Like average American women in their 40’s and 50’s, you start to gain weight without noticing it. Then you suddenly realize that you are also experiencing menopause blues! This convinces you more to think that menopause and weight gain are two inseparable things.

menopause and weight gainThink again because this may be just a myth and far from being a fact. According to Barbara V. Howard of Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), who is also the author of one of their most recent studies on menopause and weight gain, “Gaining weight seems to be a trend in this country, in men and women,” and adds “I don’t think menopause adds anything special.”

So there you go, if you have the tendency to use your menopause as an excuse for weight gain, you now know that is not true.

There are several reasons for the increase in weight gain and one of them is the decreasing metabolism with increasing age that makes the extra calories you take to be unburned and stored as excess fats in problem areas.

Another reason related to this is the significant decrease in lean muscle mass as you age, which is important because they burn more of the calories than the fats.

One reason why you probably associate menopause and weight gain is due to the decreasing hormones, which in fact decreases the body’s ability to burn calories even when at rest.

And although the decrease in hormones affect the proportion of lean mass and fat in women during menopause, this however, is not so outstanding to cause all the extra pounds you’ve gained.

Another culprit for menopause and weight gain is the significant decrease in your physical activity which not only adds to the pounds, but more seriously causes the health conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart ailments.

What you can do is improve your lifestyle to address the problem of menopause and weight gain. You can do this by increasing your level of activities. Regular exercise will help burn your calories; you can do walking or running at the park for a few hours each day.

You can also walk to the grocery store when buying stuff for the house instead of driving if it’s not so far from your place. Menopause and weight gain can be depressing especially if you notice that the excess fats find their way of settling in areas where you want them the least.

This you can blame on the hormone changes, but you can still take charge and combat those effects by exercise. You can also include moderate weight training in your exercise routine to help you build your muscles that will help burn the excess calories that affects menopause and weight gain.

Exercise used to be a problem during your younger years when you were stuck with home responsibilities and taking care of the kids. Think of your menopause as the perfect time to take care of your body by pulling your schedule together by including a leisure time and a time for exercise. You will find it fulfilling, rewarding and beneficial to your health.

Menopause and weight gain are not inevitable. But still you can go through your menopause, and yet have smaller waist, trimmed arms and thighs and a sexy butt and tummy. You can add to your regular exercise a healthy diet composed of low-fat high-carbohydrate food choices.

The same WHI study that was conducted by Howard indicated that this diet helped women maintain their weight during their menopause. Also, decreasing your daily caloric intake of only about 1300 calories can help you deal with menopause and weight gain.