subject: Secret Woman Stuff - Menopause, Weight Gain And How To Fix It [print this page] There is a time of life that used not to be spoken about even between a mother and daughter. Referred to as 'the change' it is no longer a taboo subject and has come out into the open. About time too as a woman can expect to live one-third to one-half of her life after menopause which can be the most satisfying and productive years of her life.
This time of a woman's life is now a hot health topic and the reason for its emergence is that we now know more about how to manage it. We have discovered how proper exercise plays a key role in making the transition through this period of time easier and how it can enhance health, happiness and wellness during the second half of life.
At least two thirds of women experience weight gain during this time and can gain 5-15 pounds of fat along with their body shape changing from an hour glass to that of an apple.
As weight continues to go up and up with little hope of it ever coming off again, the metabolism (the body's engine) drops as much as 5 percent each decade.
A woman in her 20's may have a body fat percentage of around 23 percent but a woman in her 50's can have a body fat percentage of 45-50 percent. This can lead to much unhappiness and despair as one's attractiveness goes down the gurgler and the reality of getting old sinks in.
Although there is nothing we can do about the passing years, we can do a whole lot about the weight gain, the change in body shape, dwindling energy and a feeling that our life force is being slowly but surely sucked from us.
The main reason all these things are happening is not because we are getting older, is it because we are becoming less and less active. We are not using our muscles as they are supposed to be used and we get weaker and flabbier. This is turn drops our metabolic rate and we get fat (and sick too if we are unlucky).
You may not have noticed over the years that you are losing precious muscle tissue as the numbers on the bathroom scale may not have changed. But that is because something else is taking up the space left by the eroded muscle tissue - and you guessed it - fat.
You can maintain the muscle tissue and even rebuild what you have lost even after several decades of disuse. But you have to use the right exercise method and that can only be strength training exercise. Nothing else can do it so do not waste your time on inefficient and time consuming low intensity repetitive activities that will not do anything to hold off muscle tissue loss and has zero chance of rebuilding it.
Get yourself into your local gym or fitness center and get set up on a proper program of strength training exercise and never stop. It will help you get your old body back, help you lose excess weight, keep your muscles and bones strong, make you feel so good and have you looking so much more youthful.
It will help you breeze through this 'change' in your life and you can even come out the other end better than before you started it which is a pretty good goal to aim for you will agree.
