Menopause and Weight Gain - How Hormones and Weight Gain Are Connected

I'm sure it's no big secret, particularly amongst women, that once we begin to trend towards the menopause age, nature tends to play somewhat of a cruel trick on us.

Not only do we suddenly find ourselves dealing with feeling as though we're about to lose our minds between the daytime hot flashes and the evening night sweats, but we are also often faced with watching our once shapely bodies morph into something that resembles more like a beer mug!

We often find ourselves feeling increasingly frustrated as we watch our body shape begin to change on the outside, yet many of us have no idea of the changes that had already begun several years prior on the inside!

As our childbearing years begin to draw closer to an end, our female hormones also begin to change.

During peri-menopause estrogen levels typically begin to fluctuate and as a result monthly menses also begin to become more sporadic. Eventually they just disappear and never return, taking us into full blown menopause.

Estrogen is stored in fat.

The body always strives to maintain balance.

I want you to keep these two points in mind as you continue reading, because I'm about to explain the connection between your hormones and weight gain; and more specifically menopause and weight gain.

Now if estrogen is stored in fat, and your natural estrogen production is slowly dropping, what do you suppose your body will strive to do in order to maintain its supply of much needed estrogen?

Remember, the body always strives for balance.

If you guessed that it stores more fat, you'd be absolutely right!

Yes, in order for your body to continue producing and storing necessary estrogen, it will naturally begin to store more fat.

Remember, estrogen is stored in fat.

Now if this isn't already horrifying enough consider this....your fat cells will now split in an effort to create MORE fat cells and even THOSE fat cells will expand and grow almost FIVE times larger in order to produce and store MORE estrogen!

The larger the fat cell, the more estrogen it's able to produce and store.

Now your body has been very busy creating this army of fat cells and of course they need to be stored somewhere as well....and where do you think that fat would most likely be stored?

If you guessed the abdominal area, you'd be absolutely right again! Yes, it's also known as menopause belly fat.

I've just described the very basics of the menopause and weight gain connection.

Now mind you, there's a whole lot more to this that I haven't even mentioned; for example how your metabolism is affected by all of these gradual hormonal changes. Neither have I mentioned the role that other important hormones play such as progesterone, androgen and testosterone.

Although you may not be aware of it, these shifts actually begin during peri-menopause and progress as we move closer towards menopause age.