Peri-menopause, menopause and weight gain?

[fitbiscuit]

So I see a lot of posts about women struggling with their weight during peri and after menopause, women who never worried about their weight until they hit 40 and suddenly they have a bigger belly and can't shift it.

Why is this? I am confused because for some women they say it is due to the fall in their hormones but for others they say it is due to HRT.

Is there actually any known medical reason for why going though menopause and peri without HRT makes you gain weight and then can't lose it or for why you would gain more weight and struggle to lose it on HRT?

If HRT gave you the same approximate hormone profile as a younger women then wouldn't that help you lose weight and keep it off?

I have a few pounds to lose myself and in peri so I am curious about this. I am more interested in any actually medical or scientific reasons as opposed to personal experience because in individual cases there is always loads going on that doesn't easily apply to a large cohort.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34898344/
this indicates the role of changing hormones, but also other factors. Interesting read. I wonder if HRT means that the hormone profile completely returns to same as pre-menopause… or not?

Thanks! I do think there are other hormones that aren't supplemented with HRT and that there isn't yet full understanding of how the lose or reduction of those hormones impacts on women.

I would assume that HRT should actually improve your ability to lose weight or at least improve the way fat is deposited in the body except that if you are on cyclical therapy it would perhaps vary through the month so you'd have the regular gain and loss of that process.

I do know that some women gain weight on the pill but then how that works is quite different to HRT and and the doses are to my knowledge a lot higher.

Would be interesting to know more but I will read that article you posted!