Fighting Menopause Weight Loss

Most women who have gone through menopause will tell you that they gain weight during this phase of life. Interestingly, some doctors still swear that menopause has nothing to do with weight gain but if you ask the women, they disagree. For this reason, you often see women nearing her late forties becoming more and more concerned about menopause weight loss. Studies show that on average, a woman will put on 10 to 15 pounds once she starts into menopause. The key during this time is to be careful that the weight gain does not go any further or additional health risks could arise.

In addition to having concern about weight loss, typically a woman experiences weight distribution. In other words, if a woman previously had a pear shaped figure but then starts into menopause, she may notice that now, she gains weight in completely different areas of the body. Unfortunately, the majority of weight gained is in the abdomen, which can be very frustrating. This is also important in relation to menopause weight loss since weight carried around the center portion of the body actually puts more stress on the heart. Since women are prone to heart disease anyway, this is definitely not a good thing. While the woman cannot do much about where the new weight will hit, she can work hard on menopause weight loss to ensure not too much weight is gained overall.

Several things happen to a woman during the change of life that can cause unwanted weight. First, as the body stops producing the hormones estrogen and progesterone, she will begin to experience a number of symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, headache, mood swings, irritability, fatigue, depression, and so on. As the hormones decrease, the body begins to store fat intentionally so deposits can be used to produce more estrogen from other chemicals. Doctors also believe that the woman’s thyroid will stop working effectively, thus more concern over menopause weight loss.

Probably one of the main reasons a woman will gain weight is that while going through menopause, the body is going through a lot of changes that can be exhausting. As you can imagine, with energy being zapped, has little interest in working out to help with menopause weight loss. In addition, she might actually be missing an important chemical called laptin, which is what helps regulate a person’s appetite. With this being all out of whack, the woman may feel much hungrier that she really is, thus she overeats.

Laptin is also important regarding the way in which the body burns calories. When a woman does not have enough laptin, calories are not burned effectively. Making matters even more complicated regarding weight loss is the fact that laptin can be stored in the body but when this happens, the body’s metabolism can be slowed way down. That means for the woman to lose weight while in menopause, she would have to work out twice as often and twice as hard. The key is to understand that a slight increase in weight is perfectly normal. With good diet, lots of exercise, and probably taking the right supplements, she can maintain a healthy weight and get through the symptoms associated with menopause.