Menopause, Hormones and Weight Control

Changes in your hormone balance is involved in menopause and weight control. Estrogen decreases, progesterone decreases, androgen increases and testosterone decreases. Each affects the way your body uses calories.

1. Estrogen: During a woman's fertile phase of life, estrogen is the female sex hormone responsible for causing monthly ovulation. During menopause, estrogen declines rapidly causing ovulation to stop.

Estrogen also seems to have a major part in weight gain during menopause. As your ovaries produce less estrogen, your body looks for other estrogen sources in your body. Fat cells can produce estrogen, so your body works harder to turn calories into fat to increase estrogen levels. Unfortunately for you, fat cells don't burn calories the way muscle cells do and you gain weight.

2. Progesterone: During menopause, progesterone levels also decrease. Like estrogen, lower levels of progesterone can be responsible for menopausal symptoms including weight gain.

Water weight and bloating are caused by decreased progesterone levels, however, does not necessarily result in weight gain. But clothes can feel tight so you feel heavier. Water retention and bloating usually disappear within a few months.

3. Androgen: An increase in androgen is one of the first signs of menopause. It is responsible for sending new weight directly to the middle section (the so-called "middle age spread").

4. Testosterone: Testosterone helps your body to create lean muscle mass out of the calories that you take in. Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells do, increasing your metabolism. During menopause, testosterone drops causing muscle to decrease. This means a lower metabolism, which means your body burns calories more slowly.

Other factors, like insulin resistance and stress, can cause weight gain during menopause.

1. Insulin Resistance: Insulin resistance results in your body storing fat, and decrease fat burning capacity. Processed and refined foods may make your body resistant to insulin. Insulin resistance causes weight gain.

2. Stress: Stress can also contribute to weight gain in menopause. Stress hormones, like cortisol, can prevent weight loss because they signal your body to go into a storage mode (called the "famine effect"). Your body thinks it won't get food again for a long time, so it stores calories as fat and causes weight gain.

So what can you do? First, it is important to accept weight gain and menopause as something natural. Menopause is not an illness and a little extra weight can actually help reduce other menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes. During menopause, weight gain is regulated by your body, and helps protect against osteoporosis and other illnesses. This is a time in your life to focus on being healthy. Three simple tips can work for you.

1. Eat a balanced diet. Avoid refined sugars and indulge in fruits and vegetables.

2. Remain active - it's as easy as 30 minutes of walking a day.

3. Get educated and learn more about what you can do to help your body during menopause.