Menopause & weight gain: here’s How To avoid it
The average age of the menopause in the UK is 51 with a normal range of 45-55.
A woman is classed to be in the menopause if she has not had a period for 12 months. By this point all sex hormone production (oestrogen and progesterone) will have come to a halt. Growth hormone carries on playing an important role and supports muscle formation and maintenance, as opposed to fat deposition but with increasing age the production of growth hormone gradually decreases.
With the onset of menopause women lose the protective benefits oestrogen provides.
As well as in the female reproductive tract, there are oestrogen receptors in the brain, bone, and heart. So when the production of oestrogen comes to a halt the effects oestrogen has on these organs are affected. The reduced ovarian hormones cause such an impact on quality of life which we’ll go on to learn more about below.
Menopausal symptoms :
Commonly experienced menopausal symptoms include the following:
Hot flushes/night sweats.
Cognitive symptoms and mood disorders - low mood, anxiety, irritability, loss of confidence, low self-esteem, difficulties with short-term concentration and memory (brain fog), and difficulties in multi-tasking.
Sleep disturbances (insomnia and disturbed sleep), fatigue, tiredness and low energy levels
Loss of sexual desire and libido
Joint and muscle pains
Headaches
Dry and itchy skin throughout the body. This includes vaginal dryness, irritation and discomfort. This may also include urinary symptoms such as urinary frequency urgency and recurrent lower urinary tract infections.
HRT mitigates menopausal symptoms, your options need to be discussed with your general health practitioner. Some women may choose not to go on HRT or are not safe to do so, if for example they have previously had oestrogen driven cancer.
The undesirable body composition changes which worsen in the menopausal transition indicate peri menopause may be the key time for lifestyle interventions to be put in place (exercise, nutrition and sleep) and this goes to all women, HRT or not you will still benefit from making changes in regards to supporting your cardiovascular health, maintaining lean muscle mass and mitigating body fat gain.
Menopause and weight gain
During the menopause women experience a change in body fat distribution to storing fat around their hips and glutes to around their stomachs, similar to as seen in men, this increases visceral fat adipose tissue (the fat around your organs) this type of fat plays a large role in cardiovascular metabolic problems. Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death post menopause.
This redistribution of body fat is highly frustrating for many women and many are left feeling confused and deflated as they haven’t done anything differently in terms of nutrition or exercise. But that’s the thing, your hormones are changing meaning you also need to change, by this I mean with your approach towards exercise and nutrition.
One of the biggest issues women face is the loss of lean muscle. With this loss comes a reduction in metabolism (approx 50-100 kcals per day), which is also impacted by reduced activity levels. Loss of lean mass is a large contributor to resting energy expenditure (the amount of calories your body burns at rest). This leads to further negative body composition changes.
Bone health
As women age there is an increased risk of osteoporosis (bone loss) this is down to the loss of oestrogen. (For women after the menopause bone loss can be up to 5% annually).
The risks of osteoporosis are: fracture risk, height loss and respiratory compromise, (this occurs if disks in your spine are compressed enough to reduce your lung capacity, due to stopping over).
Exercise has a bone building effect. Bones need a stress placed on them to build and stay strong. Weight training supports bone strength as skeletal muscle attachments pull on the bone to stimulate bone formation.
If you don’t enjoy weight training, try pilates as you’ll be loading your bones through body weight exercises.
For optimal bone health depends on having healthy levels of vitamin D and oestrogen. For women HRT is the most effective treatment for supporting bone formation.
Exercise
Weight training will favour your body composition as weight training is needed to retain and build new muscle tissue. Body composition is improved with weight training as muscle is more compact and denser than fat tissue. This will impact body composition as gaining more muscle may give a slimmer waistline and give you that ‘toned’ appearance.
Strength exercise has a positive impact on metabolic health. This type of exercise recruits many muscle units which are metabolically very active, increasing metabolic rate even after you stop exercising. This supports the regulation of blood glucose control (uptake of glucose from out of your bloodstream into your tissues I.e. muscles) therefore improving metabolic health.
