By Sandra Gordon | Contributor
You’re continuing your regular workout routine and maintaining a similar diet. So why are your jeans feeling tighter? Why do your long-time clothes suddenly feel snug? If you’ve entered perimenopause—the transition before menopause when estrogen levels begin to decline—or menopause itself, take note.
Menopause doesn’t automatically mean weight gain. “Not all women gain weight during menopause,” states endocrinologist Loren Wissner Greene, M.D. However, many do.
Research from the Women’s Healthy Lifestyle Project, a five-year randomized clinical trial published in Circulation, indicates that post-menopausal women typically have increased body fat and higher levels of abdominal fat compared to other women of the same age.
“They tend to develop what I refer to as the Buddha belly,” remarks Larrian Gillespie, M.D., author of The Menopause Diet, who experienced this firsthand. Gillespie gradually gained 25 pounds in her mid-40s. “What was once a dancer’s physique transformed into a spider-like figure—thin arms and legs connected to a large, round torso,” she describes.
Declining Estrogen Levels
Gillespie connects weight gain during menopause to secondary liver enzymes influenced by decreasing estrogen levels during perimenopause and menopause.
She explains that these liver enzymes prompt the body to store fat primarily in the hips and abdomen to compensate for the estrogen no longer produced by the ovaries. (Similar to the ovaries, body fat also produces estrogen.) “The body always seeks a substitute for what it loses. In this case, fat serves as that substitute,” she states.
Wissner Greene adds that mood fluctuations and depression often associated with menopause, along with the reduction of muscle mass due to aging, can contribute to weight gain during this transitional period.
Additionally, gaining weight in the abdomen at this stage can increase the risk of insulin resistance, leading to type 2 diabetes, as well as high cholesterol and heart disease, which the American Heart Association notes affects more women than men each year.
“Don’t accept mid-life menopausal weight gain as your fate.”
Strategies to Combat Weight Gain
What steps can you take?
“There are strategies women can employ to combat this,” advises Wissner Greene. Here are some ways to help manage menopausal weight:
- Consider eating smaller meals—specifically, five meals of 250 to 300 calories each throughout the day instead of fewer larger meals. Gillespie explains that smaller meals can help counteract the liver enzymes produced during menopause that promote mid-body fat accumulation. They also help stabilize insulin levels to prevent insulin resistance, a condition where cells become less responsive to insulin, hindering glucose, the body’s main energy source, from entering cells.
Insulin resistance, linked to increased abdominal fat and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, may encourage fat storage. “When glucose can’t get into your cells, the body interprets that as starvation,” says Gillespie. “Consequently, it becomes very effective at storing carbohydrates as fat rather than using them for energy.”
- Continue exercising. As we age, muscle tissue naturally declines, reducing calorie needs—a process that begins in your 20s. By age 45, for example, you could have lost a significant amount of muscle. Regular physical activity, especially strength training, can help combat these changes and promote calorie expenditure.
The muscle gained from exercise requires more energy to sustain than fat, Gillespie explains. It also helps reduce the liver’s fat-storing enzyme production. Aim for 30 minutes of aerobic activity, such as walking, daily, along with at least 30 minutes of strength training twice a week, if possible.
“Physical activity, especially working out with weights (strength training), helps counteract your body’s changing composition and encourages calorie expenditure.”
- Monitor caloric intake. Regardless of your exercise routine, you’ll want to ensure your diet isn’t sabotaging your efforts with excess calories. To calculate the number of calories you need to maintain your weight, “multiply your weight in pounds by 11,” advises Gillespie. Then, add 400 to 600 calories for any mild to intense exercise sessions.
If your goal is to lose weight, “consider creating a daily deficit of 500 calories by burning off 250 calories through exercise and reducing calorie intake by another 250,” Gillespie recommends. This balance is sufficient to keep your metabolism active, aiming for a weight loss of about one pound per week.
Editor’s Note: This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and does not constitute medical or other professional advice.
