By HATTIE BERNSTEIN, Telegraph Staff
hbernstein@nashuatelegraph.com

NASHUA ? For women, a lifelong battle of the bulge often escalates at midlife into a major confrontation with biology.

Exercise and diet are the chief weapons in this war, although more often than not they aren?t enough to preserve the body a woman had at 20 or 30.

Nor has anyone come up with a magic cure for the midsection fat that tends to accumulate during perimenopause, the years between 35 and 55, when estrogen production decreases, culminating in menopause, the end of a woman?s fertility.

?Women need to accept that the body does change,? said Andrea Hebert, a registered dietitian who runs Healthy After Ever, a nutrition consulting business. ?They have to realize things will change, but they don?t have to be 50 pounds overweight.?

Hebert said the experts agree that a ten-pound weight gain at midlife is normal for women, and that restricting calories during middle age doesn?t work as a weight loss strategy.

Instead, she suggested eating smaller amounts of food more frequently: In addition to three meals, consider adding up to three, 100-calorie snacks that incorporate whole grains, protein, and fat, she said.

?Have some light yogurt with all-bran or a whole grain English muffin with natural peanut butter,? Hebert said.

She said women often don?t understand that fat in the body is a source of hormones: As a woman approaches menopause, estrogen production starts to drop, causing the body to hoard estrogen to take up the slack.

?What happens is the pre-menopausal body needs a certain amount of estrogen going through perimenopause to menopause,? Hebert explained. ?The body stops making as much estrogen, and the fat cells take over.?

She said fat cells that take on the new job of making estrogen ?tend to get larger and gather around the midsection.?

Hebert and other experts said science hasn?t found a cure for female midsection fat, although that hasn?t stopped women from seeking one.

Indeed, a culture that values youth and denigrates the aging process makes it difficult for women to accept the inevitable changes wrought by time, some experts said.

?In our society, people are going for an image instead of focusing on the fact that they?re living a healthy life,? said April Spooner, an exercise physiologist in the cardiac rehabilitation department at St. Joseph Hospital. ?Practicing good nutrition, exercising regularly and maintaining good health should be more of the focus.?

Spooner said women often wrongly believe they can ?spot reduce? their middle sections or other areas where fat accumulates.

?Spot reducing is a myth,? she said. ?Through menopause, women will collect fat. The key is to continue to modify your exercise intensity level to burn the most calories . . . You may not have the washboard stomach or be model thin. The way the body works, women tend to collect it there.?

Chris Roy, the personal trainer who owns and operates the Active Body Studio, said midsection fat may also be a symptom of over consumption of alcohol, white flour, and other simple sugars.

?You can?t blame it on age,? he said, explaining that lifetime eating and exercise habits come home to roost in middle age.

He suggested a diet that includes a balance of fat, protein and ?quality? carbohydrates at each meal.

?We?ve been conditioned to believe that it?s fat in the diet that?s making us fat,? he said, explaining that healthy fat contributes to maintaining insulin levels in the body, a weight control mechanism.

Roy recommended interval training, mixing short, fast bursts at a hard pace with slower, easier exercising, to burn more calories.

?Genetically, we?re all different, and it?s not a function of aging per se,? Roy said of female, midlife, midsection fat. ?Don?t get discouraged because the benefits of exercise go far beyond the visual or vanity aspects . . . They all far outweigh sitting on the couch.?

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 594-6439 or at hbernstein@nashuatelegraph.com.

Source: Nashuatelegraph.com

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