Menopause is the period of time when a woman stops menstruating. This normal process is marked by the absence of menstruation for 12 months, develops over several years and includes several stages. Often, menopausal women notice, among other changes, an increase in their body weight and difficulty losing it.
How does menopause affect body weight?
Hormonal changes: During menopause, various hormonal changes are caused in the female body, the most important of which is the decrease in estrogen in the blood and the subsequent increase in androgens.
These changes result in a sharp increase in fat mass and its redistribution in the body. The final result is an increase in total body fat which almost doubles and is concentrated mainly in the abdominal area. These body composition changes continue for up to 2 years after menopause.This phenomenon is mainly due to the reduction of the body’s “burns”, that is, the overall increase in fat at the expense of muscle mass reduces the body’s energy expenditure. Thus, many women notice an increase in their weight even if they have not changed their eating habits.
Increasing age: Many studies claim that weight gain is mainly due to increasing age and not so much to hormonal changes. However, the aforementioned hormonal changes combined with increasing age appear to be associated with changes in adipose tissue metabolism. So while age is primarily responsible for weight gain, hormonal changes ultimately contribute to the accumulation of abdominal fat and changes in body composition and image.
Other factors: Additional factors that can contribute to these changes are taking certain medications such as antidepressants, having low physical activity that further contributes to the loss of muscle tissue and a reduced basal metabolism, as well as family history.
How can we manage weight gain during menopause?
A balanced diet with a caloric deficit can lead to a reduction in body weight and fat. The purpose of nutrition is to reduce the energy (calories) consumed in relation to the energy expenditure of each individual person. In the bibliography, various types of diet are suggested for this phase, such as the Mediterranean Diet, but adherence to such a diet is more important than its type. In other words, the appropriate design of a diet tailored to the needs and specificities of each woman is needed, so that it can be followed more easily and in the long term. At the same time, physical exercise helps to maintain a low waist circumference and weight with quite important resistance exercises which protect the reduction of muscle mass.
Properly designed diet is capable of reducing body fat in the short term while adding exercise helps improve body composition in the long term. Therefore, the combination of exercise and nutrition is the key to achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight, but also to reducing the risk of developing various diseases.
Such an intervention is useful to be adopted from the initial stages of menopause, as it can lead to milder menopausal symptoms but also an overall better quality of life and health for women which are at this stage.