Menopause weight gain causes and solutions

By Carolyn Schropp BS, NC, Functional Nutritional Consultant and Educator at HealthWalk™

As many women enter menopause, they find themselves experiencing unexplained weight gain especially around the waist and hips despite their best attempts to diet. Often the methods of weight management that worked for them for years are suddenly ineffective. In fact, weight gain in the abdomen is one of the most common complaints among menopausal women. Many women have been told that an extra 10-20 pounds is simply a rite to passage at this time of life and they should just accept their “middle-age spread.”

You absolutely do not have to. There is no reason you should settle for anything at this stage of your life, let alone weight gain. Things may get a little more complicated during menopause. Hormone fluctuations, many years of toxins, and your body’s natural proclivity for retaining estrogen producing fat cells at this time can result in some extra weight. But it doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it.

Weight gain is just another symptom resulting from your system being out of balance. To restore balance, you need to figure out what is going on at the core of your physiology and emotions. At HealthWalk we can analyze and support the rebalancing of hormones based on a saliva hormone test and our Functional Nutritionist and Vital Hematologist can analyze over all health so that there is a comprehensive plan to support your wellbeing.

For many years, many women followed a low fat, high carbohydrate diet, with lots of processed foods (pasta, breads, crackers, beer, wine etc).Over time this diet can create a condition known as insulin resistance. When you are insulin resistant your body converts every calorie it can into fat even if you are dieting. The result is that while you are gaining weight, your cells are actually starving! At HealthWalk we can analyze your sugar imbalance and adrenals with the comprehensive wellness panel (blood chemistry analysis). Once your blood chemistry profile is determined we recommend supplementation and a nutritional protocol to put the body back to balance.

A second basic link lies between stress and body fat. Stress hormones, like cortisol is released from the adrenal glands that block weight loss. This is sometimes called the “famine effect” despite adequate food, the body interprets prolonged stress as a famine, once again goes in hoarding mode which it does very effectively.

Stressors can be emotional, physical, or even diet related. Bingeing, yo-yo dieting, unaddressed food sensitivities, and severe calorie restrictions are all forms of stress on the body. Many of us are under tremendous amounts of stress often more than we realize and much of it is prolonged and unremitting, which can lead to chronic inflammation and a metabolic disorder called adrenal fatigue.

For women in perimenopause, another weight gain issue is widely fluctuating estrogen levels, and in menopausal women, diminished levels of estrogen. As the estrogen production of your ovaries falls, your body turns to secondary production sites, including body fat, skin and other organs. Often your body is balancing estrogen loss with maintaining bone mass, for which it needs additional fat cells. If you are stressed and on a low fat diet, your body will struggle to keep these balls in the air and refuse to let go of extra body fat.

So the truth is, weight loss is not about willpower or calories in/calories out. Both are myths by the diet industry that doom us to failure.

The best way to jumpstart your metabolic function is to eat well and include proper supplementation. Eat often and regularly just watch that portion size.

• Your thumb = 1 oz
• Your palm = 3-4 oz
• Your closed fist = 1 cup
• Your thumb tip = 1 tsp
• A handful = 1-2 oz of snack food, like nuts

Just as your body needs to be in balance to function well, your meals need balance to provide adequate nutrition. It may be helpful to revise your mental picture of a healthy meal from a pyramid to a square. The square has four compartments, protein, healthy fat, fruits/vegetables, and grains/legumes. Eating three “squares” a day is a good way to think about it. Also add two healthy snacks between the three squares a day.

In addition to what you eat, a few positive lifestyle habits can really make a difference in how you feel.

• Stop weighing yourself. Use your clothes as your gauge.
• Reduce the stress in your life to the extent you can.
• Start exercising. A 45-minute brisk walk 4-5 times per week.
• Buy organic and local whenever possible.
• Get 7 - 8 hours of sleep every night.
• Shop at farmers’ markets and specialty food stores that have a wider range of healthy foods.
• Make time for yourself to compensate for when you can’t.

Menopause is no reason to accept someone else’s idea of what your limitations are. There is no better time than now to begin building a stronger health foundation. Contact us at www.HealthWalk.com email us at info@healthwalk.com or call us at 877- 255-4703, we have the tools, support and information to empower you on your path to regaining and maintaining vibrant health.