Mar 10
14
Menopause and weight gain
6 Comments
In my never-ending quest to defy the effects of menopause, I have continued doing research on “fitness over 50,” and have stumbled upon some interesting facts that help explain just why, for so many of us, aging equals weight gain. And why, in spite of living practically the same life I’ve led for years, my body has morphed into something that frustrates me. I have discovered that:
- Beginning at around age 25, we naturally replace 1/2 to 1 pound of muscle with fat every year, without changing anything at all about our diets. So even if I am consuming the same number of calories now that I ate 15 years ago, I’m still gaining weight.
- Most women will gain about 10 to 15 pounds during their menopausal years. At this stage, women develop “insulin resistance” making their bodies store fat, rather than burn calories. This “insulin resistance” changes how our bodies handle the foods we eat. For example, if you ate 1,000 calories before menopause, you would burn 700 of them and store around 300. After menopause, your body will store 700 and burn only 300! This is a big difference, and the result is weight gain! Even a modest weight gain can result in a change of dress size. Source: Menopause and weight gain.
- Muscle tissue burns eight times more calories than fat tissue.
- Fat takes up five times as much space as muscle. Fat is lumpy, muscle is sleek– it’s that simple. Just seeing this picture from onemorebite.com reminds me of what I don’t want hanging out of my swimsuit or bulging out of my jeans. Ugh.
5 lbs Fat vs. 5 lbs. muscle
- I should not be horrified, or feel discouraged, when I step on the scales and I haven’t lost but a half a pound in a week, in spite of exercising more and carefully recording my calorie intake. I need to be more concerned about body composition, and less concerned about what the scales say. If I tone up, lose inches, and don’t lose a lot of weight, I’ll still look and feel better. And that’s what wellness is all about.
- Thinner doesn’t always mean better. From Alive: Thinner does not always mean healthier, either. Extremely thin people often have a lower-than-desired lean mass percentage. When we do not ingest enough calories, not only do we lose a percentage of our fat, we also diminish the percentage of lean mass. Starvation studies have indicated that parallel losses of lean mass and fatty tissue left subjects with the same percentage of body fat after weeks of starvation.
- Sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain. Middle-aged women who sleep five hours or less every night weigh an average of 5.5 pounds more than those who sleep more, and are 32% more likely to experience major weight gain, 33 pounds or more, compared to those who slept 7 hours a night. Source: American Thoracic Society
I think I’ll go take a nap.
