The changes in a woman’s metabolism that can cause weight gain after menopause actually start years earlier, a recent study suggests.
and the co-director of the Human Performance Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who is the co-author of the study published March 2 in the journal Menopause. “It’s also a time where I find women tend to neglect themselves the most because they are taking care of everyone else.”Perimenopause can be accompanied by irregular periods, fluctuations in estrogen and changes in mood and sleep.
And that means women in perimenopause need to consume more protein and lift heavier weights for calories to turn into muscle rather than flab.and on energy expenditure during moderate exercise, Smith-Ryan and her colleagues recruited 72 women between ages 35 to 60. Twenty-four were premenopausal; 24 were perimenopausal; and 24 were postmenopausal.At the outset, the researchers asked their study volunteers to fill out questionnaires on diet, activity and sleep.
Although the new study is small, there are messages women can take from it, said Nancy Reame, the emeritus Mary Dickey Lindsay professor of health promotion and risk reduction in the Columbia University School of Nursing.