Lisa Smith

The difference between MJ and this Ring

My identical twin started MJ. I started wearing a ring. Six months later her GP asked to see both our charts, because we'd lost almost the same amount of weight and only one of us was suffering for it. I'm 53. Karen and I have been a matched set our whole lives. Same face, same metabolism, same menopause arriving within a month of each other, same belly settling in at the same time. When we both decided to finally do something about it, we did what twins do. We compared. She chose the jabs her GP offered. I chose, on my sister-in-law's word, a ring I was half embarrassed to order. We agreed to measure everything and tell each other the truth. Here's what they don't tell you about going through menopause with an identical twin. You get a control group for your own body. Whatever happens to her was probably always going to happen to you. So when both our middles thickened on the same timeline, neither of us could pretend it was about discipline. From 48 to 52, we each gained around 2 stone. Both at the belly. My waist went from 29 inches to 38. Hers did nearly the same. We'd both wasted the usual money before this. Slimming World. The 5:2. Holland & Barrett supplements. A PT for three months. Between us, probably £6,000 on things that took weight off the scales but not off the belly. The two roads we took. Karen's first weeks on MJ were hard. The nausea kept her from dinner. She was tired in a flat, hollowed-out way. Her face thinned before her belly did. The weight came off — I won't pretend it didn't — but she paid for every pound. Mine came off quietly. My sister-in-law had told me the belly was never a food problem. It was a cortisol problem. Menopause drops oestrogen, cortisol climbs and stays high, and high cortisol tells the body to store fat in the middle and hold it there. The ring, she said, calms the stress response through acupressure. 4 magnets on the points that activate the parasympathetic nervous system. When cortisol comes down, the belly releases. I spent £32. Karen was spending £200 a month. My 16-week timeline, tracked against hers. Week 1 to 4. My sleep deepened. The 3 AM wake-ups stopped. No nausea, no crash. I lost 8 lbs. Waist: 36 inches. Karen lost 12 lbs in the same window. Her waist: 36. But she was living on soup and crackers because full meals made her sick. Week 5 to 8. The bloating drained. My stomach softened. The hard, round, pressurised feeling that had been there every afternoon for three years was going. I lost another 8 lbs. Waist: 34 inches. Karen lost another 9 lbs. Waist: 35. Her face was hollowing. Our mum asked if she was ill. Week 9 to 12. My waist kept coming down. Lost 7 lbs. Waist: 31 inches. Karen lost 6 lbs. Waist: 33. She was thinner than me on the scales. But my waist was smaller than hers. Because my weight was coming off the belly. Hers was coming off everywhere else. Week 13 to 16. I lost another 5 lbs. Waist: 29 inches. Back to where I'd started before menopause. Karen lost another 5 lbs. Waist: 32. She'd lost more total weight than me. But I'd lost more off my middle. The side-by-side. Two identical bodies. Same starting point. Same belly. Same menopause. Same timeline. Total weight lost. Me: 28 lbs. Karen: 32 lbs. Waist. Me: 38 to 29 inches. Karen: 38 to 32 inches. Nausea. Me: none. Karen: weekly. Food. Me: eating normally, Sunday roasts, meals out with the family. Karen: soup, crackers, small portions, feeling sick after anything heavy. Face. Me: unchanged. Karen: hollowed, gaunt, aged. Cost. Me: £32 once. Karen: £200 a month, £3,200 total. After stopping. Me: still wearing the ring, nothing to stop. Karen: terrified of the rebound. Karen lost more weight. I lost more belly. Because her jabs were aimed at appetite and mine was aimed at cortisol. And the belly was always a cortisol problem. The GP who noticed. Karen's GP had both our records. We're registered at the same practice. At her 6-month review, he pulled up both charts and stopped. He looked at her numbers. He looked at mine. Same starting weight. Same starting waist. Nearly the same total weight lost. But my waist was 3 inches smaller than hers and I wasn't on any medication. "What are you doing?" he asked me. I explained what my sister-in-law had told me. Cortisol. The stress response. The ring. He didn't say it was better than MJ. He said something more careful and more interesting. "Two identical bodies, comparable fat loss, one losing more from the abdomen without the side effect profile. That's a notable divergence." From him, that was practically applause. Eight weeks later. Karen is still on MJ. But she's started wearing the ring too. She's curious whether it lets her lower the dose. Her GP is watching both our measurements. I've told six women in our family. Five are wearing the ring. Three of them have already measured a difference at the waist. The twin truth. Here's what sharing a face and a menopause with my sister taught me. Two identical bodies. Two roads. The same belly gone. The difference wasn't the result. It was the cost. The side effects. The nausea. The face. The fear of stopping. Because the belly was never a willpower problem. It was a cortisol problem. The body stores fat around the middle while the stress response is running. Calm the stress, lower the cortisol, and the body releases what it was holding. Karen's jabs fought the belly from the outside — eat less, burn more. My ring calmed it from the inside — switch off the signal that's storing the fat there. We both got there. But I got there eating Sunday dinner and sleeping through the night and keeping my face. And she got there feeling sick and looking exhausted and spending £200 a month. We still look the same in the mirror. For the first time in four years, we both like what we see. But only one of us enjoyed the journey. The HealthRing by Lumine. 4 magnets. Acupressure. £32. 90-day money-back guarantee. https://try.lumine-home.com/healthring/news You don't have an identical twin to compare with. But you've got 90 days and a tape measure. That's your control group. Measure your waist today. Wear the ring. Measure again in 6 weeks. The tape measure will tell you which circuit your belly was on all along.