When you bring up the topic of weight gain to women over 50, you’re more likely to find that many of them feel that menopause and unwanted weight gain are somehow linked. Lifestyle changes at this age may explain some of the weight gain, but it does not explain why women’s bodies tend to retain even more calories and redistribute weight to the abdomen and hips after menopause.

Various body changes are to blame for weight gain. A hormonal change is one of those changes, but what it does to the body is not yet fully understood. Due to the lack of ovulation after a woman reaches menopause, her body naturally produces less estrogen. Low estrogen levels have been shown to cause weight gain in animals, so why would it be so hard to believe that the same thing happens to a woman’s body? This change redistributes fat in the body away from the hips where it was stored during the years when a woman could have children in the abdomen like most men. This change leads to an increased risk of heart disease.

As men and women age, they find that lean muscle tissue is slowly converted to fat and their metabolism slows down. If you do not adapt your diet to the decrease in metabolism, you will quickly see unwanted weight gain. Someone under 40 just needs more daily calories compared to someone over 60.

Sometimes menopausal symptoms can be controlled with hormone therapy. One benefit of hormone therapy is that studies have shown that it does not cause weight gain in women. Temporary side effects like water retention and bloating may be experienced at first. This is good news … in the past it was believed that it actually caused a person to gain weight due to fat. As an added benefit, because fat does not travel to the abdominal area, a woman is less likely to suffer from heart disease and cholesterol levels increase. On the bad side, connections have been made between hormone therapy and an increase in breast cancer.

There are other healthy things you can do for yourself if you find that menopause is causing you to gain weight …

Change your diet to include low-fat options and increase your fiber intake. Also avoid excess processed sugar.

Start an exercise program. This helps counteract the natural decline in physical activity a person engages in as they age. Things like less active vacations, not having to follow any children, and a less physically demanding job add to this. Start slow and build up to at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day to make up for the difference.

Use resistance training to maintain muscle strength with wrist and ankle weights while walking or cycling.

Remember to keep some of these changes in perspective. If your figure starts to change, but you are not really gaining weight, then you have nothing to worry about.

Take the time and talk to your GP before starting any type of exercise program, specifically if you have any pre-existing health conditions or are generally in poor shape. They will also be able to provide you with solutions for any possible weight gain or other symptoms that you may be experiencing due to menopause.