AND everyone’s nightmare: the hated belly, which forces you to make one or more holes to widen the belt and the leaps and bounds of styling to hide the rolls under the clothes, is the worry of many. Especially from menopause onwards, when even those who have always been “flat” often see their waistline increase.
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Losing weight during menopause, tricks to stay fit
The trouble is that it’s not just an aesthetic problem, because fat accumulated on the belly is the most harmful to health; as if that wasn’t enough, it is also quite “resistant” to attempts to eliminate it. The rolls that widen the waistline are dangerous because they are not a “neutral” deposit of fat, like those on the hips and thighs: abdominal fat is harmful above all because it produces pro-inflammatory and pro-tumor substancespromotes the appearance of atherosclerosis, “chokes” the liver, increasing general inflammation.
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The result? The risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes risesof sexual dysfunctions, kidney problems, of some tumors such as breast, endometrial and colorectal cancer, which moreover respond worse to therapies if there is bacon. Which over time also compromises movement skills and physical fitness, making old age more difficult: this was demonstrated last July by research by the IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Gemelli in Rome on over 10 thousand Italians aged 18 to 98 involved in Longevity Check-up 8+ Project.
Fat accumulated on the belly is the most harmful to health (photo Getty Images).
Having a large waistline was found to be the element that best predicts the deterioration of exercise and movement skills, at all ages and in both sexes: basically, an aging accelerator. Measuring the waist circumference with a tape measure is therefore also an important step for health and the threshold not to be exceeded to avoid having trouble in women is 80 centimetres; Unfortunately, already around the age of 35 or 40, many begin to struggle to stay within the limits, but it is Around menopause the battle gets tougher because estrogens help deposit excess fat where it doesn’t hurt, giving us the “pear” shape, but when they start to run out the fat ends up on the belly and we tend more towards the dangerous “apple” shape.
Lose weight during menopause: how to do it healthily
«Estrogens also help to “dissolve” fat reserves and use it as a source of energy» specifies Annamaria Colao, past president of the Italian Society of Endocrinology. “Furthermore, with menopause the ovaries also stop producing androgens, which are essential for keeping muscle tissue in shape. Therefore, for many, the moment comes when they realize that they can no longer eat as before, because they gain weight very easily. It is true that some remain thin due to favorable genetics, the presence of highly developed muscles and poor fat reserves, but the majority have to deal with greater difficulty in maintaining their weight and waistline than before. And relying on the hope of having good genes is not the right strategy.”
Swollen belly: useful remedies (beyond diet)
Keyword: abs
To date, studies have identified around 300 genetic differences in the way fat accumulates and while it is true that for some the challenge can be relatively simple, However, you need to roll up your sleeves and change some habits, without giving too much credit to current trends. Thinking you can have sculpted abs and zero fat with five minutes of training a day or solving the problem with miracle foods is a utopia, the same as believing you can eliminate the flab only where we want.
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«When you lose weight, we can’t decide where to lose the fat. There is also no evidence that a specific type of training, for example the so-called HIIT training (which alternates short phases of high intensity exercise with recovery periods and has been shown to be effective in reducing fat deposits, ed) can ‘melt’ fat specifically on the belly: You can tone your abs and thus influence your physical shape, but you cannot change the distribution of fat. In other words, it’s better to train the whole body than just doing sit-ups” he explained above Science Focus neuroendocrinologist Rebecca Dumbell of Nottingham Trent University in England.
The risk of “shortcuts”
The best recipe, especially during menopause? «A global approach to lifestyle, which increases physical exercise to counteract muscle loss due to the decline in androgens and modifies the diet» replies Colao. «The best diet is the Mediterranean one, but only if you combine it with adequate physical activity: a “simple” low-calorie diet, in which fats and carbohydrates are reduced, vegetables are increased and proteins from fish, meat and eggs are taken in, is healthy but if you remain sedentary it can also lead to recovery with the interest of the lost kilos. In fact, in a standard diet without practicing sport you lose fat, but also muscle: when you start eating normally again, the kilos come back and you accumulate more fat than before.”
Ketogenic diet: what is it and how does it work?
The only “shortcut” for the ultra-lazy could be the ketogenic dietin which carbohydrates are completely eliminated: if in fact you exaggerate with sugars and especially with those that are quickly absorbed, which lead to a more immediate and higher peak in blood sugar levels after the meal, visceral fat deposits increase. The ketogenic diet, which cuts them completely, has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect and does not “use up” muscle, However, it should be followed under medical supervision and only for a short timeat most two, three weeks to avoid having negative consequences on the kidneys, bones and heart.
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The jeans test
In short, it doesn’t solve much, so all you have to do is resign yourself to changing your habits: moving more and eating less, perhaps with an eye on the clock. It is in fact demonstrated that For your metabolism, walking briskly in the early morning is better than doing it in the afternoonas well as respecting the intervals between meals and eat less and less throughout the daybecause the same plate of pasta at midday or at dinner has a different metabolic impact and in the evening it is more likely to turn into an accumulation of fat.
Always cutting portions: especially as the years go by, energy expenditure decreases and, in addition to the hormones in circulation, intestinal bacteria and digestion times also change, so greater attention to quantities becomes more essential than ever.
The best advice, however, perhaps comes from researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who in a document dedicated to how to fight bacon recommend don’t “fixate” yourself on the scale but if anything try to fit into a pair of old jeans: «If you exercise more, it is possible that the number of kilos will not change, but that the trousers will fit better: this is what counts, because it means that you have lost fat from the waistline».
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