The Menopause “Spare Tyre”

When going through the peri-menopause transition, fluctuating hormone levels and declining oestrogen may result in something taking you by surprise. 

That is visceral fat gain. Now rest assured, this is one of the most COMMON symptoms my female clients report within their early- mid 40s. You are not alone. 

It feels as if one day you wake up to a spare tyre of fat around your lower belly. 

Call it a stomach pooch or whatever you will. 

It can often take us by surprise because we might feel nothing has actually changed in our day to day routine to cause this. 

So let me explain why this happens:

• Oestrogen plays a large part in where we store our body fat as women. 

We store it around our lower body for the purposes of having to carry the weight of a child during pregnancy. (Annoyingly reproduction is usually the forefront of our biological design). 

As the hormone oestrogen reduces and changes (with peri-menopause) it will alter the distribution of fat. There is actually a pretty fancy science word for it called “re-esterification" of fat.

We adopt more of a male fat pattern which is around our stomach (as if being a woman isn’t hard enough). 

It might not even result in weight gain as such. The scales may even stay the same but our shape has changed. 

This doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it.

Here are some basic guidelines to follow if you’re struggling:

*I want to preface this with changing your body isn’t an automatic solution to finding peace with yourself and this transition. Too often “fat loss” is presented as a fix it all solution. As if our bodies weren’t allowed to ever deviate from a set weight or point. Which it is. Compassion is important. Conditional happiness "i'm only happy happen XYZ" means you will never truly find long term results. 

If dieting isn’t a safe space for you. Because in your 40s I’m going to assume you’ve experienced a lifetime of toxic diet culture and disordered eating. 

Not many of us can escape it. If you have consider yourself blessed. 

If you need to work on your relationship with food and the foundations of nutrition first. Please just email me and I’ll point you in the right direction of my free resources. 

But if you feel you can proceed/ want to make changes: 

• Aim for 2g/kg of protein/day 

• Aim for a carbohydrate intake that supports how active you are. (20-30g carbs pre training) 3x balanced meals in your day. 

• Aim for 1g/kg of fats/ day i'm going to assume like many of us women at some point you have stripped all fats from your diet because you thought you were saving calories. Choosing to buy only low fat on autopilot. 

The research shows that low fats diets are actually harder to stick to and fats are essential to hormone production and immunity. So low fat is a no go. 

Ok so now here are some hard truths:

When I myself noticed this transition (I’ve been on HRT for 2.5yrs) I needed to have a strong but compassionate word with myself. 

If I’m truly honest with myself did I gain weight because:

1. My activity levels and step count had decreased. Yes 

2. Did I let my emotions dictate my food choices at times (almond croissant addict here) Yes. 

3.  Were my behaviours in line with supporting my health. Often times No. Poor sleep/ too much caffeine ect. 

So it comes down to this. My output decreased (exercise) and input increased (calories). And Voila. I gained fat.

That’s ok. Because awareness is key and honesty with yourself without judgement is crucial to then make changes that last. 

Visceral fat gain increases our risk certain disease factors and chances of type 2 diabetes. Increased fat = more insulin resistance so our bodies can’t shuttle energy into our cells as efficiently. Resulting in high circulating blood sugar levels. 

This won’t make you feel good (energy levels) and may cause increased fat gain if consuming excess calories. 

I coach many women through this transition of their life because I know how rough the journey was for myself. 

I hope this brief insight helped. I have a free menopause course available if you haven't already joined my growing community. 

You can find it here. FREE COURSE 

“If you aren’t your own doctor, you’re a fool” Hippocrates. 

Love didi x