Cardiovascular exercise supports hormones which optimise metabolic health and reduce hormones associated with stress. Cardio helps to reduce visceral fat (the fat around our organs we don’t want!) therefore improving metabolic health by improving insulin sensitivity, supporting body composition and making our hearts stronger. Types of cardiovascular exercise to include are walking, swimming, jogging/running, cycling and dancing. You need to find something which you can enjoy.
Don’t be afraid to step up the intensity and do some higher intensity training. Yoga, Pilates and steady state walking all are beneficial and serve a purpose but it's beneficial to get your heart rate up which can strengthen your entire cardiovascular system to a greater degree!
I’ve mentioned growth hormone above. This hormone is anabolic therefore supports the growth and repair of muscle tissue therefore supporting a positive body composition, along with supporting bone health. Growth hormone is stimulated both by exercise and sleep. Growth hormone also promotes fat breakdown and reduction in visceral fat. It is reduced as we age but it’s best to still follow all the right steps I.e. exercising and sleeping well to support the hormone release.
Nutrition
Women as they age don’t absorb the aminos acids in protein as well, meaning they need a larger serving of protein per meal to get enough stimuli to preserve or gain lean muscle. This reduced capacity for protein anabolism leads to a decrease in protein turnover and, eventually, a loss of muscle size and quality, particularly in post-menopausal women. The reduced oestrogen and reduced protein synthesis (absorption) may change the body’s metabolism and the rate at which the body uses circulating fat which can impact fat metabolism, storage and weight gain around the midsection.
Women as we age would benefit from larger servings of protein in one sitting rather than smaller spread out meals. This is due to needing a larger stimulus to hit muscle protein synthesis (MPS - the process of producing new muscle tissue). The best way to support muscle formation over breakdown is to consume pre-sleep protein: casein. This type of protein is slow release and will support muscle recovery overnight. An example of this is milk, milk provides the precursor tryptophan to make the sleep hormone melatonin.
The loss of oestrogen is associated with reduced responsiveness to insulin I.e. you become slightly more insulin resistant. This can lead to visceral fat gain and metabolic syndrome. Still eat carbohydrates but choose more of the ‘complex’ carbohydrates which are slowly released and contain fibre supporting your gut health. You'd be best to limit the over consumption of foods and drinks which provide fast release energy this will help with blood glucose control.
Take homes
Aim for 1.6 - 2.0g of protein per kg/bodyweight per day.
Consume 30-40g of protein at each meal and focus on workout nutrition I.e. make sure to have a large protein serving (30g+) after your workout to get that MPS response and have casein protein pre sleep to support recovery during the overnight fast.
Focus on your nutrition and remember ‘carbs are not making you fat.’ You’d do better for including carbohydrates in your diet as they help to lower cortisol. Cortisol is our stress hormone which in excess can lead to increased hunger, this combined with excess calories can lead to abdominal fat storage.
Do your workouts fuelled. There’s so much focus on ‘fasted’ workouts but they come with a downside. For women exercising in a fasted state can negatively impact the female hormone network thus can have subsequent effects on increasing cortisol which can impact metabolic health and body composition in the longer term.
Weight train 2-3 times per week and Include x3 30 minute moderate cardio sessions either at the end of your workouts or on separate days.
Supplement with vitamin D to support bone health, immunity, cardiovascular health and skeletal muscle. New research indicates that combining supplementation of vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 may be more beneficial for bone and cardiovascular health than just supplementing with vitamin D alone. Low levels of vitamin D are well recognised because of muscle weakness, lack of energy and general lack of well being.
Get enough sleep, this improves insulin and leptin sensitivity (this hormone influences appetite) and reduces cortisol. You become fitter when you sleep, positive hormonal adaptations actually occur whilst you’re sleeping. Growth hormone is released whilst we sleep, although this hormone reduces as we age we still get the same pattern of secretion.
And remember …
‘Genetics load the gun but lifestyle choices pull the trigger’
Genetics play a part in determining your overall health including bone health but modifiable lifestyle factors (exercise, nutrition and sleep) impact your hormones which impact gene expression.
The menopause does not need to lead to the inevitable:
Weight gain
Negative body composition changes
Metabolic health decline
Make proactive lifestyles modifications now.
