Weight acquire is a ordinary prevalence all through menopause — and regularly an unwanted one. The too much kilos, which in most cases seem across the abdominal, may also be particularly brittle to drop.
However there’s excellent information for ladies who’re struggling with their very own menopausal weight acquire. The untouched stream of injectable weight reduction medication — together with semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) — would possibly support some ladies combat towards unfavourable menopause weight acquire.
“I see a lot of women in this phase of life who have worked out and been healthy their whole lives and are frustrated with the weight gain they’re experiencing now,” says Disha Narang, MD, the director of weight problems drugs at Northwestern Pool Jungle Sanatorium in Evanston, Illinois. “Starting medication is not a failure.”
What Reasons Menopausal Weight Acquire?
Girls generally tend to note some weight acquire inauguration within the years as much as menopause, a length known as perimenopause, and it’s ordinary for ladies to realize about 1.5 kilos (lb) each and every month of her fifties.
Menopause reasons a vital and everlasting shift in hormones. This altered hormone ratio is why menopausal weight acquire in most cases collects across the abdominal, says Joanne Dushay, MD, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Clinical Heart in Boston.
“That type of central distribution of body fat is associated with your body being less responsive to insulin, and that can contribute to trouble with weight loss,” she says. Feminine intercourse hormones, comparable to estrogen, additionally give protection to towards insulin resistance; when menopause results in declining estrogen ranges, weight acquire regularly follows, and the danger of situations comparable to kind 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome rises.
On the identical hour, each men and women enjoy a slowing metabolism as they grow older, says Dr. Dushay, an extra explanation for weight acquire within the forties and past.
Can Tirzepatide and Semaglutide Backup With Menopausal Weight Acquire?
It’s widely recognized now that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) are extremely efficient weight reduction remedies. Those medication, specifically semaglutide and tirzepatide, support folk drop a few pounds in numerous techniques, basically through suppressing the urge for food and slowing intestinal transit. GLP-1s don’t paintings for everyone, however maximum customers who’re obese or have weight problems to find themselves consuming much less meals and shedding weight.
Despite the fact that many postmenopausal ladies have taken phase in immense GLP-1 weight reduction trials, very minute learn about has focused on how the medicine impact them particularly. One 2024 research of about 100 postmenopausal ladies discovered that semaglutide drove important weight reduction and growth in cardiovascular chance components; the advantages had been even more potent for the subset of girls who had been receiving hormone remedy for menopause.
GLP-1 medication support let fall big collection all over the place the frame — together with the abdominal big this is so ordinary in menopause. They “definitely result in decreased abdominal/visceral fat,” says Dushay. GLP-1s also are identified to at once give a boost to insulin resistance, which might probably battle one of the results of menopause’s hormonal adjustments.
To position it merely, there’s negative reason why to suspect that GLP-1s could be any much less efficient for ladies at this level of era than they’re for any person else: “I wouldn’t say there is a physiological argument for postmenopausal women responding in a less robust way to GLP-1 agonists,” says Dushay.
On the identical hour, Dushay cautions that postmenopausal ladies the usage of a untouched GLP-1 drug shouldn’t essentially be expecting atypical weight reduction. “I would say the postmenopausal women I treat are not typically super responders,” she says.
GLP-1 Medication and Dangers for Postmenopausal Girls
Used ladies have a couple of too much components to imagine after they start taking a GLP-1 drug.
Dushay says that some customers wish to be specifically cautious about bone and muscle loss as they’re dropping pounds with a GLP-1. Frame composition adjustments with date — muscle groups and bone density generally tend to height in our thirties, next which they frequently abatement. Menopause hurries up those declines. The lack of muscle groups and bone density related to menopause can govern to each sarcopenia (severe muscle loss) and osteoporosis (fragile bones).
Narang says when an individual loses quite a lot of weight, they don’t simply lose big, in addition they lose muscle and bone collection. Weight reduction medication, due to this fact, can exacerbate the herbal muscle and bone density loss in postmenopausal ladies.
“You have to take active steps to maintain your muscle mass as you age,” Dushay says. “That is especially true with a medication such as a GLP-1 agonist that has the potential to cause significant and at times rapid weight loss.”
“Something we emphasize with medical weight management is the importance of resistance exercise,” Narang says. Including weight coaching or frame weight workout routines on your exercise regimen as you date is noteceable for everybody, however particularly folk who utility weight reduction medication. Consuming plenty protein can support saving incline muscle groups, too.
“At the end of the day, the medication is just a resource and the lifestyle aspect — exercising and eating well — is incredibly important to sustain over time,” she says.
The Takeaway
Menopause and ageing regularly convey weight acquire, specifically across the abdominal, that may appear particularly tough to lose.
GLP-1 weight reduction cures comparable to semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound) are a good way to drop a few pounds, and there is not any reason why to suspect that they don’t paintings for postmenopausal ladies.
GLP-1 medication will have to at all times be supported with nutritious diet and workout conduct, in all probability particularly when worn through used ladies.
