How Menopause Affects Women’s Fat
This news probably won’t come as a shock to many women, but a new investigation from UCLA has found that during perimenopause – the lead up to menopause – women lose lean body mass and more than double their fat mass. The good news is that after reaching menopause both lean and fat mass remained stable. To arrive at these conclusions the researchers examined 18 years of data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, which enabled them to assess women’s body composition from the time before and after their final menstrual periods. The investigators wrote that until now there has been no proof that menopause leads to gains in fat mass or losses of lean mass noting that a woman’s weight gives no clue to what’s happening “under the skin.” They added that other research has found that as women age, their body mass index (BMI) becomes a less reliable predictor of conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They suggested that the shifts in fat and lean mass may be one of the reasons why.
Source:
Gail A. Greendale et al, “Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition.” JCI Insight, March 7, 2019, DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.124865
Also in this week’s bulletin:
- Sugar Sweetened Drinks Are Killing You
- Hot Tea & Cancer Risk
- Recipe: Broccoli Or Cauliflower With Soy-Lemon Dressing
