Perimenopause And Menopause Weight Gain - What Are Your Options?

Starting around age 35 or 40, many women start seeing changes in their menstrual cycles and start experiencing perimenopause weight gain. The changes that a woman experience in that transition period are due to decreases in some key hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. This indicates that your childbearing years are near their end.

Beside menopause weight gain, women are at risk for a lot of other diseases such as osteoporosis, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The symptoms are usually hot flashes, night sweats, breast tenderness, anxiety, depression and loss of sexual drive.

All these symptoms are due to the decline in some key hormones. Two hormones that particularly important for a woman who is worried about gaining too much weight because they regulate the metabolism, appetite and how fats are used.

As a woman ages, her metabolism slows down due to the decline in these hormones One of the best way to prevent perimenopause weight gain is to work at maintaining your muscles. When you maintain or increase your muscle mass, your body is better able to keep your metabolism high which makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight.

Because estrogen is stored in fat, when you approach menopause, your body's reaction is to hold onto your fat cells in order to boost the declining estrogen level. Thus it is very important to balance the hormone estrogen if you want to maintain a healthy weight.

One fact that a lot of women don't relate to menopause weight gain is stress, both emotional and physical. Overwork and fatigue can provoke uncontrollable hunger which in turn causes weight gain.

If your perimenopause symptoms are severe, you can ask a doctor who is knowledgeable about hormonal balance to prescribe bioidentical hormones. Bioidentical hormones are natural, plant-based hormones that are usually available with a prescription because the pharmacist has to put together special formulas that are specific to the levels of hormones that are in your body. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has been found to be very safe and with little side effects.

If your perimenopause symptoms are mild. You can treat yourself by changing your diet. You should avoid highly refined foods and focus on a diet made of lean proteins such as fish and chicken as well as fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Also very important to include are healthy fats such as flaxseed oil and olive oil or the omega-3 and omega-6 found in fish such as salmon, tuna, herring.

So as you can see, if you make some changes in your diet as soon as perimenopause and menopause weight gain starts to announce itself you will be able to fight it along before menopause weight gain sets in.

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