As a necessary disclaimer, I’ve obviously never experienced the effects of menopause firsthand, and can’t claim to know what it’s like. I am not writing from a place of personal experience but simply providing some information worth considering about menopause and fat loss, and how hormonal changes can impact both.. As a female client of mine once said, “it sucks. That’s all you need to know.” While I don’t disagree, leaving it at that makes for a pretty poor article.

I do know that menopause is a different experience from person to person. There are some broad commonalities I touch on here, but no two cases are going to be the exact same. This article is designed as a general overview of potential implications, not an explicit guide as to an exact experience.

This article is a very quick(ish) overview of menopause, its effects, and its implications for fat loss and training. If you want a deep dive into these factors in much more detail, I highly recommend The Women’s Book, Vol. 1 by Lyle McDonald. It’s a thoroughly comprehensive examination of virtually all things related to the subject, and more.

How Does Menopause Affect Fat Loss?

What is Menopause?

Menopause is defined by the termination of the menstrual cycle in women. It typically occurs somewhere in the forties to fifties age-wise, with individual variation from internal and external factors. The two diagnostic factors are loss of the menstrual cycle for at least twelve months, and the ovaries producing almost nonexistent levels of sex hormones, i.e. progesterone and estrogen. The usual cause is generally a natural part of aging. Other causes include treatments/procedures that affect hormone production, e.g. oophorectomy (ovary removal) or chemotherapy.

Estrogen and progesterone play a considerable number of roles in the human body. As with most other hormones, altering estrogen and progesterone levels have both direct and indirect effects on physiology and other hormones. Most of these effects are cyclical and tied to the naturally fluctuating levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body. However, when they are removed from the picture altogether, the effects are more permanent, and constitute a significant baseline change for the person.

Understanding these hormonal shifts is key to recognizing why fat loss during menopause often becomes more difficult — and why strategies that once worked may need to change.

What Changes Does It Bring?

Menopause affects nearly every system in the body, including hormones tied to menopause and fat loss. Estrogen and progesterone have significant interactions with other hormones closely related to hunger, fat mobilization, and storage. When the body ceases production of these sex hormones, it has considerable downstream effects on both one’s physical and mental state. The list is extensive, but I’ll touch on just five of those factors here.

Leptin

Leptin is a hormone that has several roles in the body. For our purposes, the focus is that the body uses leptin to monitor both bodyfat levels and energy intake. By tracking these, leptin essentially helps the body decide if there’s sufficient available energy to expend on growth and function vs. putting it into fat storage.

Leptin levels affect other hormones that moderate things such as appetite, hunger, metabolic rate, and activity levels. If leptin levels are high, these other hormones shift to promote homeostasis or energy expenditure. When they’re low, focus shifts towards energy retention and gain by increasing hunger/appetite, slowing metabolic rate, and promoting lethargy.

The tie-in here is that leptin production and sensitivity are greatly affected by estrogen levels. When estrogen levels tank, the body has a harder time recognizing the signals indicating energy stores/intake are all good. Thus, the body tries to increase energy intake and reduce energy expenditure. This obviously runs opposite of one’s goals when dieting.   

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone responsible for moderating uptake of glucose into the body’s cells, i.e. a storage hormone. When your body detects increased levels of glucose in the blood (blood sugar), it will secrete insulin from the pancreas. The insulin then in turn stimulates the uptake of the sugar into your body’s cells. In short, it is a “sugar signaling” hormone. 

The body has a usual sensitivity range to how it reacts to insulin. If the signaling is impaired, this is known as insulin resistance. The cells in the body receive less stimulus from insulin to uptake circulating blood sugar. This can ultimately result in prediabetes or type II diabetes.

This is where menopause comes in. Insulin sensitivity is tied to estrogen levels. When those levels tank, it’s a significant hit to the body’s insulin sensitivity. To make things worse, excess levels of bodyfat also contribute to insulin resistance. In a way, it’s a bit of a rough feedback loop: Insulin sensitivity drops when estrogen does, which promotes fat gain. Excess fat further affects insulin sensitivity, making it all the more difficult to diet effectively.

