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If you listen to many 50-something age women, you will realize that to them, menopause and weight gain seem to go hand in hand. It is a common sentiment to women that are old.
What they don't usually understand is why now they're gaining weight in different parts of the body, typically the stomach area, even though they may have noticed it mostly in their hips when they were younger.
Hormonal changes is the main culprit here, but it is still a mystery in some areas. When a woman reaches menopause and stops ovulating, it makes the body stop producing estrogen.
In laboratory animals, low estrogen has caused weight gain, so it can be assumed that this is why the female body changes shape. When a women is still ovulating, fat is stored in the lower body. After menopause, women store more fat in the abdomen, just like men. The danger of abdominal fat is a greater risk of heart disease.
Furthermore, both men and women lose muscle mass as they get old, unless they have regular exercise that includes strength training, and the metabolism slows down. If you do not change your eating habits, you are bound to gain weight. At 50 or 60, you need fewer calories than you did when you are 30 or 40.
Hormonal therapy is often suggested to control some of the side effects of menopause. Contrary to what you may have heard, it typically does not cause weight gain. You may have some water retention and subsequent bloating, but this is normally a temporary condition, and is not indicative of added fat. But a debate still rages around hormone therapy, primarily due to the results of some studies that show an increased risk of breast cancer linked to the use of hormone therapy.
So does this mean that there is nothing we can do? Of course not! There are steps that you can do to minimize the effects of menopausal induced weight gain that don't involves injecting hormones into your system.
1. Don't stop eating. Just make better choices. Eat the foods you know are good for you as part of a low fat diet. Get plenty of fiber and stay away from sugar and refined flour products.
2. Exercise regularly. Your metabolism is not the only thing that slows down as you age. Work is often less demanding physically, you're not running around chasing kids, your vacations are probably not as active as when you were younger, and in general you just do things a bit more slowly than before. You'd be amazed at what just 30 minutes of moderate activity every day will do for you.
3. Maintain your muscle mass by lifting hand weights or adding ankle weights when you walk. Of course, you should check with your doctor first before starting any exercise program if you're currently being treated for any medical conditions.
4. Love yourself. Even if you've put on a few pounds and your waist is thicker than it used to be, try to be okay with that. Like Mammy told Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, "You ain't never gonna have an 18 inch waist again!". Accept that and appreciate your life.
Another alternative is to try my Weight Loss Breeze plan. It consists of a few simple exercises that take mere minutes a day to do and makes losing weight at any age easy and almost effortless.
Christian Goodman is a well known Alternative health researcher and the creator of the Health Blog. His newest work is the Weight Loss Breeze Program , which has now helped thousands of people to reduce weight naturally.
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