Is possible to get rid of my ‘menopot’?

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Question

Hello,

I am 57 year old post-menopausal woman – and I want to know if it is possible to get rid of my ‘menopot’ – the 15 pounds of stomach fat that I have gained on my mid-section since going through menopause. My Ob/gyn has told me it’s permanent and a fact of life for most women my age and I should just get used to my ‘new body shape”. Is this true? or can I lose the menopot using the diet and exercise plans that you feature on this site.


Thanks for your advice!

Joan

Answer

Hi Joan,

While it is hard to lose the menopot, it is not impossible. It will take hard work and some strictish dieting too.

While there are hormonal issues at play which are causing fat to accumulate in your stomach area, one of the main reasons women gain weight during the menopause is simply down to the fact that they require fewer calories. The menstrual cycle requires energy, and from puberty more food is needed to fuel the process. When it comes to a close, less energy is needed.


However, we are people of habit and rarely eat based on hunger, so the result is too much food is eaten.

One way to tackle the menopot is to eat a diet which consists of more low GI carbohydrates. This is so that the sugars in food are less likely to cause insulin levels to quickly rise, and therefore your body is less likely to accumulate fat. Also add more fiber to your diet. Ensure that you are eating protein every day too, this will partly help to control hunger and also help to maintain muscle mass.

Muscle mass – another reason why women start to gain fat is because muscle mass starts to decline during and beyond the menopause and this lowers metabolism further. So it is important to exercise the muscles.

Exercise

Be as active as possible. Go for daily walks, cycle or swim. Also do some resistance training to help maintain, and ideally build, some new muscle.

As well as using resistance machines in a gym, activities such as yoga and Pilates will help strengthen and tone muscles – you do not need to do Olympic weightlifting!

It is not easy to control, but it is certainly possible. Many women do maintain slim figures in later life. Just look at people like Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda.


The hardest part will probably be sacrificing all your favorite foods and drinks though, so be warned!

 

2 Comments on “Is possible to get rid of my ‘menopot’?”

  1. Thanks for the reply and advice! this is encouraging to hear. Does supplemental bio-identical HRT (estrogen and progesterone) help or worsen the problem of weight gain? and will HRT help preserve and strengthen muscles when used with a diet and exercise program? I find conflicting information about the use of HRT to control weight. Also – are herbal HRT supplements such as Estroven (which contain phyto-estrogens) as effective and safer than bio-identical estrogens?
    Thank you again! I am so glad I discovered your website – you make dieting and exercise plans easy to understand and follow.
    Joan

  2. MotleyHealth says:

    There are several reports which state that HRT does indeed help boost muscle mass and function in women. Plenty of tabloid articles, this one is more authoritative though:

    Concludes: “HRT appears to have significant positive effects on both regulation of muscle contraction and myonuclei organization (essentially muscle cell health) in postmenopausal women”.

    As far as I can see there is no strong evidence of the effectiveness of estroven. Also, estroven contains black cohosh, which poses health risks. See “Clinical trials comparing estrogens with black cohosh preparations have shown a low incidence of adverse effects associated with black cohosh; headaches, gastric complaints, heaviness in the legs, and weight problems were the main adverse effects noted”.

    Weight problems – it might make things worse. But then again, it might not.

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