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What do you think about the debate about average weight gain during menopause?
Menopause is like the freshman fifteen. There's an average ten to twenty pounds, while some
people are unaffected and others use it to excuse a fifty pound weight gain.
Seriously, I heard that menopause causes you to gain weight.
Your metabolism slows down as you age, menopause or not. The major difference is that with
menopause, you start losing muscle mass.
Which causes you to gain weight.
Not if you watch what you eat and continue to workout.
I heard that people tend to gain a pound a year after menopause.
I don't see that many obese eighty year olds.
I see a lot of heavy old ladies in scooters.
Don't mistake their obesity for destiny. They might be overweight because of a lack of activity,
not simply their age.
It's so common they call it the middle-age spread.
Continue working out. Or start working out to lose weight now because it will be harder
to lose later.
Why have I heard that weight gain is universal during menopause?
The decline in estrogen makes women grow the stomach fat layer, kind of like blowing up
a beer belly even if you don't drink.
How can I get rid of it?
Watch what you eat, workout a lot, maybe start taking hormone replacement therapy.
I've heard the ads for guys with low-T, AKA low testosterone.
Some doctors would proscribe that to women to regain muscle mass, but that has its own
risks.
I hate looking so bloated.
The hormonal wind-down does increase bloating, too. But that's solved by taking diuretics.
Or hormones.
If you can't lose the weight, talk to your doctor.
Or a fitness trainer.