How Can You Succeed in Losing weight In Menopause?

Losing Weight In Menopause - How To Lose Weight In Menopause

Losing weight in menopause is not easy, but not impossible! Menopause is a time in women's life when a lot of changes are taking place in women's body. Most are due either directly or indirectly to fluctuating level of hormones and decline in estrogen production. Symptoms of hormonal changes can be difficult to deal with in some cases. You may experience insomnia, hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety and memory loss.
If that's not enough you have to deal with menopausal weight gain as well.

It is estimate that 70% of women around menopause put on extra weight.
  • Being overweight during the menopause creates a change in body fat distribution with the " pear" shape changing to the " apple" shape, which can increase the risk of heart disease. Where you carry your fat is as much important as how much you carry. When your fat is more around abdomen (apple shape), then it's more dangerous to your health.
  •  During menopause it's not only easy to gain weight, but also hard to maintain the usual weight level
  •  Weight gain is mostly related to hormonal changes, but also to your diet and decrease in physical activity
  •  Women's metabolism in menopause decreases and calorie requirements to maintain the body weight declines
  •  Women's muscle mass declines and fat increases
  •  Some health problems such as Hypothyroidism (under active thyroid ) act as an important factor in gaining weight in menopause
  •  Genetic factors may play a role in weight gain as well.

Weight gain during menopause is simply a proof that women's body is out of balance, because of menopausal changes. Knowing and understanding weight gain during menopause is important for restoring the balance. Sometimes all we need is some small lifestyle changes to improve our health.


What is the most effective and proven approach to losing weight in menopause?

The truth is, there is no quick and easy fix when comes to losing weight in menopause, but there is way of doing it. In order to lose weight and keep the pounds away from coming back you have to permanently make some changes to your lifestyle. My advice, don't try to change all at once because you are less likely to succeed. Here is the most effective approach to losing weight in menopause:

  •  Healthy diet weight plan based on balanced diet.

Forget about starving diets and fad diets. Starving is promoting weight gain by slowing body metabolism and fad diets make you lose weight, but you gain everything back even faster. The hardest part of using weight loss plan is to stick to the program. That's why implementing diet weight plan based on your REGULAR food you like is the best option. This way you can actually eat more and still lose weight! Since each person is different, the results may vary. Some women may lose their weight quickly and some may wait longer for more visible effects. The best results you can get are with slower weight loss, because it is healthier and easier to maintain. Generally what you have to do is to pay more attention to what you eat and in what quantities. It is beneficial to eat more often, but in smaller portions. For more information on Recommended Food Groups Servings check: Losing Weight In Menopause.

  •  Increased physical activity.
Although it is possible to lose weight without exercising, physical activity will boost your effort in losing weight in menopause. It doesn't necessarily have to be formal exercise program. It is proven that any type of activity you enjoy doing will work better in long run. If you hate exercising you may consider walking, swimming, dancing, etc. The main purpose of physical activity is to keep moving to increase the metabolism and build muscles. Excercise helps to preserve muscle and more muscle you have, the more calories your body will use up, even when you rest. Excercising promotes physical and emotional health .

  •  Reducing stress in your life.
Stress is one of the factor in gaining weight, because triggers uncontrolled hunger. Using some techniques for stress reduction, like yoga or meditation has a lot of benefits. Exercising is also one of the ways of reducing stress and restoring balance. Excercising releases endrophins known as "feel good" hormone. Sometimes even small treats you can give yourself such as nice relaxing bath, great movie, nice book, etc, will make you feel good and release this daily stress that is causing the health problems.

There are other things you should take in account, such as sleeping pattern of 7-8 hr, avoiding alcohol and caffeine, regular intake of vitamins and drinking enough water, but that goes without saying.

To some losing weight in menopause seams like impossible task, but it really isn't. That's true it takes more time to lose weight now then when we were young and active. But, if you implement the basic lifestyle changes and be consistent, you will lose menopausal fat, and that's guaranteed.

Losing Weight In Menopause - Health Benefits

Losing weight in menopause is very important. It is known that excess weight can have serious implication to your health.

  •  Heart disease - Being overweight increase the risk of heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women after the menopause. Many women perceive breast cancer as their biggest concern when in fact women are nine times more likely to die from heart disease than breast cancer.
  •  Level of cholesterol - menopause is associated with a gradual increase in cholesterol, especially the "bad" cholesterol, which can increase the risk of heart disease.
  •  Blood pressure - high blood pressure (hypertension), is a major risk in menopause. To control the blood pressure helps to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
  •  Diabetes - weight gain can lead to insulin resistance and to increased chance of getting type 2 diabetes.
  • Breast cancer - If that's not enough, excess weight increases breast cancer risk at 1% for every extra pound you gain.

Now you can see that losing weight in menopause is very important not only because you want to feel and look good, but because you want to enjoy happy and healthy life without the problems that menopausal weight creates.