone are the two hormones that are going to impact your sleep. Again, without you doing anything, you're not doing anything wrong, you're going going in entering into menopause into perimenopause and into menopause. Your sleep is going to start to reduce because of the reduction in estrogen and progesterone. So when the estrogen drops, it raises ghrelin. And ghrelin is the hunger hormone that tells you that you're hungry. So it raises that. So we have more of that hormone happening. So we feel hungry all the time. Then at the same time, very ironically, and unfair, unfair, you know, in a very cruel twist of fate, it also reduces leptin. So now you don't, you now have an increase in your hunger hormones, and you have a reduction in the hormones that are telling you to stop eating. That is a perfect storm for emotional eating. So those two things are happening at the same time. You're getting all of these signals of a reduction, increase in hormones, increase in hunger, lack of satiety, then your cortisol, your cortisol will spike, and you will start to increase any sort of cravings, they're all going to be increased. Also, if you're sleep deprived, you naturally have an increase in cravings because your body is working on low energy and it will turn to food, especially sugary, um quick refined carbs, so you can get a burst of energy because you're already tired. Your brain is so brilliant, it does that. It does not help your waistline, but it does allow you to have an increase in your energy and your alertness. But all of those things are working against you when it comes to your eating and your overall health when it comes to being in perimenopause and menopause. So if we take all of these things, and here's the the unfortunate thing, is all of these things can be happening at the same time. Everything single one of these things can be happening at the same time. So if we paint the picture and you visualize what could be happening to yourself, and again, all of these things can be happening at the same time. So one serotonin is unstable, that increases your sugar and carb cravings to stabilize your mood. At the same time, dopamine is blunted. That means you have to have more sugar and carbs to get a heavier hit of dopamine for your body to be satisfied with that dopamine hit. Your stress response has been activated, cortisol is increased, belly fat is increased, your stress response, you are not responding to lowering your stress, it's just continuing to elevate. You have a reactive amygdala which increases your emotional responses and makes them more extreme. Your prefrontal cortex can't respond and can't override it. So your emotions are completely high and frankly, usually pretty out of control. Your leptin resp your leptin hormone has become resistant and it no longer is reacting and telling you that you're satisfied. So you're wanting to eat all the time, and then your sleep is disrupted. So every single one of the things that we just previously talked about are all at a level 10. And so you are just walking around a hot mess, and you just it can be so overwhelming because all of these things are happening. And I'm gonna tell you, I had no idea any of these things were happening. My emotional eating got especially really did got especially bad when I hit about 41, 42. And that was when my lack of sleep started happening. I started seeing a dramatic decrease in the amount of sleep I was getting. And I had no idea, I it's it's relative, it's not relatively early. You usually don't go into menopause until about 48, but perimenopause can start anytime, you know, anytime it can start in your 30s, but usually it's it's once you get past 40. And so all of those things were happening, and I had no idea. I had no idea these things were happening. And

Why Restriction Makes It Worse

SPEAKER_00 19:53

so, like most people, when these things happen, and especially if you're a woman who doesn't understand why this is happening, and you don't understand all these things that are happening inside your brain, what's our natural response to gaining a few pounds? What do we want to do? We start to restrict. We go on a diet, we find the next diet that we can go on. And here's the totally unfair thing: dieting makes all of these things worse. Restriction actually stimulates your brain to double down on cravings and to double down on the amount of refined carbs that it's craving and that it desires and that it needs. So we are actually making the situation worse every time we try to restrict and every time we go on the next diet that we think is going to be the answer. And all of those things just make your condition so much more confounding, so much more confusing and frustrating and stressful. And what does that do? It increases all of those symptoms as well. So,

Practical Steps To Feel Steady Again

SPEAKER_00 21:00

what can you do in the meantime? What can you do when these things start to happen? The first thing is you have to remember, you have to save this podcast episode, you have to um follow me on on Instagram, and the Instagram information is all in my show notes. Um, but you have to remind yourself that this is happening because now that you've heard it, you can't not hear it. Now you know. Now you know you cannot blame yourself anymore. You cannot blame that you just have a lack of willpower, you have a lack of discipline. No. You need to be kinder to yourself, you need to have more compassion and understanding that this is a biological transition in your life that is unavoidable. People go through it and have different experiences, but if you have an extreme experience, it does not mean you've done anything wrong. And I'm going to tell you if you have a very mild experience, I'm going to also tell you that you haven't done anything right. You haven't Done anything, you're no better than anybody else. Everyone is going to experience these things. Everything. Everyone has these experiences. And our levels of intensity are different individually. And they there is no established pattern as to why it happens, why some people have whole night sweats all the time or that night sweats during the day, and some people have none. Some people have no impact to their sexual organs, and other people have painful sex from the beginning of their 40s. Some people don't gain any weight, and some people gain 50 pounds. And we we just, you don't know. It's a roulette. We don't, we have no idea. But we have to be compassionate with ourselves and we have to know that knowledge is power. And when we are empowered to make our best decisions, that's when we can take care of things. That's when we can be our own best advocate and we can take care of ourselves. So that's the first thing is compassion for yourself and understanding. Second, you have to support your nervous system. You have to support your nervous system by getting solid sleep, by eating protein at every meal to reduce your the fluctuations in your blood sugar. You need to be, you need to have some type of movement, not hit cardio every day for three hours. Going for a walk, having gentle, compassionate movement that moves your body and gets your body moving in a positive, calm way where it doesn't spike your cortisol. And de-stressing activities that you do on a daily basis, journaling, meditation, walking, breath work, whatever it is we have to start doubling down and making that an absolute necessity in our daily self-care playbook. We also need to address, number three, we need to address the emotional eating patterns that we are seeing emerge because we can't ignore it. We can't pretend like, oh, it's just this one-time thing. No, it's your body's asking for that. And you're gonna find yourself having a harder and harder time resisting it. Understanding and knowing what your triggers are and understanding what your patterns are will dramatically empower you to be able to take the steps that you need to take to start changing your response patterns to those cravings that your brain is sending you. And lastly, and I think this is most important, and this was absolutely a game changer for me, was finding a medical provider that will take your hormone complaints, your menopause symptoms, and where you are in your life, take it seriously and listen with compassion and understanding, and that wants to help you feel better. That is

