April 5, 2009

Losing Weight During Menopause Calories

Reasons why women gain weight during menopause and tips to prevent it

For many women, gaining weight once they reach menopause is just another challenge that goes along with the deal. It should be taken seriously and losing the weight gained during menopause will have positive benefits for most women. Losing weight gained during menopause will help counteract the effects of the other many and varied symptoms women can experience, although, if you are underweight, gaining a few pounds could be good thing.

But why do women gain weight during menopause? During menopause your body gains weight because of the changes the way it stores fat. Instead of storing fat around the hips and thighs, our bodies begin to store fat around the waist area. Oestrogen causes us to store the weight on out hips, and because the oestrogen levels are dropping during menopause, it goes to our tummy instead. Abdominal obesity can put us at higher risk of diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. So to lose the weight gained during menopause is a very good idea.

Another cause of weight gain during menopause is the slowdown of the metabolism. Calories taken in become harder for the body to break down, therefore being stored as fats. Cholesterol levels tend to rise as a result of the drop in oestrogen. This is not good for the heart and can lead to heart problems in the future if this is not monitored and treated or the diet changed to compensate. It is important to exercise a little more and to be more aware of our daily intake.

All that taken into account how do you lose weight during Menopause? Actually, it’s very simple… Eat less fat! Before the menopause, oestrogen protects women from some of the effects of a high fat diet, but afterwards – as oestrogen levels decline – our level of HDL fat (the good fat) tends to fall, and our LDL (bad fat) tends to rise, thus increasing our risk of heart attacks. Limit yourself to a maximum of 30-35 grams of fat, per day. Of this, a maximum of 10 grams may be saturated fat.

Aside from reducing the calorie intake, any diet won’t be effective without regular daily exercise. Regular active exercise increases the production of HDL fat (the good fat) and thereby reduces LDL (the bad fat). It lowers the risk of diabetes, osteoporosis and other medical problems. Also, regular exercise helps raise our metabolic rate (thus easing weight loss) and decreases our feelings of stress (thus reducing our need for comfort-eating). Take at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, most days of the week.

For more detailed guides and info about this topic, please visit: http://lowestrogen.info

About the Author

For more detailed guides, tips and information about this topic, please visit:

http://lowestrogen.info

Author: OweEng2
Email: oweeng2@gmail.com

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