What is the average weight gain during menopause?
One question I get asked a lot is how much does menopause contribute to midlife weight gain? And while it can seem like the weight has just crept on studies have shown that weight gain is not directly related to menopause but rather ageing in itself.
Weight gain during and after menopause has more to do with your lifestyle and the changes of ageing than with hormonal changes of menopause. Between the ages of 45-55 women (and men) typically gain about 1/2 a kilo per year which equates to 5kg over 10 years. If menopause was the sole contributor to weight gain men would not be gaining the same amount of weight.
Typically as we age we tend to move less or reduce our activity. Maybe we are not playing as much sport as we did when we were younger. Couple this with declining muscle mass due to ageing and its easy to see how weight can slowly creep on.
Dietary intake also plays a major factor in weight management and taking a look at your diet and looking at where you can make some changes is key to managing weight long term.
Hormonal changes of menopause do result in a change in body composition with increased fat and decreased muscle (thus no net change in weight) and can cause fat to settle in your abdomen rather than your hips, thighs and buttocks.
This visceral fat or abdominal obesity is a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes so reducing your weight to a healthy level can decrease your risk of these conditions. Changing habits and your lifestyle is key to managing midlife weight gain.
- Follow a healthy diet
- Quality protein at meals, complex carbs and good fats
- Reduce added sugars and highly processed carbs
- Exercise regularly especially resistance training
- Get more incidental exercise
- Aim for 7-8 hours sleep per night
- Manage stress levels
- Reduce alcohol consumption
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Source: https://www.jeanhailes.org.au/resources/menopause-and-weight-fact-sheet
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