What causes Menopause to affect your weight?

Menopause negatively influences body weight, which is a common complaint. But, before we delve deeper into the topic, it’s important to note that not every woman after or during menopause experiences unhealthy weight changes.

Most importantly, menopause alone does not contribute to weight changes. Other powerful causes lead to changes in body weight. Aging promotes muscle mass loss while the level of fat increases. The loss of muscle mass lowers the rate of metabolic calorie consumption, and this makes it trickier to manage a healthy weight. Also, increasing age makes us prone to less physical activity and more lethargy, which encourages a rise in body weight.

Furthermore, the impacts of certain medications like chemotherapy drugs, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics keep adding to weight shifts starting from menopause. Most importantly, as people age, they tend to sleep less, and a lack of sufficient sleep can change body weight.

What makes menopause responsible for weight changes are the associated hormonal changes. The body experiences a reduced production of estrogen and progesterone during and after menopause. As informed by verywellhealth.com, several findings highlight estrogen’s activity to block our hunger and appetite, restricting binge-eating and snacking. With diminishing estrogen levels, you may tend to eat more and acquire unhealthy weight.

Impact of Menopause on your Weight

Menopause favors the gain of fat. This irreversible biological process reduces the burning of calories by approximately 200, making it encouraging to gain weight.
Also, declining estrogen levels contribute to increased abdominal fat by influencing metabolism. The reduction in estrogen may cause ineffective use of starch and blood sugar, which encourages a rise in fat storage.

Menopause weight gain can mainly accumulate in the waist region, which is why having a bigger waistline becomes a greater possibility following menopause. A study found elevated waist circumference in 64% of postmenopausal women compared to 20% of younger women. Having more than 35 inches of waist size needs to be addressed consciously.
Furthermore, hormonal changes during menopause encourage more weight gain in the abdomen than in the limbs. Specifically, in the initial years of menopause, most people gain 5% to 8% of body weight. If you weigh 100 pounds, you may reach 105 pounds in the initial years following menopause. Findings also show a gain of more intra-abdominal fats in postmenopausal women compared to premenopausal ones.
Moreover, during the transition to menopause, there are greater chances of increasing fat amounts in the body, and women in the transition phase tend to increase waist circumference significantly. Besides, several studies have connected menopause transition with unfavorable body shape changes and fat deposition.
However, amid the discussion of weight gain, it’s important to note that menopause-influenced weight increase never happens overnight. The weight gained during postmenopausal years is a very gradual process.

The menopause-induced weight changes heavily influence cardiac health and cholesterol levels, and Postmenopausal women have more chances of developing cardiovascular diseases. Most importantly, a study found a pronounced rise in bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) and blood pressure in women following menopause.
Moreover, postmenopausal women are exposed to increased possibilities of endometrial, breast, and colon cancers. Studies have also linked menopause-induced obesity with sexual dysfunction. Also, it may cause a pronounced drop in sexual interest.

Managing Menopause-induced Weight Changes

As the age of any menstruating individual increases, experiencing menopause and its changes becomes inevitable. So, opt for strategies to manage weight changes that can come with menopause.

Healthy diet:

With or without menopause, healthy meals go a long way in maintaining a healthy weight. Moreover, having unhealthy or fatty foods during menopause can encourage menopause-induced weight gain.
But, with a well-planned diet, you can prevent or manage weight-related changes. So, maintaining a balanced diet helps to balance the negative shifts in body mass during menopause.

Exercise:

By exercise, we never refer to hardcore training. Simple practices like daily walking, swimming, or cycling need no special training and thus can be easily integrated into routines for shedding excess weight.
Also, physical activities contribute to healthy appetite management, which becomes difficult to manage following menopause.

Coming in terms with age-related changes:

Menopause welcomes many age-related changes that can favor depression or anxiety. Negative mental changes can fuel habits like unnecessary snacking that encourages menopause-induced weight gain. But, as people come to terms with aging impacts, they have chances of having good mental health, which helps manage any unhealthy weight change.

Good sleep:

Not getting good sleep hurts your health and fuels menopause-induced weight changes. Make sure to sleep at the same time every night. Also, having good bedtime rituals like journaling, reading books, or listening to soothing music improves sleep consistency and quality.

Preventing Menopause-induced Weight Changes

Preventing menopause-induced weight changes may seem difficult. But, with some easy tips, you can ease your way into preventing unhealthy weight shifts.
You can look for a specialized diet for shedding excess weight. Like, Verywellhealth.com mentions having a Mediterranean diet for healthy weight management, and this diet contains high fiber but low animal fat. Moreover, as pointed out by a study, postmenopausal women following the Mediterranean diet lost fat in the waist region.
Following well-planned meal structures right from the premenopausal years help in preventing weight gain. But, opt for thorough research and doctor’s consultation before selecting any diet.

Besides, lowering sugar intake reduces unnecessary calories and aids in preventing menopause-induced weight gain. Also, speaking about calories remind us of alcohol and beverages, which add extra pounds to your body. Thus, limit or stop having these drinks to prevent weight gain following menopause.
Most importantly, only addressing weight hikes can be like scratching the surface of the problem. One needs to consider menopause and its symptoms an important health concern, and such an approach goes a long way in preventing menopause-induced weight changes.
Besides, believing myths keep you from getting the proper treatment. It’s essential to stop harboring myths to prevent menopause-induced weight shifts. The central myth is the certainty of weight gain following menopause or the impossibility of shedding extra pounds. But, you can manage or prevent menopause-induced weight gain.

Final Thoughts

Menopause encourages weight gain in middle-aged women. The increase in weight gain can commonly occur in the waist region.
The menopause-induced weight increase results in damaging health consequences. These include cardiac diseases and high cholesterol levels.
One can manage or prevent menopause weight gain in several ways. Controlling diet is one of the valuable ways to combat the increase in fat levels.