Weight Loss and Menopause
September 23, 2009
Menopause changes body’s biochemical structure and affects our weight loss strategy. Many diet and health research have indicated that it becomes difficult for women to lose weight as their age increases.
As women get older, their metabolic rate tends to decreases which hampers the process of weight loss. Moreover, due to increasing age menopause also affects women’s body structure while again act as a hurdle in weight loss. Weight gain after menopause is apparently difficult to lose, and the extra pounds and inches tend to get accumulated around abdomen, instead of thighs and hips.
Here are a few ideas and suggestions to deal with post-menopause weight gain.
On an average, a normal woman can gain an extra pound in a year after menopause. A woman who is facing menopause notices that it is becoming difficult to maintain her usual weight or it becomes difficult to lose weight. The weight loss technique that must have worked for them before menopause, hardly works now.
Research and studies have indicated that normally women between the age group of 45-55 tend to gain weight faster. However, this weight gain is normal and to be expected.
Many believe that hormones associated with menopause are the main factor for the weight gain. However, it’s important to know that there are many factors that that are associated with the weight gain post-menopause.
Lifestyle, work habits plays a vital role in the body composition of women and post-menopause these factor effects a lot in maintaining weight. Menopausal women are mainly associated with desk bound jobs as compared to their younger counterparts and this is another factor that leads to weight gain. Stress related to menopause is another factor that contributes in weight gain.
Struggling with your weight loss and facing failure or very little success may lead to frustration and anxiety, which in turn hampers weight loss process as they put your body in to storage mode.
Another important factor to be considered that during menopausal years, resistance of insulin can occur. This generally happens when your body convert calories consumed by you into fat, making difficult or literally impossible to lose weight. That’s why it is recommend that you should consume more of high carbohydrate food and avoid fatty food. Try to avoid having processed, packaged, as well as refined foods. This makes your body resistant to insulin which make weight loss difficult.
Look at the brighter side, weight gain post-menopause is regulated by the body, which prepare you against several diseases such as osteoporosis. So instead of hating your body accept the same with open arms. It’s more important to be fit, healthy and active, so have a healthy diet and exercise regularly. You are still healthy if you are not able to fit into your old clothes, focus on being healthy and fit and enjoy every phase of your life.
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