To wonder why so many post menopausal women are overweight?

[Fruitandnutqueen]

My friend and I are both 44 and love to sit and people watch.
One conversation and observation we make regularly is the fact we notice there appears to be a high percentage of women, late 40's plus, who are overweight.
Last week I was on a campsite where the majority of the people where 50+ and most of them were quite overweight.
We are coming to the conclusion that it's either menopausal hormones and we'll have no control over the bulge attack when the time comes (not long now ) or that most people hit that age and think 'oh fuck it, life's too short!' and just eat and drink to their hearts content.
I suppose there are probably just as many men that age overweight too, but I can't help but notice women I know who were previously slim, hit that age group and expand quite a bit!
Just wonder if it's inevitable?

The women who put on weight post-menopause tend to be those who were sedentary in their youth (perhaps they were lazy, perhaps naturally slender so no thought to health or exercise) and who have carried those poor habits into their forties and fifties. Sometimes injuries and arthritis make things worse, medications etc.

I don't know. MIL is in her 70s and has had severely reduced appetite in the past year, to the point you won't see her out and about much because it's too tiring. She's so malnourished she's suffering from infected lipoedema.

My mum is in her late 60s and has been overweight most of her adult life, but her appetite has really dipped, this year.