What the Largest Menopause Fitness Survey Reveals About Hormones, Calories, and Fat Loss with Bill Campbell, PhD (Episode 258)

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Fitness, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 769 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2026

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we welcome back protein and fat-loss researcher Dr. Bill Campbell to unpack early findings from what may be the largest menopause fitness survey to date, designed to finally study women who actively train. We dive into what thousands of fit midlife women report about calorie and protein intake, hormone therapy use, and the widely felt—but poorly studied—experience of weight-loss resistance during peri- and postmenopause. The conversation also explores why hormone therapy use appears far higher in fitness-engaged women than in national estimates, how muscle quality and power may decline even before we notice muscle loss, and why high-intensity interval work appears especially promising for reducing visceral fat.

Bill Campbell, PhD is a Professor of Exercise Science and Director of the Performance and Physique Enhancement Laboratory at the University of South Florida. He is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist from the National Strength & Conditioning Association and former president of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (where he is also 1 of 35 individuals to be recognized as a ‘Fellow’ of the organization—an honor reserved for those individuals who have outstanding contributions to the field of sports nutrition). He has published over 200 scientific papers and abstracts, three textbooks, and 20 book chapters in areas related to physique enhancement, sports nutrition, resistance training, and dietary supplementation. You can learn more about him and his work at www.billcampbellphd.com

Resources

Investigating weight loss resistance across the menopausal transition: a preliminary quantitative survey of resistance-trained women here

Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity here

Why the Calories In/Calories Out Equation Can Fail Women with Jody Dushay, MD here

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a cyclist, listen up. We are partnering with our friends at the cyclist's menu to offer a trip of a lifetime riding around the world-class cycling destination of Majorca.
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0:20.0	The trip is from May 17th through
0:22.1	this 22nd, which is the perfect time when it's sunny, warm, and really just pretty perfect.
0:27.7	I'll be there. My partner, Catherine Taylor, will be there, and so will the incredible cyclist
0:31.9	menu owners and operators, Heidi and Zander, who will be making sure every day is a perfect
0:36.7	day. We'll be staying in a spacious,
0:39.0	quiet farmhouse close to town, so when we're not riding, you can chill or shop or whatever you
0:43.9	want. There'll also be options to ride as much or as little as you like, so come join us for the
0:48.9	trip of a lifetime. We had the best time in Gerona last year and are guaranteed to have just as much fun this time around.
0:57.0	So click the link in the show notes to learn more and sign up and I will see you in Spain.
1:06.0	You are listening to Hit Play Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
1:16.7	I am your host, Celine Yeager.
1:18.7	Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform your best no matter what your hormones are doing.
1:27.3	This show is a production
1:28.8	of feisty media. Hello, strong feisty women. I hope you all are well. So this week, I am stoked to
1:38.9	welcome back protein and fat loss researcher Dr. Bill Campbell to unpack early findings from his female fitness
1:46.3	menopause survey, which may be the largest menopause fitness survey to date, and which many of you
1:52.0	contributed to, so thank you for that. The survey was designed to finally study women who actively
1:58.9	train, and in the end, he had 4,149 women complete the survey.
2:04.9	And though he's still working on the data, he's able to talk about some nuggets that he's presented thus far.
2:10.4	So we dive into what thousands of fit midlife women report about calorie and protein intake, hormone therapy use, and the widely felt,
	...

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