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?

Being perimenopausal myself - currently not overweight, but go through phases of having to fight the sweet tooth I never had until about 5 years ago - I'm more bemused by the number of younger people who are overweight.

But cheap filler foods weren't quite so ubiquitous when I grew up.

Bt yeah, I could happily sink packet of maryland cookies as a late teen and not feel any impact once I'd had my next shit. it would also put me off eating for the rest of the day. A couple of said cookies would make me feel sick, now, but I'd get cravings to fix that by wanting to eat constantly for the rest of the day and I'd crave more carbs as much as the high protein food needed to balance out the sweetness, so would easily eat more than the 500 calories in the packet of biscuits, extra, over the day.

Oh F... off

Out of interest, does anyone think that body shape plays a part? A lot of women I know are apple shaped which means great legs and bum but thicker round the middle (even when slim). Does body shape play a part? Do hourglasses or pears become an apple and pear (as it were!) from nowhere during the menopause?

I do not think the op is offensive. It's merely an observation. She ain't a bully. For what it's worth I prefer exercise to pies.

Well if OP had been at my school reunion six years ago (we were all 38 years old at the time) she would have seen that the women had fared far FAR better than the men.

Star - i definitely used to be more of a pear. 34-26-37 at 10 stone at 25 vs 40-31-36 at 10 stone now. Despite being fairly active, I've lost a lot of muscle tone, too.

To be fair my mum is 63/64 this year and she is fit. She does loads of exercise and a proper Pilates group. I think she was skinnier when she was younger, but she is more flexible and stronger now.
My mum; my hero.

Where is the op?

*Where is the Op?
*
She's probably been driven away from the thread by all the defensive sanctimonious posters shrieking at her for being judgmental!

It's not just women over 50. Most men over 50 are overweight too. In fact what are the stats? 65% of women and 70% of men are obese or overweight? And 25% of 11 yr olds starting sec school?

The reason is people overeat and think they need the same calories at 50 or 60 as they did at 20. And for women the distribution of body fat changes. I still have a waist but it's 28 now, not 24 which it was at 30 years old. I still weigh almost the same. I'm 60s. I work out every day and eat hardly any carbs.

Star that's an interesting question. I remember a poster on here years back saying one of the things they don't tell you about menopause was the bloating - you can go up and down a few inches over the course of a few hours. She reckoned it explained the plethora of hideous elasticated waist monstrosities in M&S. (Whatever the emoticon is for a sad smile conveying unwilling but unavoidable recognition of one of life's shit cards being dealt).

I was very athletic (bursitis currently screwing with that) and straight up and down, so I guess middle is precisely where I'd expect to have (and have) put on weight - can't speak for pears turning into apples, though it wouldn't surprise me.

Actually, the exercise thing is interesting as a brilliant example of "correlation is not causation", IMO. There was a piece of research on the epidemiology of fitness, exercise and life expectancy done on my age group which hit the press recently - not surprisingly, low weight, exercise, general good health and continued mobility went together. Of course the press started jumping up and down moralising and saying "look, exercise will keep you mobile..." From my perspective, some months into a bout of bursitis which made walking painful at its worst, never mind running, they'd got cause and effect backwards, at least partially. Yes, some people will start to develop mobility problems in middle age because they've never exercised. But there will also be people like me for whom mobility problems for independent reasons (age hits ligaments and muscle tone and recovery time, drops in oestrogen levels hit ligaments, muscles and skeleton) inhibit our ability to exercise.

I am 49, I haven't had a period for about 10 months. I don't eat much, but still have a definite spare tyre. To lose it, I would have to not eat anything. At the moment I usually don't eat anything on the evening, just one meal a day really, I do still splurge on cake, crisps and chocolate, but then don't eat anything else. I walk every day. So I do think losing weight does get harder the older you get. Fwiw I didnt read the op as judgemental.

Maybe the OP should have simply asked the same question but taken out the words 'post menopausal'.

Because that is a fact.

That sounds like a lovely holiday you had.

I don't see why people are angry at the OP asking this question . It's an anonymous forum surely that's the place for such wonderings.

I would hate to be classed as a post-menopausal woman (even though I am) and I have never referred to anyone as that even in my head.

In my town tbh almost everyone seems to be overweight. I have never categorised according to age or gender but that's my overall impression.

I don't think OP is judgemental. They don't call it middle aged spread for nothing. The tyre round the middle happens!

Mostly - my DM in her 70s has got a personal trainer, not for aerobics but for stretches and flexibility, once a week, as she realised she was seizing up as it were. She's over weight (has been very overweight, obese in the scales) and has lost weight to become overweight instead of obese, so she's doing well, but she realised that sherif she didn't do something she would but be able to bend & stretch at all.

I read somewhere that a basic indicator of flexibility/age/weight is whether you can get off the floor from a sitting position without using your hands to push yourself up in some way, whether that be leaning on furniture or leaning on your knee for a push-up. If you can get up from sitting on the floor without using your hands, that's not bad

It is quite shocking to see how many of us our obese but I think it includes all ages and both sexes and is a product of our affluent western lifestyle, there may be some medical factors but it's mainly due to eating more than you burn off, this is true no matter what your age, high calorie food is available in abundance in this country so high rates of obesity are unsurprising. Like I said there may be a medical link in rare cases but no one gets fat in a famine. Op didn't sound judgemental ,the amount of obese people is noticeable and quite shocking.

It's not asking the question that's pissed people off - it is an interesting question. It's the phrasing she used to ask it which made it seem like post-menopausal women were like zoo animals, to be watched, commented on and judged.

Good luck with your own menopause.
Elderly people loose weight because their appetite just goes at a certain age and an ageing gut can't cope with the volume of food that it used to be able to take in.

But you don't need to sit on a campsite.

Most of Britain is overweight.

You only need look around your local high street.

It's not called the Obesity Epidemic for no reason.

Of course we aren't allowed to mention this on MN- we're called 'fattist'.

Presumably OP has failed to notice any of the stats regularly published over the last few years confirming that 2/3 of UK adults are overweight or obese. Much more worryingly, 1/4 children are now overweight or obese. So as previous posters have said, being fat is now the norm. Not being old & fat.

Oh crap. I lost 4 stone 4 years ago eating 1600 calories a day and making sure I walked at least 10K steps a day. Felt fantastic. Put the weight back on again and am now dieting again - similar, 1600c and 10K steps. Have been doing this for nearly 3 weeks and haven't lost a gram. Only difference is I'm now menopausal and feel as if I've been hit by a truck. Am waiting blood test results and coming to terms with the possibility I will be fat for the rest of my life.