Menopause Weight Gain: Stop the middle age spread
Most women gain weight as they age, but excess pounds aren’t inevitable. To minimize menopause weight gain, step up your activity level and enjoy a healthy diet.
As you get older, you might notice that maintaining your usual weight becomes more difficult. In fact, many women gain weight around the menopause transition. Menopause weight gain isn’t inevitable, however. You can reverse course by paying attention to healthy-eating habits and leading an active lifestyle.
What causes menopause weight gain?
The hormonal changes of menopause might make you more likely to gain weight around your abdomen than around your hips and thighs. But, hormonal changes alone don’t necessarily cause menopause weight gain. Instead, the weight gain is usually related to aging, as well as lifestyle and genetic factors.
Studies have shown that menopause is responsible for a weight redistribution, concentrating fat around the abdomen, rather than weight gain itself. For example, muscle mass typically diminishes with age, while fat increases. Loss of muscle mass decreases the rate at which your body uses calories, which can make it more challenging to maintain a healthy weight. If you continue to eat as you always have and don’t increase your physical activity, you’re likely to gain weight.
Genetic factors also might play a role in menopause weight gain. If your parents or other close relatives carry extra weight around the abdomen, you’re likely to do the same. There are genetic predispositions to weight gain. In addition, researchers have identified chemicals in your body that regulate weight and eating.
Ghrelin and Leptin:the “hunger hormones,” leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is a hormone, made by fat cells, that decreases your appetite. Ghrelin is a hormone that increases appetite, and also plays a role in body weight. Levels of leptin — the appetite suppressor — are lower when you’re thin and higher when you’re fat. But many obese people have built up a resistance to the appetite-suppressing effects of leptin, says obesity expert Mary Dallman, PhD, from University of California at San Francisco.
What We Know About Ghrelin
Ghrelin, the appetite increaser, is released primarily in the stomach and is thought to signal hunger to the brain. You’d expect the body to increase ghrelin if a person is undereating and decrease it if he or she is overeating. Sure enough, ghrelin levels have been found to increase in children with anorexia nervosa and decrease in children who are obese.
German researchers have suggested that ghrelin levels play a big role in determining how quickly hunger comes back after we eat. Normally, ghrelin levels go up dramatically before you eat; this signals hunger. They then go down for about three hours after the meal.
OTHER IMPORTANT FACTORS:
Other factors, such as a lack of exercise, unhealthy eating and not enough sleep, might contribute to menopause weight gain. When people don’t get enough sleep, they tend to snack more and consume more calories.
How risky is weight gain after menopause?
Menopause weight gain can have serious implications for your health. Excess weight increases the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems and various types of cancer, including breast, colon and endometrial cancer. In fact, obesity has been classified as a disease, and has been linked to 13 different types of cancer. Losing excess weight reduces cancer risks. It also lowers blood pressure, normalizes cholesterol and glucose levels in the blood and often gets us off medications we no longer need.
What’s the best way to prevent weight gain after menopause?
There’s no magic formula for preventing — or reversing — menopause weight gain. Simply stick to weight-control basics:
- Move more. Aerobic activity can help you shed excess pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Strength training counts, too. As you gain muscle, your body burns calories more efficiently — which makes it easier to control your weight.
- For most healthy adults, experts recommend moderate aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, for at least 150 minutes a week or vigorous aerobic activity, such as jogging, for at least 75 minutes a week. In addition, strength training exercises are recommended at least twice a week. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you might need to exercise more.
- Eat less. To maintain your current weight — let alone lose excess pounds — you might need about 250 fewer calories a day during your 50s than you did during your 30s and 40s.
- To reduce calories without skimping on nutrition, pay attention to what you’re eating and drinking. Choose more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, particularly those that are less processed and contain more fiber.
- Legumes, nuts, soy, meat, fish or chicken are healthy protein options. Replace butter, stick margarine and shortening with oils, such as olive or vegetable oil.
- Slow down on Sweets! Added sugars account for nearly 300 calories a day in the average American diet.
- Say no to sweet beverages: About half of these calories come from sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soft drinks, juices, energy drinks, flavored waters, and sweetened coffee tea.
- Limit alcohol. Alcoholic beverages add excess calories to your diet and increase the risk of gaining weight.
- Seek support. Surround yourself with friends and loved ones who support your efforts to eat a healthy diet and increase your physical activity. Better yet, team up and make the lifestyle changes together.
Remember, successful weight loss at any stage of life requires permanent changes in diet and exercise habits. Commit to lifestyle changes and enjoy being healthy.
