I too have been frustrated with my body since my last child. I'm 46 and he was born when I was 37. Since that time, I have gained a little over 20 lbs and seemed to be gaining about 5 lbs a year in the past few years. I have tried dieting alone but it didn't do much. Then last spring I started riding along with the dieting and I started losing. I did not eat more even though I was riding a lot. I drank only water and unless I was riding thru the lunch hour, I didn't eat power bars or anything. So I consumed less calories, and burned lots of calories as well. I lost 15 lbs before summer, then all summer I didn't diet although I didn't go overboard either. I rode lots all summer and only gained back 2 lbs. Now I'm back to dieting and exercising again and I'm slowly losing weight. I KNOW that I can't have a 20 year old body again but my goal is to be able to wear a bikini again by next summer. I figure it's my last chance. If not next summer, then it'll never happen and I can live with that. But I figure I may as well try.

My point, if you make a concerted effort to eat fewer calories and burn extra calories, you will gradually lose weight, even at our age. But I tell ya, it's HARD and if I didn't write down eveything I eat, I wouldn't be able to do it. There are so many places where I didn't realize I was adding up a lot of calories. (I eat between 1200-1500 calories a day, staying pretty close to 1200 if I can and I only lose about 1 lb a week.)

I think peri-menopause is just beginning for me although it's hard to tell because I'm still on the pill...