I’m Eating Less Than Ever. So Why Am I Gaining Weight?

This was one of the questions that came up recently from a Get In Good Nick member in our live Women's Health and Hormone Clinic, and I suspect a lot of women reading this will recognise it.

You feel like you’re eating less than you did years ago.

You’re certainly not eating more.

Yet your weight is creeping up, your waist is changing, or your clothes just don’t fit the way they used to.

So what’s actually going on?

First, eating less does not automatically mean your body weight will fall. What matters over time is the balance between the energy you take in and the energy you use.

The frustrating part is that both sides of that equation can change during midlife without it feeling as though you have changed very much.

Menopause itself is not a switch that suddenly makes calories stop counting. But midlife can bring changes in sleep, symptoms, muscle mass, everyday movement and appetite.

If poor sleep leaves you more hungry, aching joints make you move less, or your normal daily activity quietly drops, the amount of food that once maintained your weight may no longer have exactly the same effect.

There is also an important difference between gaining weight and changing shape.

Research suggests ageing is a major driver of overall fat gain, while the menopause transition is associated with a shift towards more central or abdominal fat.

That is why a woman can feel that her body has changed around the waist even when the number on the scales has not changed dramatically.

So if you genuinely feel that you are eating very little and your weight or waist is still changing, the answer is not automatically to keep cutting food.

Look at the whole picture:

• How much are you moving?
• Are you doing regular strength training?
• Are you getting enough protein and fibre?
• How are you sleeping?
• What about alcohol, portion sizes and the small extras that are easy to forget?

And if the change is significant, unexplained or comes with other symptoms, it is worth discussing with your GP rather than assuming it is “just menopause”.

"Don’t respond to every midlife body change by simply eating less. Look at the whole picture first."

- Danielle Frost

RESEARCH / USEFUL SOURCES

• International Menopause Society review: Understanding weight gain at menopause
• Meta-analysis: Fat mass changes during menopause
• NHS: Menopause and perimenopause symptoms