Many women struggle to lose weight after menopause. Why? Because menopausal hormone changes promote weight gain and sabotage weight loss.
Chetanna Okasi, MD, and the team at Women’s Wellness MD understand the challenges of menopause and why postmenopausal women have such a difficult time losing weight. Here, we explain the hormonal changes and recommend how to reach your goals.
Along with its crucial role in your reproductive system (and many other body areas), estrogen helps regulate your weight through four actions:
When estrogen levels drop, your metabolism slows, and you burn fewer calories. Low estrogen may also contribute to insulin resistance (when your cells don’t respond to insulin). If you have insulin resistance, your body turns more blood sugar into fat.
Combining a slow metabolism with increased fat storage creates a challenging roadblock for losing weight.
Along with increasing overall fat levels, the drop in estrogen changes how your body stores fat, causing fat to accumulate in your abdomen and leading to a dramatic increase in waist size.
Gaining weight in your abdomen also poses other health risks. The fat builds up around the internal organs, which increases your risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
After menopause, women’s muscle strength and mass decline because estrogen has a vital role in maintaining healthy muscles. This change magnifies the natural tendency to lose muscle with aging.
Muscles use about 20% of your total daily energy (calories). As muscle mass declines, you burn fewer calories, and losing weight is more challenging.
Without estrogen, your body produces less leptin — a hormone that lowers your appetite.
When leptin levels fall, you feel hungry (even if you just ate). Your brain thinks you’re starving and slows calorie burning to preserve energy. And you’re at risk of developing cravings and overeating.
During menopause, a drop in estrogen decreases your active thyroid hormone levels, and can lead to hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormones). Hypothyroidism slows your metabolism, including your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Your BMR, the calories used to keep you alive while resting or sleeping, accounts for up to 70% of the total daily calories you burn. A sluggish metabolism and slow BMR may affect your ability to lose weight.
Here are several recommendations for overcoming the weight loss challenges of menopause:
You’ve heard the same advice many times: limit calories, follow a well-balanced meal plan, and get enough exercise.
But keep reading because we have three dietary recommendations tailored to improving weight loss after menopause:
When dieting, your body pulls protein out of your muscles for energy. This muscle loss can hinder weight loss because muscles burn more calories than fat.
Protein is vital for building muscles. Boosting your protein intake can preserve muscle mass and increase calorie burning. Talk with us or consult a health care provider if you’re unsure how much protein to include in your diet.
You need strength training (resistance training) to strengthen and build muscles. This lifestyle change supports weight loss because muscles burn more calories than fat. It also preserves them when dieting.
Resistance training includes using elastic bands, lifting weights, and using your body weight to work muscles through activities like pull-ups, push-ups, and lunges.
If you don’t already engage in strength training, consult an exercise coach to be sure you use the correct technique and don’t put yourself at risk for overuse injuries.
No matter how frustrated you may be that menopause is causing weight gain and blocking your weight loss efforts, this is not the time to turn to crash or fad diets.
Losing weight rapidly virtually guarantees you regain it and worsens imbalances in appetite and fat storage hormones, accelerating muscle loss.
Instead, aim for a slow and steady rate of dropping a few calories weekly. You can sustain this pace for the long run, and you’re more likely to reach your goal.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) restores estrogen to its healthy levels. As you regain hormonal balance, you also overcome the challenges caused by low estrogen, including roadblocks to weight loss.
We specialize in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Bioidentical hormones, made from plants, differ from other synthetic hormones because they have the same molecular structure as your body’s hormones.
If you need help with menopause weight gain, call Women’s Wellness MD or book online today.
