Causes of Weight Gain and Lean Muscle Mass Loss During Menopause
by Deanett Pierce, CPT, Menopausal Specialist
Are you experiencing unexplained weight gain even though you haven’t changed your diet or training? Are you losing muscle? Has your athletic performance stalled? Do you always find yourself hungry? Are you struggling to sleep at night?
These can be signs of menopause, and not knowing why these things are happening to your body can be very frustrating. Here are a few explanations to help you understand what’s going on with your body.
Estrogen Decline Equals Muscle Loss
We all think that testosterone is what gives us our muscles, but estrogen also plays an important role in building muscle and maintaining lean body mass. When estrogen levels decline the strength and structure of your muscles also declines. Not only does it rob you of your lean mass, it also slows down your metabolism.
Blood Sugar
Estrogen is a key player in insulin sensitivity in the female body. As estrogen decreases, insulin resistance increases making our bodies less responsive to insulin. Instead of shuttling blood sugar into our muscles for energy when we need it, our body will opt to put it into fat storage. So even if you don’t see an increase in body weight you are apt to see a decrease in muscle mass and an increase in body fat, especially in your mid section.
Sleep
Estrogen helps the body get into that deep slow wave repairative sleep. Estrogen is strongly associated with serotonin, a brain chemical that is converted to melatonin which helps us sleep. When estrogen levels decline it leads to low serotonin activity which reduces the amount of melatonin our bodies produce that we need for a good night's sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, roughly 61% of menopausal women have trouble with sleep. Even one night of poor sleep can have negative effects on the body. It can cause brain fog, fatigue, effect athletic performance, limit training adaptations, and lead to weight gain. When the lack of sleep becomes a regular struggle it can magnify these symptoms.
Stress Hormones
Estrogen helps to control cortisol levels. Cortisol is our fight or flight hormone, and when our bodies are under stress our adrenal glands start pumping out more cortisol. This prompts our liver to produce more glucose so that you have extra energy. When estrogen drops, it no longer has the ability to keep cortisol in check which can leave you feeling anxious and stressed even though everything is ok. Because this exacerbates our insulin resistance it creates an environment to store even more fat.
Hunger Hormones
Ghrelin increases your sense of hunger and slows down your fat burning ability and metabolism. Leptin has the ability to shut down your appetite and increase your calorie burning ability. As your hormones fluctuate and eventually flatline they have a profound effect on your hunger hormones. Levels of your hunger stimulating hormones go up while the levels of your appetite suppressant hormones go down, leaving you always feeling hungry.
What used to work for us in the past now makes matters worse
Eating less and exercising more is not the answer. Trying to manage weight with fad diets that cut out certain food groups or restrict your calories will only further stress your body, making it want to hang on to fat and possibly store even more.
Now that you have a little more understanding of what your body is going through, take a breath and give yourself a break. There is a lot going on physically. You are not alone and you are not to blame if your body is not responding to what has worked for you in the past. We can help you with an action plan that will include changes in nutrition and exercise to help counteract some of these shifts in body composition and performance.
(Want more? Learn about the stages and symptoms of menopause.)