Stop dieting. Start lifting.
Nourish your body, build some strength – and the weight comes off with it.
Strong through menopause
Pre, peri and post. Whether you’re on the jabs or not. Mounjaro · Ozempic · Wegovy →
- 1Build strength firstMuscle is the thing menopause takes. It’s also the thing that gives you everything back.
- 2Eat to nourish, not to shrinkEnough protein and real food protects your muscle, your bone and your mood.
- 3Address the cravings and self-sabotageThe part every other plan skips.
You’re not doing it wrong. Your body changed the rules – and nobody handed you the new ones.
Allison RumgayThirty years, one message: strong is what keeps you. See the five signs →
The whole approach, in three steps
Measure. Understand. Change.
MeasureWhere are you now?
Five signs you can check yourself in the next two minutes. No clinic, no appointment, no kit.
UnderstandWhat’s really driving it
Falling oestrogen takes muscle and bone, and makes your body less tolerant of carbohydrate. Low-calorie dieting takes more of the same. That’s why the old approach stopped working.
ChangeMake it permanent
Lift properly, eat enough of the right things, then build the habits so it holds. New thinking to make that switch – otherwise regain is inevitable.
Step one · Is this happening to you?
Measure.
Five signs your body is losing muscle and bone. Tap any that sound like you – it’s completely private, nothing is sent anywhere.
☛ Select · tap any that sound like you
0 of 5 selected
Tap the signs above that sound like you.
Score 2 or more and this programme is definitely for you.
Every week, free
Not ready to join anything?
Come and stand near it for a while. One email a week: what to train, what to eat, and what the research actually says about strength, menopause and midlife. No pressure, no pitch – just the thing I’d tell a friend.
Take your time. When you’re ready, the free week will still be here.
Step two · Oestrogen, muscle and bone
Understand.
Menopause isn’t a willpower problem. It’s a change in the signals your body runs on – and once you see it, the last few years make sense.
- 1From your late thirties, muscle declines by 3–4lb a year unless you actively train against it. Falling oestrogen accelerates it.
- 2Muscle is where glucose goes. Less muscle means more insulin – which is why the weight now heads for your middle.
- 3Oestrogen also protects bone. Through the menopause transition, bone density falls fastest – and it never announces itself.
- 4So cutting calories harder takes more muscle and more bone, and leaves you smaller, weaker and hungrier than when you started.
Which is why the answer isn’t less. It’s heavier, and better fed. Resistance training tells your body to keep the muscle and hold the bone; enough protein and real food gives it what it needs to do that.
The newer weight-loss drugs – Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy – can genuinely work. But through menopause they need handling carefully. What a jab can and can’t do →
Step three · Habits that hold
Change.
You must change your behaviours to create new outcomes – and your habits, the natural ways of thinking and acting, to maintain them.
Want some help?
The Ultimate 10-Week Challenge gives you three things.
Live strength trainingWith me, 6:30am, Mon–Thu
Four mornings a week, live and online, built to start at complete beginner, then building from there. This is the part that protects your muscle and your bone – and it’s the part most women have never been shown properly.
Nutrition coachingSo the change sticks
Enough protein, real food, and eating that steadies blood sugar and quietens cravings – without the restriction that made everything worse.
Accountability & mindsetThe part everyone skips
Stop the self-sabotage, beat the cravings, and end the on-it / off-it cycle for good.
Your strength coach
Hi, I’m Allison.
I’m a coach and speaker with over thirty years in health and fitness, specialising in women’s strength, nutrition and the menopause transition – helping women train, eat and feel their best through every stage. One-to-one, in a group, or from the front of the room, my focus is the same: real, sustainable change that lasts.
- ★
BA, Sport Science
Thirty years’ experience coaching lasting change. - ♥
Women’s health specialist
Strength, nutrition and the menopause transition – every stage. - ✎
Speaker
Live talks and workplace sessions on menopause and wellbeing. - ◉
Online coach
Personal and group coaching, wherever you are.
You won’t only be coached by me.