Bone Mineral Density

Estrogen plays a large role in bone maintenance. Bone homeostasis, e.g. keeping bones at their healthy state, is a balance between osteoclasts (cells that naturally break down bone) and osteoblasts (cells that create new bone). Estrogen modulates this balance by slowing both osteoclast and osteoblast activity, minimizing overall change.

When estrogen is removed from the equation, this balance is disrupted, leading to losses in bone tissue and its density. Women can lose upwards of 20% of their bone mass within the first five to seven years, with rates continuing at around 0.5-1% yearly afterward. This loss significantly increases risks for fractures.

Muscle Growth

While testosterone is usually thought of as the major player for muscle growth, estrogen contributes heavily as well, often more than people think. Estrogen plays direct roles in muscle protein synthesis and repair, mitochondrial function, the production of antioxidant proteins, and more.

With the loss of estrogen, it is common to see lean body mass (LBM) loss around and after menopause, as well as impaired rates of muscle growth. In this regard, menopause can be considered a significant contributor to sarcopenia, e.g. age-related muscle loss. This loss also can translate into weaker performances in strength, training, and sports.

Fat Patterning

Women typically have a different bodyfat patterning than men. While men usually accumulate most fat in the stomach and lower back, women tend to store most of their fat in the hips, thighs, and buttocks. This is partially due to the alpha-2 receptor found in fat cells. This receptor inhibits fat release from fat cells during exercise. Estrogen increases the number of receptors in lower bodyfat stores, causing fat to remain there easier. Higher androgen levels, such as testosterone, also tend to favor male fat patterning.

When estrogen is gone, the effects of the alpha-2 receptors no longer favor female fat patterning as much. Additionally, the lowered estrogen levels also mean that proportionally, testosterone levels are higher than pre-menopause. This ultimately causes fat to tend to accumulate more around the waist than prior to menopause.

Aesthetics aside, this change is also of particular concern to health. Abdominal/visceral fat is correlated with greater cardiovascular risks. High visceral fat levels are correlated with unfavorable cholesterol levels, atherosclerosis, and an increased risk of both heart attacks and heart failure.

Countering the Effects of Menopause on Fat Loss

All of this stuff sounds pretty bad. Y’know, because menopause doesn’t suck enough as is. There is a bright side, however. The same principles of training and dieting that we espouse in coaching are just as applicable as they ever are, menstrual cycle or not. Dietary and fitness goals are without a doubt tougher, but they’re far from impossible.

With fat loss, the net effect of menopause boils down to a lower level of maintenance calories than expected. This means that the calories set for fat loss are likely substantially lower than they would be otherwise, and rates of fat loss will be slower. It’s expected that factors such as hunger and appetite will be tougher as well. Additionally, given the increased risk of muscle loss, protein intake is even more important for retaining lean body mass, in general but especially during dieting. However, maintaining a reasonable bodyfat percentage minimizes unnecessary difficulties with leptin, insulin, and the other dietary hormones.

Regarding training, there is an even greater need for resistance training. Aside from the calorie burn, weight training helps preserve/gain muscle mass, improve insulin sensitivity, and increase bone mineral density. Lifting won’t just add muscle tone here. It’s quite literally working against the effects of aging on the body. I see it as akin to doing regular maintenance on a car. The wear and tear is there, but you can still keep things running smoothly by staying on top of it.

Alas, there isn’t any magic bullet for keeping it all in check. Well, technically, hormone replacement therapy is about as close to one as it gets. Many of the concerns regarding menopause lessen significantly or outright disappear. But that’s certainly not a route for everyone.

Conclusion

Menopause is a natural part of life, but it nonetheless has significant implications for both training and dieting. The bad news is that it undoubtedly can make things more difficult or take longer to reach goals. Thankfully, though, the fundamentals of fat loss and muscle gain still hold true. In fact, regular training and a conscientious diet in of themselves can work to counteract most negative bodily changes. If anything, these interventions are more important than ever as we proceed in life.

Keep on keeping on, and you’ll be the one that stands out, irrespective of age. Show the younger ones how it’s done!