Does Menopause Cause Weight Gain

Yes, it does. One factor that causes menopausal women to gain weight is the hormonal imbalance. It affects the way their metabolism and fat storage systems work. These hormones include estrogen, progesterone, androgen and testosterone.

Estrogen is the hormone that causes women’s monthly ovulation. When entering the menopausal stage, women’s estrogen declines in number thus resulting ovulation to stop. At this time, the body will start looking for other places to get estrogen. The fat cells are able to produce estrogen, so the system will work on converting the calories to fat to be able to produce more estrogen. But the fat cells don’t burn calories like muscle cells so it causes the body to store more pounds. This can be one of the main reasons to gain belly fat in women.

Progesterone also decreases during menopausal stage. It causes water retention that will make women look fat. However, water retention can disappear after some time. Androgen is the hormone that is resposible for the additional weight in a women’s mid section. And testosterone is what causes the metabolism to function slowly making it harder for the body to burn fats.

Some additional factors on gaining some pounds during menopausal stage include stress and lifestyle. During this stage, women tend to do less physical activities and while only mentally stimulating themselves. Drinking lots of alcohol drinks can as well as eating habits is another factor that causes menopausal women to gain weight. Sometimes, they eat more than what their body needs due to stress.

Menopausal Symptoms include:

• Irritable
• Headaches
• Palpitation
• Drying of Vagina
• Weight Gain
• Mood Changes
• Night Sweats
• Poor Concentration
• Tingling
• Fatigue
• Fluctuating libido
• Interrupted Sleep

Some Helpful Advise

• Changing the lifestyle is the best start. As early as age 35, women should start working on physical exercises that forces the body to burn fat. Activities such as 30-minute walking, playing badminton and jogging are best examples.

• Menopausal women must start eating healthy. Healthy foods that don’t contain extra calories can help women feel strong and not add unwanted fats to the body.

• Eating about 5 smaller meals per day can help to speed up metabolism

• They must start watching what they eat. Keeping a record of the calorie intake can help stopping oneself in eating more.

• Food supplements help maintain women’s need in vitamins, minerals and nutrients that keeps them healthy and doesn’t make them gain weight.

• Green tea, which contains antioxidants, is advisable to keep the women active and energetic.

• Avoid soft drinks because these beverages have hidden calories that add too much unwanted fats in a woman’s body.

• Drinking alcohol is also causing the body to gain more calories. Though some women prefer drinking vodka as an alternative to calorie-filled alcohol drinks, it’s still advised to be drink moderately.

• Drink more water.

• Go on vacation and do lot of relaxation to release stress.

If menopausal women are not careful, gaining too much during and after menopausal stage may lead to short and long time diseases. Breast cancer, heart attack, insulin resistance and kidney diseases are some of the diseases that can be acquired by menopausal women. So, it is advisable that during the menopausal stage, they should start learning how to lose weight to avoid such life threatening diseases.