When Tamsen Fadal turned 50, she began to notice a worrying trend in her own body.

Nothing in her lifestyle had changed - she was still exercising on the treadmill for up to an hour every day and keeping to a strict diet. But, suddenly, everything about her physique had.

In the morning, the journalist could run her hand over her trim stomach and feel flat and firm. But, by 2pm, if she stood sideways and looked in the mirror, she looked 'pregnant'.

As a high-profile news anchor, she was used to wearing short fitted dresses on screen. And this new look was a problem. 

‘The bloating would hurt when I pushed my stomach,’ Fadal, now 54, tells the Daily Mail.

‘I worked in a very forward-facing industry, and putting on weight was always a big fear of mine. I went from being in my 20s, wearing these little short, sleeveless dresses to, “Oh, my gosh! I want to cover myself up!”'

Finding out that she was in perimenopause may have been something of a relief - she lost her mom to breast cancer at 51 and feared the symptoms she was noticing might be a sign of something much more dangerous.

But the knowledge that she was one stage away from menopause came at one of the worst possible moments. She had just started a new relationship with TV executive Ira Bernstein, whom she married a year later, and she didn't know where to turn for information. 

Tamsen Fadal found out she was in perimenopause shortly after she turned 50, when she started struggling with weight gain

'It's not exactly sexy,’ she says now. ‘Or, I didn't think it was - he never commented on it one way or another.

‘But even when we went on our honeymoon, I was like, “I have zero libido - that's gone out the door”.

‘So I had to learn how to work around those things and to figure out solutions.’

Finding those solutions proved to be a new lease of life for Fadal. It led to her giving up her Emmy-winning career with WPIX at the age of 52, and establishing herself as a leading voice in menopause activism.

Her documentary, The M Factor: Shredding The Silence on Menopause, came out in October, and her new book How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, And Feel Even Better Than Before was published on March 25 by Balance.

It's been a high-profile journey for the former PIX11 News anchor in which she's had to unlearn everything she thought to be true about her aging body - crucially when it came to exercise.

‘I thought, “I've got to just work out harder... more cardio",' she writes. But, as she discovered, far from shifting the pounds, those sweat-inducing workouts were contributing to her weight gain.

High-intensity cardio stresses the adrenal glands, which then produce the stress hormone cortisol in response. 'While cardiovascular fitness is still important,' she writes. 'Cortisol leads to weight gain, particularly around the middle.'

She decided to swap the walking machines for the weights room - and immediately saw results.

Fadal gave up her Emmy-winning career with WPIX at the age of 52, and established herself as a leading voice in menopause activism

‘Losing muscle - an age-related process called sarcopenia that will have its way with your body unless you actively counteract it - is our enemy,' she writes. 'It won’t make you slim. It will make you frail.'

Now the most cardio exercise Fadal gets is from walking. 

'I went from the girl that was on the treadmill for 30 minutes to an hour every day to just going into the weights area and lifting three or four days a week,' she tells the Daily Mail.

‘I do a lot of yoga too, but weight training was a huge game changer.’

And clearly her approach is gaining traction. Hollywood star Halle Berry recently said that she, too, had given up cardio altogether. 

'I'm trying to put muscle mass on, so I lift weights,' the 58-year-old told Fadal's podcast The Tamsen Show. 'It's boring but necessary for this stage of life.'

Fadal's diet also got a huge overhaul. Out went cutting (or even counting) calories, and in came protein - lots of it. 

She also introduced steps to counteract that mid-afternoon bloat, such as eating cooked rather than raw vegetables, all of which had an impact on her hormones.

‘The reason cutting calories doesn’t work is that estrogen affects how your body uses starches,' she writes. 'When it declines, you use your blood sugar less effectively, increasing fat storage, mostly centered in the belly, or visceral area.   

'Visceral fat (aka belly fat) is a particularly dangerous kind of fat because it wraps around our abdominal organs and impairs their function.’

Clearly Fadal's approach is gaining traction. Hollywood star Halle Berry, pictured with the journalist, recently said that she, too, had given up cardio altogether. 

Fadal's diet also saw a huge overhaul. Out went cutting calories - or even counting them - and in came protein

Tamsen Fadal on a trip to Italy

That change of mindset took a lot of getting used to.

‘My diet really changed,’ she says. ‘I’d tried all the diets in the world when I was younger… just eat fruit, just eat this or that…’

But protein had never been part of her vocabulary - she was always more worried about calories and fat. Now, however, it is her best friend.

‘I know how strong that desire to lose your menopause weight can be,’ she tells her readers.

‘But you can’t let weight loss be your number one goal. Why? Once you reach midlife, it’s dangerous to lose weight at the expense of nutrition. When you severely restrict calories without a proven plan, what you end up losing is muscle, and that can be disastrous.'

Which brings our conversation to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. Some doctors have been criticized for prescribing GLP-1 meds to patients without giving them appropriate dietary advice, which can prove fatal.

Fadal achieved the results she was looking for without medication, but says there are a lot of benefits to them when taken correctly. 

'There has to be the lifestyle that goes along with it,' she tells the Daily Mail. 'We can't just think that we're going to have a miracle. We need to make sure we get the right nutrients in our body, and we get the right vitamins in our body.'

So, is she back to the weight she was pre-menopause?

She certainly looks stunning, revealing her her toned arms in a white tank top. But she laughs at the idea. 

'I don't even think about it any more,' she says. 'That wasn't always the case.

'I'll never forget once when I was anchoring the news... I had one of those sheath dresses on where they came up above my knees, and a viewer wrote in, "You know, knees are not a girl's best friend at your age. Cover them up, please."

'I was so upset. I was like, "I can't wear these dresses any more." I was really conscious of it. I started wearing pantsuits and covering up. Then I was like, "What the heck am I doing? This is crazy."

'So, no, I'm not back to where I was, but I sure don't have that mindset any more. And if somebody said that to me today, they would be really sorry.'

Poignantly, she adds: 'My mom didn't live to be 54. She died at 51 years old, and I'm just grateful to be able to see today. I really, really am. I don't love the belly fat, but I'm not going to let it destroy me.'

How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, And Feel Even Better Than Before is published by Balance