Meghann’s 18-Month Periodization Journey to build muscle while navigating perimenopause.

Entering Perimenopause & Muscle Building

Meghann joined us in January 2024 and jumped right into a muscle-building cohort. She’d semi-recently started lifting and had goals to catch up on the muscle-building she’d missed out on earlier in life.

Meg had prior experience with nutrition coaching and was proficient at macro tracking, but she wanted to understand the why and how to do it herself.

In the 18 months she’s been with us, she’s entered peri-menopause and found the structure of understanding how her body works before entering this phase incredibly helpful.

She trusted the process, and between January 2024 and February 2025, Meg spent 44 weeks in a muscle-building phase. Here’s what happened 👉

The Periodization Plan:

January - May 2024: 4-Month Muscle Build

Meg came in, ripped the Band-Aid off, and went straight into a muscle-building phase.

May - June 2024: 6-Week Deficit

She lost quite a bit of inflammation from the end of the build and dropped 5.8lbs before a trip to Hawaii

August 2024 - February 2025: 7-Month Muscle Build

The second build is always a little easier once you know what to expect, she gained 4.7lbs

March 2025 - May 2025: 11-Week Deficit

Meg dropped 7.6lbs in her second deficit, and then transitioned into maintenance before a family cruise

What’s Next For Meg

After absolutely smashing her body composition goals, Meg is going to keep working on building muscle and navigating the weight fluctuations of perimenopause

June - October: Maintenance

Meg is going to hang in maintenance while starting HRT to allow her body to acclimate

October 2025 - June 2026: Muscle Build

Meg has another 7-month muscle build on the books! She was thrilled with the results from her first two building phases and is excited to keep building muscle, feeling strong in the gym, and continuing to improve her body composition.

... and continue on a larger periodization schedule involving most of the year spent in a build, broken up by smaller deficits and maintenance phases.

Meg’s Key Takeaways of the Process:

Muscle Build Phase:

I was initially nervous about going into a build. I grew up with gaining weight and clothes fitting tightly is a “bad thing”. I trusted the process and worked on being comfortable with being uncomfortable. And really it wasn’t bad AT all.
I focused on the data and set my feelings aside. Even though I felt “big”, the scale only went up 3 pounds. Applying the EPN philosophy and staying grounded in the numbers really helped.
I focused on feeling strong with the gym and putting those extra calories too work in the gym. It was such a blast hitting new milestones in the gym—like crushing 10 weighted dips and feeling like Wonder Woman!
Navigating perimenopause and my first building phase would have been incredibly difficult without the support of this group and the uplifting community around me. There’s truly no underestimating the power of going through something alongside others who understand.
Deficit Phase:
- Easiest deficit I’ve ever done. Because I committed to a solid build phase for 44 weeks I built muscle, and didn’t realize how high my maintenance calories were, I was able to cut while still eating at higher calories then I thought possible.
- I never felt deprived or that I was missing out on my favorite foods. Using what I was taught I built my day around those “fun” foods and made them fit into my goals.
I loved learning how to take charge of my nutrition and feel confident doing it on my own, thanks to everything I gained from being part of the EPN cohort.