Welcome to ‘Notes From the Middle’:
Observational essays offering clarity, context, and practical perspective from the middle ground, where real bodies, real lives, and real physiology meet.
On Fasted Training, Delaying Breakfast, and Midlife
In my work with peri and postmenopausal women, I often see the same reaction when I speak with peri and postmenopausal women about fasted training and suggest that they try eating breakfast or fueling before training.
Disbelief. Confusion. Sometimes quiet resistance.
Many of these women look at me and say,
“What? But I’ve always been told that fasted training and waiting to eat in the morning will help me lose weight.”
They’ve been led to believe that restriction and intermittent fasting, often by delaying breakfast, is the “clean” or “disciplined” way to burn fat. For a long time, that message was repeated so often it started to feel like physiological canon.
What rarely gets pointed out is that a lot of this guidance came from research on men, not women. It was then broadly applied to women without consideration for hormonal cycles, life stage, or nervous system differences. That gross information gap is starting to close, but the old messaging still lingers and is hard to reprogram.
And for a woman at midlife, that mismatch really starts to show up in the body.
Why Fasted Training Feels Different in Midlife
Because a woman’s midlife season is marked by real physiological shifts. Estrogen and progesterone no longer buffer stress the way they once did. Cortisol can stay elevated longer. Blood sugar regulation becomes far less forgiving. Recovery takes more intention and practice. Sleep becomes less reliable and easier to disrupt.
When you stack those changes on top of fasted training, long gaps without food, or a high-output lifestyle, the body often interprets it as unmanaged stress, not as a fitness strategy.
It’s a common theme that I see play out in consistent ways.
Women describe feeling “wired but tired.” They wake up exhausted but can’t fully rest. They train hard yet struggle to recover.
They often have stubborn belly fat that won’t budge.Sleep becomes lighter, shorter, or fragmented.Energy feels brittle rather than steady.
This doesn’t mean that fasting is inherently bad or that breakfast is mandatory for everyone. It means that context matters. Tools that work for some won’t work for others and will even change when the body’s internal environment and hormone production shift.
Premenopausal women also need to be aware of what their physiology needs. Eating when you wake up and before working out is still a key consideration at this phase. But when production levels of reproductive hormones are normal, a premenopausal woman’s body can handle missed meals, intense workouts, late nights, and busy schedules far better than a peri or postmenopausal woman.
In midlife, that margin narrows and becomes less forgiving:
The body starts asking for more support first.
Fuel becomes a stabilizer, not a reward. Regular meals help calm the nervous system. Protein and carbohydrates earlier in the day can lower stress load rather than increase it. Training becomes more effective when it’s supported with fuel, not stacked on restriction or depletion.
This is where many women feel frustrated. They’re doing what they’ve been told is “right,” yet their body keeps pushing back. Weight loss stalls. Energy drops. Belly bloating increases. Motivation fades. Confidence takes a blow.
The issue is rarely that the woman didn’t try.
Afterall, she’s most likely been listening to the social pressures and trying to manage her body her whole life.
The issue is a misapplied belief system and strategy.
When cortisol stays elevated, fat loss becomes near impossible, rather than easier. As sleep becomes compromised and blood sugar levels swing, cravings intensify and recovery suffers. In the environment of this kind of metabolic mayhem, each training effort stops building strength and starts draining reserves.
Midlife’s wise message is to stop the restriction.
Stop withholding.
Don’t listen to bro-science that doesn’t serve you as a woman.
Feed your body with the nutrition and timing that serves it’s physiology.
Midlife Bodies Respond Better to Support Than Restriction
Adequate nutrition support over restriction is not a green flag to eat constantly or abandon structure. It means recognizing that a midlife body responds better to reliable steadiness rather than to extremes. It means feeding the system so it can do what you’re asking of it.
Eating breakfast, and fueling earlier in the day rather than later, is often one of the simplest ways to restore that steadiness. Don’t do it because it’s trendy or virtuous. Do it because it reduces cumulative stress on your physiology.
For many women, this single shift away from fasted training improves multiple measures. Sleep quality improves. Training feels more centered and grounded. Energy becomes more consistent. The nervous system settles. Progress feels possible again.
I understand why this can be hard to accept. Letting go of rules that everyone is shouting about or that may have once worked for you can feel like losing control. But midlife is not about doubling down on old frameworks. It’s about listening to what’s true now.
Your body is updating its requirements and asking for change.
As research becomes more specific to women, and as lived experience continues to point in the same direction, the pattern is clearer.
Midlife physiology responds best to nourishment, rhythm, and recovery. It stabilizes with support, not pressure.
This season is not about doing more or tightening rules. It’s about choosing what allows your body to feel steady enough to respond. That is where progress becomes sustainable.
Tomorrow morning, try having a balanced breakfast after you wake up and before your workout. Make it something with protein, healthy fats, and some carbs, and notice how your energy and mood feel throughout the day.