Featured · Partner
The Diabetes Coach
Sport & Exercise Psychology (MSc) and former University of Liverpool lecturer, specialising in reversing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes – and in the psychology that makes the change stick. Darren coaches the nutrition and mindset side of the 10-week challenge alongside me, and we deliver live sessions together for companies like NFU Mutual.
- MSc, Sport & Exercise Psychology
- Author of two books
- 3,000+ trainers trained
- Ex-Liverpool lecturer
“Women are told to eat less and move more at exactly the point in life when that does the most damage. Lift properly, eat enough, and everything changes.”
Allison Rumgay - women’s strength, nutrition and menopause coach, and speaker.
Women who’ve done the 10-week challenge
Before you decide
What your free week actually looks like.
No card, no commitment, no being put on the spot. Here’s exactly what happens.
You get full access to everything
Nothing held back. The nutrition and meal plans, the live onboarding, and access to all the resources you need.
You train live with me
Live at 6:30am, Monday to Thursday. Online, from your front room, camera off if you’d rather. Built to start at complete beginner – no kit needed.
You decide, or you don’t
At the end of the week you either carry on or you walk away. Nobody chases you. You keep the plan either way.
See everything inside the 10 weeks – sessions, resources and what it costs →
The first week is free.
Let’s get you inside. See how it works, meet the group, and feel the difference before you decide anything.
Start your free week →No card needed. Nothing to pay to start – and if you stop at the end of the free week, it costs you nothing.
Nothing to lose – except the stone and a half our last group averaged.
And everything to gain. Strength. Energy. Feeling like yourself again.
Common questions
Strength through menopause – your questions.
I’ve never lifted a weight in my life. Is this really for me?
Yes – and honestly, you’re who I built it for. Every session starts at complete beginner and everything is shown, coached and scaled live. You need no equipment to begin, and your camera can stay off. Most women arrive convinced they’ll be the least capable person there. Nobody is watching, and nobody is judging.
Will lifting weights make me bulky?
No. Building large amounts of muscle is difficult and deliberate, and falling oestrogen makes it harder still. What resistance training actually does through menopause is help you hold on to the muscle and bone you already have – which is what keeps you strong, upright and independent later. Most women end up smaller, not bigger, because they’re losing fat while keeping the tissue that shapes them.
Isn’t walking enough?
Walking is genuinely good for you and I’d never talk anyone out of it. But bone and muscle only respond to load – they need a reason to stay. Walking doesn’t give them one. If nothing you do is meaningfully heavy, you can be very active and still be losing both.
I’m post-menopausal. Have I left it too late?
No. Muscle and bone respond to training at every age – that’s well established, including in women in their seventies and eighties. You may not get back everything you lost, but you can hold what you have and build from there. The best time was ten years ago. The second best is this week.
Does this work if I’m on Mounjaro, Ozempic or Wegovy?
Yes – and it matters more, not less. Rapid weight loss strips muscle, menopause is already taking it, and the two together are a lot to ask of your body. The jab quietens appetite but it doesn’t protect your muscle, doesn’t decide what you eat, and doesn’t change your habits for when you stop. That’s the work.
Can I do this alongside HRT?
Absolutely. HRT and strength training aren’t alternatives – they do different jobs, and many women do best with both. Whether HRT is right for you is a conversation for your GP or menopause specialist. What I coach is the training, the food and the habits, and none of it conflicts with your prescription.
Is it online or in person?
Fully online, wherever you are. Live strength sessions every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning, weekly live coaching, and weekly check-ins with personal replies. Camera off if you’d rather, and no equipment needed to start.
What does it cost?
The first week is free – no card, no commitment. After that the Ultimate 10-Week Challenge is £450, or 3 × £150 monthly, which works out at about £45 a week. Nothing is due until the free week ends, and if you stop there it costs you nothing.
This page is about strength, nutrition and lifestyle change through the menopause transition. It is not medical advice and does not replace guidance from your GP, menopause specialist, pharmacist or prescriber – never stop, start or change any medication, including HRT, without speaking to them first.