Menopause and Weight Gain

It may be a silly thing to say but menopause and weight gain go together like peanut butter and jelly or spaghetti and meatballs. Some of you might now be shaking your heads ruefully and thinking that those types of foods caused you to gain weight in the first place. If you are indeed going through menopause then you need to get that idea out of your head right now. Gaining weight through your menopausal years is completely normal. It happens to every woman. More importantly, it is not your fault! It is not your fault any more than pregnancy weight. Your body is revolting, your hormones are deserting it, and putting on some extra pounds is to be expected.

Do not start worrying that you are going to keep gaining weight though. It may be completely natural, but that does not mean you have to just let it run amok. There are a lot of things you can do to banish those extra pounds, but first you need to understand why you gain weight at this time in your life. It hardly seems fair, for certain. It is not as if you are not going through quite enough as it is.

Those same hormones that are sending your body and your emotions into revolt are the primary causes behind your weight gain. It may make you feel better to realize that out of all the women who experience menopause between the ages of 35 to 55, an astonishing 90 percent of them experience not only weight gain, but a definite change in the general shape of their bodies. It is not uncommon to gain as many as 15 pounds – and that is just the average figure. The first thing you will probably notice is that it is not settling the way it used to settle. Menopausal weight gain causes the extra pounds to settle around your stomach – specifically, your abdomen. As women usually gain weight around their hips, thighs, and buttocks, this can be an alarming development.

It is all because of your hormones. In addition to affecting the way you menstruate, they also affect your appetite, your metabolic rate, and even the way your body stores fat cells. That is why, although very healthy and definitely recommended, a healthy diet and exercise do not always make you lose weight during these years of your life. Diet and exercise can combat obesity, sagging muscles, and of course the addition of a few extra pounds. However they cannot defeat your crazily fluctuating hormones.

This weight gain during menopause does have some advantages though. That may be hard to believe, but just try to convince yourself the next time you have a hot flash. As difficult as it may be to believe, a few extra pounds can help suppress both hot flashes and night sweats. It can also help decrease the anxiety associated with menopause. If you are healthy, if you eat right, and if you stay active, you are okay. Do not sweat the extra weight so much – menopause will be over soon, and then it is possible to get the body you used to have back.