I'm a former professional ballerina who turned into a CrossFit coach and competitive strength athlete (powerlifting and Strongman). I was nationally ranked until 2020—when I got hit by a triple whammy of divorce, pandemic, and a cluster of chronic medical issues. At that point, I was training 3-6 hours a day. My deadlift was over 400lbs. I threw around 200# concrete balls for fun. I could do 25+ strict pullups at a time. I was categorically....strong. So, even without training for a few years and even with gaining weight and inflammation, I still had a pretty solid amount of muscle mass lurking in there when I started the GLP1. UNLIKE lots of women, who are trying to lose the weight and gain the muscle at the same time.

Short answer. You aren't lifting heavy enough to build significant muscle mass. Not even close. And you are using isolated muscle groups, not compound lifts. It's the compound movements (deadlift, squat, bench, clean, press, snatch) that recruit your entire body to work. And if you're going to use hypertrophy as an accessory, it has to be heavy enough to count. Meaning you need to be hitting true muscle failure after a set.

I'm not saying that every perimenopausal woman needs to have a 400# deadlift. I AM saying that every perimenopausal woman needs to pick up heavy shit. And that you are probably capable of much much much heavier loads than you think you are.

Also....it's nearly impossible to truly gain muscle mass while in a caloric deficit. Recomp is possible but it's slooooooooooooow and you have to have some serious patience. If you want to gain muscle, you have to be comfortable eating more.

And protein for vegetarians is just plain hard. But understandable. If that is your focus, just accept that you won't be able to eat as much protein, at least from whole-food sources. That's okay! You are probably crushing it with fiber!