But not everything about menopausal fat is bad. In actuality menopausal belly fat is helping women to go through menopause with lower health problems. Fat helps to regulate production of estrogen, the female hormone, which we are losing in menopause.
Estrogen is known as a "female hormone" produced by ovaries and it is responsible for the development of breasts and hips in female body. Together with progesterone, another female hormone, estrogen regulates the changes that occur with each monthly period and prepares the uterus for pregnancy. Before women enter menopause ovaries make more then 90% of estrogen. Other organs that produce small amount of estrogen are adrenal glands, liver and kidneys.
Fat cells also can produce some estrogen, that's why overweight women have fewer problems with hot flashes and osteoporosis, when they are going through menopause.
There are other important benefits of estrogen, such as stimulation of skeletal growth (to keep healthy bones) and protection of the heart and veins, by increasing "good cholesterol" (HDL) and decreasing "bad cholesterol" (LDL).
Estrogen deficiency seems to interfere with the normal action of leptin which controls appetite and also increase the amount of calories being burned. This costs an accumulation of menopausal fat.
Progesterone is the second most important female hormone and like estrogen, the ovaries make most of it, with a smaller amount made by the adrenal glands. Generally progesterone's function is to support pregnancy. During menopause progesterone levels decline 120 times faster than estrogen levels. The result of that is "estrogen dominance." - too much estrogen with too little progesterone. This creates symptoms of hormone imbalance such as sleep disturbances, foggy thinking and abdominal weight gain.
So during menopause when we start losing estrogen and progesterone, women's fat cells are trying to compensate the decrease, by expanding. The bigger the fat cells become, the more estrogen will be made and... our waistlines are expanding with it.
That's why woman's body doesn't want to give up menopausal fat; it needs it to produce more estrogen.
Testosterone is another hormone produced by ovaries. Small amount is made by adrenal glands as well. Testosterone plays important part in maintaining energy levels, sex drive and number of other important functions, such as production of red blood cells and protection against osteoporosis.
Deficiency of testosterone results in a loss of muscle tissue and lean body mass. Lean body mass burns calories at a higher metabolic rate, so any reduction of muscles results in menopausal weight gain and accumulation of menopausal belly fat .
The worst problems occur when both ovaries have been removed by surgery (the source of estrogen and testosterone production is lost). The fall in hormone levels is sudden and severe. This situation is much different from natural menopause, where the decline in estrogen levels may be gradual and ovarian testosterone production may continue for several years. In that case many women experience significant weight problems, which is of course related to deficiency of both testosterone and estrogen.
Menopausal fat produced by fat cells in woman's body is its weapon against lost estrogen. Lack of estrogen makes the menopausal symptoms more sever. On the other hand excess of menopausal fat around our waistline increases the risk of heart disease, higher blood pressure, breast cancer, diabetes and higher level of "bad" cholesterol.
- In order to keep the same level of weight, you have to burn the same amount of calories as you eat.
- If you burn more calories than you eat, you are going to lose weight.
- If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.
During menopause there are several elements that will affect your weight loss effort, such as:
-Slow down metabolism related to aging.
With age we need less calories to maintain the same weight. This means we have to decrease amount of food, if we don't want increase of menopausal fat.
-Decline in hormones will have impact on menopausal belly fat as well.
a/With decreased level of estrogen and its relation to leptin, our appetite will increase causing weight gain and more of menopausal fat. The best solution is healthy diet, because even if we eat more, healthy food won't affect our weight as much.
b/Lower level of testosterone will decrease muscle mass, promote lower metabolic rate and will cause increase in menopausal fat. But if we build more muscle mass by exercising, we can burn more calories and speed up metabolism.
As you can see now, your real solution to menopausal belly fat is healthy lifestyle. Decreased level of hormones requires menopausal diet and regular exercising in order to maintain the body you want and to prevent from increase of menopausal belly fat .
During menopause to keep weight gain under control you must change your eating habits and your exercise routine to trick your body fat cells. They will be working against your weight loss efforts, because they need estrogen from your fat cells.
-The best diet to lose menopausal fat is a Healthy Eating Plan to satisfy your hunger with nutritional, healthy foods. You will need energy for your exercising and you want the metabolism to rise, to burn more calories. Did you know that you could actually lose more weight simply by eating the right metabolism burning foods?
- Exercise is necessary to increase the muscle mass and help you burn more calories. Muscle will burn calories even when you rest.
To burn menopausal fat you should exercise most days of the week for about 1 hr/day. Find some physical activity that you truly love (biking, swimming, dancing , etc) and use it as your relaxing time. The way our body works is that only after second half of the hour of the workout we start burning menopausal fat. To benefit the most you should work more than ½ hr at the time. Also you will get the best results when you are exercising first thing in the morning.