Medical Support And Reading Lab Work

SPEAKER_00 24:50

probably the most important thing. And unfortunately, at this time, most of the providers that are able to really fully be educated on menopause and on treating menopause, whether it's HRT or not, and giving yourself hormone replacement, that is usually not covered by insurance. Full hormone replacement is not usually covered by insurance. Estrogen is, but there are other elements that have to be taken into consideration, not just estrogen. Taking all of those things into consideration, you have to find a medical provider. Oftentimes it is out of pocket, but you do need to find a medical provider that can answer your questions, listen to you, and give you the empowerment that you need to be able to make your own best medical decisions. That includes getting full battery of blood work and knowing how to read the blood work. This is really important. This was what I learned when I did my, when I got my um my blood work done and I got on HRT. My doctor, Dr. Peter Castillo from the Swan Medical Group here in Danville. I'm not gonna edit that out. That's my dog. There are sirens going off. My dog is very sensitive to sirens. He's a husky. Most dogs are. Hopefully, it's gonna get it's gonna go away in just a minute. This is the life of a podcaster, and I am not going to edit that out because that is part of my life, and he is a very important part of my life. Hold on. Baby, it's okay. It's okay, love. You're okay. There. It went away. You're okay. He's good now. All right, back to our episode. That's real life, y'all. He just came in. Um Jackson. Um so when I went to see him, and he showed me my blood work, and he said, Are there any highlights on this on this sheet of paper? And I said, No, there's none. And he said, if you probably went to any other doctor, they would tell you that all of your all of your numbers came back in the normal range. What they don't tell you, and what many doctors don't understand, is that when the normal ranges for um blood work uh especially during menopause, is they look at everyone who is in the same group as you, same age group, and demographic. So for me, it was females at 57 years old, every you know, females 57 years old, all of those women all across the country, females at 57 years old who are most likely going through menopause. Yeah, I was just like everybody else. I was average, just like everybody else. That didn't mean it was healthy. That didn't mean it was going to be pleasurable for me. It didn't mean it was the best case scenario for me. I was just in the average of everyone that was suffering. So that's something that you have to keep in mind is that you need to go to a hormone doctor or a doctor that specializes in menopause and specializes in this transition because they will understand and know how to read lab work and how to then give you the most informed, up-to-date information that so you can make the best decision. Is hormone replacement for everybody? No. But there are options. There are options and things and definitely other things that we can do outside of just taking hormones. There are so many lifestyle changes that we can make that can support us being able to make this transition as smooth as possible and make it a gentle and easier transition and create a life for ourselves that is so much more enjoyable than oftentimes what our moms and grandmas went through because they didn't have any of these resources available to them.

Share With Friends And Join Wait List

SPEAKER_00 29:08

So I hope that this episode has been helpful. I hope that it has given you information so you know that all of these things, when when you start to see that increase in emotional eating and the increase in your inability to be able to resist certain foods, that is not a lack of willpower. It's not a shortcoming on your full on your part, it's not a lack of discipline. This is physiologically a change that's happening to you that you cannot avoid, but that you absolutely can do something about. So if this, I hope this has been helpful. I hope this has been something that is beneficial for you to know. And if you have a girlfriend or five that you know are going through the same things, share this episode with them. Let them hear how this, there's an explanation for this. You're not doing anything wrong. And there are so many things that you can do. So share this with a friend. Um, and then the next thing is if if you're interested in having some support and having some guidance through your transition into menopause or through perimenopause and into menopause, please sign up. The information is in the show notes for the wait list for my menopause coaching program. Um, I'm in the process of my certification right now. It'll probably be opening in about a month or two. There is no obligation to getting on the wait list, but be the first person to find out because spots are going to be very limited because it's going to be a very high-touch, very individualized and personalized program that will be specific to you because no woman, no two women go through menopause in the exact same way. And so the coaching is very individualized and very specific. And I want to be able to serve people in the best possible way. So spots are very limited. So get on the wait list, be the first person to find, be the first group of people to find out all the information about what I will be offering to support you through this menopause transition. Something I wish I had had, and I'm so glad that I encountered my doctor that I met. I met him as a yoga student and his wife. Um, they came and took my yoga class, and that's how I met him. I was so fortunate, and I have tried to share them with as many people in my area as possible because it truly has changed my life, and I want that for everyone else. So thank you again for listening. Thank you for being a part of this episode, a part of this community. And again, get on the wait list, and I will see you all in the next episode. Take care. Thanks

Coaching Options And Closing Message

SPEAKER_00 31:52

for listening to this week's episode. If today's episode resonated with you and you're ready to take the next step, here's how we can work together. You can apply for my one-to-one coaching. Join the wait list for my menopause coaching program. Or if you're not sure which is the right fit, book a free discovery call and we'll figure it out together. All the links are in the show notes. Until next time, remember healing your relationship with food is possible, and you don't have to do it alone.