When you bring up the subject of weight gain with women over 50, you will most likely discover that many of them feel that menopause and unwanted weight gain are somehow related. Lifestyle changes at this age may explain some of the weight gain, but they don’t explain why women’s bodies tend to retain more calories and redistribute weight to the abdomen and hips after menopause.
Various bodily changes are to blame for weight gain. A hormonal change is one such change, but what it does to the body is not yet fully understood. Due to the lack of ovulation after a woman reaches menopause, her body naturally produces less estrogen. Low estrogen levels have been shown to cause weight gain in animals, so why would it be so hard to believe the same thing happens to a woman’s body? This change redistributes fat in the body away from the hips where it was stored during the years when a woman could bear children down to her abdomen like most men. This change leads to an increased risk of heart disease.
As both men and women age, they find that lean muscle tissue slowly converts to fat and their metabolism slows down. If you don’t adapt your diet to the decreased metabolism, you will quickly see unwanted weight gain. Someone under the age of 40 just needs more daily calories compared to someone over the age of 60.
Menopausal symptoms can sometimes be controlled with hormone therapy. One of the benefits of hormone therapy is that studies have shown that it does not cause weight gain in women. Temporary side effects like water retention and swelling may be experienced at first. This is good news… in the past it was believed that it actually caused a person to gain weight due to fat. As an added benefit, because fat does not shift to the abdominal area, a woman is less likely to develop heart disease and increase cholesterol levels. On the downside, connections have been made between hormone therapy and an increase in breast cancer.
There are other healthy things you can do for yourself if you find that menopause is making you gain weight…
Change your diet to include low-fat options and increase your fiber intake. Also avoid excess processed sugar.
Start an exercise program. This helps counteract the natural decline in physical activity a person engages in as they age. Things like less active vacations, not having to follow any children, and a less physically demanding job all add to this. Start slow and work your way up to at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day to make up the difference.
Use resistance training to maintain your muscle strength with wrist and ankle weights while walking or biking.
Remember to keep some of these changes in perspective. If your figure starts to change, but you’re not really gaining weight, then you don’t have to worry.
Take the time and talk to your family doctor before beginning any type of exercise program, specifically if you have any pre-existing health conditions or are in poor shape in general. They will also be able to provide you with solutions for any possible weight gain or other symptoms you may experience due to menopause.
