the advice of doctors on the occasion of the National Conference on Gynecology

Getting fat is not inevitable when you reach the age of menopause. This is the message sent by many doctors, on the occasion of the National Gynecology Conference which is held in Lille until Saturday evening.

In France, approximately 11.5 million women are postmenopausal. This is when the fat will come to concentrate on the same area, the belly. The solution for doctors: no drugs, but physical activity.

Menopause actually facilitates weight gain. “Stopping of periods causes ovaries to stop working“, begins Professor Martine Duclos, head of the sports medicine department at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital. However, the ovarian cycle, which lasts 28 days, expends energy. As all that stops, there is less energy expenditure.“

To this first explanation of weight gain is added a second, explains the professor: “What consumes the most energy is muscle. The more muscle mass you have, the more energy you consume.“However, both women and men tend to lose muscle as they age.

“That means you have to get moving. If you don’t start until you’re 50, that’s okay and it’s just as effective.”

Pr Martine Duclos, head of the sports medicine department at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital

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“First you need to spend less time sitting“, advises Martine Duclos. You have to get up regularly. Ideally, you should move thirty minutes a day. If you can’t, even 10 minutes a day is already healthy.”

It is therefore necessary to practice a physical activity but in order for the body to hold up, it is also necessary to eat correctly, insists Corinne Fernandez, dietician-nutritionist in Paris: “The attitudes of women who are getting older are to eat less or even skip meals. This is exactly what you should not do since you have to preserve your muscle mass. For that, you need to have a full plate.“In other words, favor a varied diet, as well as meat, eggs, cheese or even tofu.

Specialists even insist: you should not wait until menopause to exercise, because French women start to put on weight from the age of 30. Between the ages of 18 and 60, they take on average 12 kilos.