MidLife Body Changes in Women

Weight gain, loss of physical fitness, fatigue, and body changes are affected by hormones and menopause, but they are also affected by aging. The average American Woman will gain between 4.5 and 4.9 pounds over every three year period of time in the middle of life! And on top of that the average woman over each three year span will gain 2.2 cm of waist girth (that’s almost an inch ladies!). The difference between a size 8 and a size 10 pants… about that inch! Along with that waist gain comes consequences on our sugar and fat metabolism that leads to diabetes and heart disease. We also get deep visceral fat, and need to correct that the most. We also get both vertebral disk compression and vertebral fractures that can pack all of our waist into a smaller area which inevitably leads to thicker middle.

The fitness and nutrition strategies that will work:

1. Conditioning: designing harder workouts so you get fit. In one study that compared Nordic Track users to those doing Pilates found that regular Nordic Track use improved weight loss, blood sugar, and levels of lipids and cholesterol
2. Flexibility
3. Decrease sitting: in every study ever done, the more you sit, the sooner you die, no matter what your health conditions are. There is no excuse for those with a desk job to not get up and stretch the legs regularly, and at night
4. Posture: just the slumping will increase the protrusion of your gut without increasing in weight or bloating
5. Decreasing bloating: this probably has to come under the nutritional strategies column, but sometimes it’s decreasing water weight too
6. Nutritional strategies: this has to be determined on an individual basis, right now most of the data points to some strategy that will involve some (minimal) intermittent fasting.
7. Supplements to boost your metabolism and control your appetite.
8. Increase sleep

Risks of Exercise

1. Musculoskeletal injuries.
2. Arrhythmias, or an irregular heartbeat, rare
3. sudden heart attack, even more rare
4. Rhabdomyosis, muscle degeneration extremely rare

Call to Action:

1. Get any persistent aches and pains evaluated.
2. Consider a trainer, coach or PT therapists, and even class instructors can be invaluable. The right technique
3. Make sure you correct posture or balance, muscle unevenness can be an issue that can be measured
4. Get yourself medically cleared for exercise.
5. Correct vitamin or nutritional deficiencies after testing
6. Get a personal consultation regarding supplements that make sense for you