Research
Hormonal
Menopause triggers a shift in body composition toward increased visceral and perivascular fat and reduced fat-free mass, independent of modest total weight gain, driven by estrogen deficiency and elevated FSH.
Do not rely on the scale alone during menopause. Your risk is increasing even if your weight stays stable because you are losing muscle and gaining dangerous visceral fat. Measure your waist circumference and prioritize resistance training to preserve muscle mass.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Women transition experience significant changes in metabolic and body composition indices with a reduction in fat free mass, and an increase in fat mass... Waist circumference increases significantly over the transition... Reducing Estrogen levels which seem to be an important trigger for these changes also alter total and resting energy expenditure.
Why this rating
Based on a narrative review of multiple prospective, cross-sectional, and animal studies.
Source
Weight, Shape, and Body Composition Changes at Menopause
Anna Fenton · Journal of Mid-life Health · 2021
DOI 10.4103/jmh.jmh_123_21
narrative_reviewCited 73×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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