Women tend to gain weight mainly in the belly as a result of menopause, a phenomenon to be countered because it can expose you to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and some types of cancer.
Over the years many women find themselves having a more abundant waist. The classic bacon can obviously concern everyone, both males and females, young and old.
The hormonal dynamics
However, after middle age, accumulation of abdominal fat (in the area below and around the navel) a feminine characteristic that often also involves women who in the past had always been thin or only gained weight on the thighs and hips. This phenomenon, which concerns the majority of women starting from the years immediately preceding the menopause, it cannot be classified as a simple enlargement of the abdomen, although it is still linked to weight gain, because it presents physiological peculiarities determined by hormonal changes linked to the end of the fertile age. The activity of the ovaries is normally dedicated to two main functions: producing oocytes and hormones, in particular estrogen and progesterone explains Annamaria Colao, president-elect of the Italian Society of Endocrinology and neuroendocrinologist of the Federico II University of Naples. Estrogens also have an action on the metabolism of fats, that is, they serve to reduce their accumulation, so that they can be used as energy. The arrival of menopause causes the ovaries to stop working and therefore causes a drastic drop in female hormones in the body.
Stock effect
As a result of this drop there is a increased tendency to store fat taken with food. But why are they accumulated right on the belly? There are fat cells that are metabolically active, capable of producing (in part) the estrogens that are lacking, explains Elena Dogliotti, nutrition biologist and scientific supervisor for the Umberto Veronesi Foundation. These fat cells they are precisely those that form in the abdominal cavity and are located in and around organs (liver, heart, pancreas), blood vessels and muscles. So, to compensate for the loss of estrogen, when you get fat, the organism of a woman in menopause will privilege the production of fat cells located in the waistline, too bad for these cells they also have other, decidedly harmful characteristics. Their accumulation in fact induces a change in the metabolism (the set of chemical reactions vital for the organism, including the transformation of nutrients into energy) that will lead to a reduced ability to exploit fats: the first step towards a lower possibility of burning sugars too. A vicious circle that leads many women to gain weight more easily, and to do it in a localized way on the waist, even when in youth they boasted the classic flat stomach.
The health risks
If the hormonal changes described do not spare anyone, the consequences are not quite similar for each woman. The weight gain will be much less in those less genetically predisposed to put on pounds and more in those who have a tendency to gain weight in general Dogliotti specifies. For many, however, it will be a localized increase in the abdomen. This explains why around the age of 45 we enter a phase in which what we ate until recently without consequences on the line begins to weigh it down. A trend that is not destined to reverse over time. If having a belly is (almost) everyone’s destiny, discomfort should not be treated only as a blemish, because it constitutes an important risk factor for serious diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, a complex condition which in turn favors various diseases. Furthermore, the abdominal fat that develops with menopause produces pro-inflammatory, pro-tumor substances and promotes the onset of atherosclerosis (a thickening of the arteries among the main causes of cardiovascular disease). The mass that accumulates viscerally continues to interact unfavorably with the body and to produce pro-inflammatory molecules. A process that, among other things, tends to get worse if we don’t immediately take action, confirms Dogliotti. This is why, once the protection of hormones has fallen, the woman is more exposed to the risk of some diseases, in particular osteoarticular ones (such as osteoporosis) and cardiovascular ones (such as hypertension, stroke and myocardial infarction), arriving therefore, after the age of 60, to reach a risk equal to that of males.
Not a destiny
The vicious circle can be broken, and the tendency to put on a thwarted tummy. After the middle age, gaining weight is easier, true, but not an imperative. A new balance needs to be found not only between food ingested and calories consumed, but by paying more attention to the quality of food and increasing physical exercise. Diet (understood as a control of the diet) is fundamental, because, since the body has difficulty in consuming excess calories and simple sugars, the effort must be made on quantities and healthy foods. The good news is that even a modest loss of fat can make a difference: It might seem little – says Dogliotti – but it has been proven that already a 7% weight loss can block harmful mechanisms that are unleashed when you are overweight and with a waistline “worthy of attention”. Ideally, start thinking about losing 5 to 10% of your body weight.
Exercises (not just abdominals)
Diet alone is not enough, for, and after menopause, physical activity becomes fundamental: not only as an aid in weight loss, but because it is a characteristic of muscles (which only increase with constant exercise) that of knowing consuming calories even at rest. Gymnastics is not only used to expend energy, but also to induce a metabolism that is more conducive to the consumption of fats and sugars, a factor that helps keep weight down, says Colao. All to do situps then? No: it is difficult to achieve localized weight loss by doing only exercises on a specific muscle district, to counteract the belly you have to act on the whole body with the right workouts, also calibrated according to the age and characteristics of the individual people. Even interventions on eating habits must be planned and illustrated by specialists, such as monitoring menopause, because every woman has her own history of previous pathologies and therapies (or suggestions) must be individual. The first doctor to consult to better face the period of changes that arise with the middle age is the gynecologist, who can be followed by the analysis of an endocrinologist expert in metabolism and the advice of an expert nutritionist.
September 28, 2022 (change September 28, 2022 | 08:47)
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