Menopause Belly (And How to Get Rid of It)
When menopause begins, the waistbands of your clothes may start feeling tighter. Even if you’re eating all the same foods and exercising as you always have, your belly will likely get poochy.
Some treatments for breast cancer also may cause you to gain weight.
Why does belly fat increase during menopause?
According to the Mayo Clinic, many women gain about a pound or so a year as they move through their 50s. This is commonly called menopausal weight gain. There are many reasons for this, including lower estrogen levels, being less active, and poor sleep.
The drop in estrogen that comes with menopause makes it more likely for women to gain weight around the belly, rather than the hips and thighs. Before menopause, when estrogen levels are higher, fat is more likely to accumulate around the hips and thighs. When estrogen levels are lower, more testosterone is available. Testosterone makes fat more likely to accumulate around the abdomen. So women tend to have more of a pear shape before menopause, and more of an apple shape after. (Men also tend to have more of an apple shape — testosterone is why.)
Subcutaneous belly fat versus visceral belly fat
About 90% of body fat in most people is subcutaneous, the layer of fat that’s just beneath your skin. If you pinch your belly, the soft fat you can hold on to is subcutaneous fat.
The other 10% of body fat is visceral fat. Visceral fat is deeper inside the body. It wraps around the internal organs like the liver, kidneys, and intestines. Having some visceral fat is healthy — it helps protect and cushion your internal organs. But having too much visceral fat can affect your health.
After menopause, your body has a tendency to convert subcutaneous fat into visceral fat. So if you have more belly fat, you have a higher risk of that turning into visceral fat.
Fat cells, particularly visceral fat cells, play an active role in how your body functions. Fat cells secrete hormones and other substances that affect other tissues and organs.
Subcutaneous fat cells secrete more beneficial substances than visceral fat cells. Visceral fat cells make more cytokines, proteins that can lead to chronic low-level inflammation. This type of inflammation is a risk factor for heart disease, dementia, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis, among other conditions. Visceral fat also produces a protein that is converted to angiotensin, which causes blood vessels to constrict, increasing blood pressure.
How to lose menopause belly fat
Most experts agree that basic weight loss strategies can help you lose belly fat, including exercise and making changes to your diet.
Sadly, you can’t spot-reduce belly fat, meaning you can’t lose belly fat simply by exercising your abdominal muscles. But you can lose weight by doing exercises that help you gain muscle — for instance resistance training with weights or bands. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
Eating a healthy diet with fewer calories also can help you lose weight. Experts say that women might need about 200 fewer calories a day during their 50s than they did during their 30s and 40s. This is especially true if you’re less active than you were in your 30s and 40s.
Is there a menopause belly diet?
Despite what certain online ads say, there’s no diet that will make a menopause belly disappear. Eating a diet packed with vegetables, fiber, and lean protein can help you lose weight, which will help make a menopause belly smaller.
Many registered dietitians recommend a nutrient-dense diet full of vegetables and lean protein, like chicken, fish, tofu, and beans. They also recommend limiting foods high in sugar, salt, and trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oils).
“When you're thinking about your plate, a good framework to start with is to think about two-thirds of your plate being vegetables, fruits, whole grains, or beans and legumes, and then aiming for one-third or less of your plate to be from animal protein,” said Erica Salehi, MS, RD, a PhD student in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Ideally, says Salehi, these are lean proteins, like poultry, seafood, and eggs. ”If you do eat red meat,” she says, “try to limit it to maybe once or twice a week.”
Alcohol is full of empty calories and contains no nutrients. After a few drinks, you’re also more likely to make poor food choices and eat more fatty, salty foods. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s best to drink non-alcoholic beverages.
Are there specific workouts for menopause belly?
As with diet, there aren’t one or two workouts that will make you lose belly fat. Sit-ups and crunches can help strengthen your abdominal muscles, but won’t necessarily help you shed pounds.
Instead, an exercise routine that includes strength training, aerobic exercise, balance training, and flexibility work will help you lose menopausal weight overall, which will help reduce belly fat. Even if the number on the scale doesn’t move much, exercise can help you lose visceral belly fat and gain muscle mass.
Stretching, or flexibility exercises, also are important because the more flexible you are, the better your range of motion and the better you move overall. And if your body feels better, you’re more likely to stick to your exercise program.