You know that old adage Measure twice, Cut once...
...well, I've applied that thought to the weight gain during menopause, especially the gain in belly fat.
Normal weight is basically a math equation: Number of calories ingested + number of calories burned = your weight. Because math is such a perfect science, it makes sense that in order to maintain your weight, the more you take in, the more you will need to burn off. If you ingest more than you burn, you will gain weight. The converse is also true: if you take in less and increase your exercise, you will lose weight.
Belly fat, though, is in a class all by it's lonesome.
Muscle mass normally decreases as a person ages, be they male or female. Losing muscle proportionately decreases the rate your body burns calories, so you could be eating the same amount of food you always have, when suddenly the scale shoots up five pounds...or in my case 15. Belly fat tends to accumulate most, if not all, of this weight surge. Researchers postulate this occurs because of the drop in estrogen which appears to guide fat distribution. Us lucky females. Not only do we get to enjoy the symptoms the decrease in estrogen plays with our emotions and internal thermometers, but it also gets to decide where we store a few extra pounds.
I'm really starting to hate estrogen. It has such power!
Anyway, back to belly fat. I've written before about how excessive weight gain can wreck our cardiovascular systems, and cause Type II diabetes, so from a purely health motivation, we need to monitor the amount of extra weight ( read FAT) we carry around on and in our middle sections.
First, you should know what your actual waist measurement is. Get a tape measure and measure around the fattest past of your stomach and hipbone region. Got the number? For most women a number above 35 inches is unhealthy. Not to mention unattractive. How to get that number down, you ask?
If you're a female you know the answer to that question. DIET AND EXERCISE, the two banes to every woman's life.
Do nothing but decrease the daily calories by 150 and in a month one pound will be gone. If that's too slow for you ( and really, isn't it??!) than add more to the daily decrease, say 300 calories. That could be a Starbucks coffee or an extra bagel at breakfast. And while you do that, increase your exercise. You walk two miles now, increase it to 2.5 or even three if you can. One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to walk three miles, 5-6 times per week. Right now I walk about 2, 3-4 times. Just doing this small change will help battle my spreading tummy. Keep portion size in the normal to low range. No more super-sizing those fries, of having jumbo ice cream cones.
We can fight back against this scourge of weight/fat/belly gain. We are not defenseless. It just requires a little work, a little commitment, and a great deal of knowledge.
No war was begun, fought, and ended in a day, and believe me when I say that fighting menopause induced fat is a war. In capital letters. WAR. But women are nothing if not WARRIORS. Now plan your attack, set some goals, and FIGHT THE FAT!
Normal weight is basically a math equation: Number of calories ingested + number of calories burned = your weight. Because math is such a perfect science, it makes sense that in order to maintain your weight, the more you take in, the more you will need to burn off. If you ingest more than you burn, you will gain weight. The converse is also true: if you take in less and increase your exercise, you will lose weight.
Belly fat, though, is in a class all by it's lonesome.
Muscle mass normally decreases as a person ages, be they male or female. Losing muscle proportionately decreases the rate your body burns calories, so you could be eating the same amount of food you always have, when suddenly the scale shoots up five pounds...or in my case 15. Belly fat tends to accumulate most, if not all, of this weight surge. Researchers postulate this occurs because of the drop in estrogen which appears to guide fat distribution. Us lucky females. Not only do we get to enjoy the symptoms the decrease in estrogen plays with our emotions and internal thermometers, but it also gets to decide where we store a few extra pounds.
I'm really starting to hate estrogen. It has such power!
Anyway, back to belly fat. I've written before about how excessive weight gain can wreck our cardiovascular systems, and cause Type II diabetes, so from a purely health motivation, we need to monitor the amount of extra weight ( read FAT) we carry around on and in our middle sections.
First, you should know what your actual waist measurement is. Get a tape measure and measure around the fattest past of your stomach and hipbone region. Got the number? For most women a number above 35 inches is unhealthy. Not to mention unattractive. How to get that number down, you ask?
If you're a female you know the answer to that question. DIET AND EXERCISE, the two banes to every woman's life.
Do nothing but decrease the daily calories by 150 and in a month one pound will be gone. If that's too slow for you ( and really, isn't it??!) than add more to the daily decrease, say 300 calories. That could be a Starbucks coffee or an extra bagel at breakfast. And while you do that, increase your exercise. You walk two miles now, increase it to 2.5 or even three if you can. One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to walk three miles, 5-6 times per week. Right now I walk about 2, 3-4 times. Just doing this small change will help battle my spreading tummy. Keep portion size in the normal to low range. No more super-sizing those fries, of having jumbo ice cream cones.
We can fight back against this scourge of weight/fat/belly gain. We are not defenseless. It just requires a little work, a little commitment, and a great deal of knowledge.
No war was begun, fought, and ended in a day, and believe me when I say that fighting menopause induced fat is a war. In capital letters. WAR. But women are nothing if not WARRIORS. Now plan your attack, set some goals, and FIGHT THE FAT!
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