Best Exercise For Menopause Belly

What is the best exercise for menopause belly? To answer that properly lets take a look at what meno belly is all about.

Out of nowhere, I seemed to look a little bit pregnant and not one of the pregnancies where it was a cute little bump.

If I ran my finger down my breastbone, immediately below my bra line the “dome” began. The dome was my name for it. It was hard and swollen and nothing could budge it. 

I had this for many months before being diagnosed as perimenopausal in my early forties. My clothes didn’t fit, and I didn’t appear to be putting on too much weight anywhere else (for now anyway), but this big dome was there for all to see! 

I am no exercise expert but I will share with you what I did to help myself with my menopause belly. 

What Is Menopause Belly?

This is when a couple of years before menopause your decreasing hormones and slowing metabolism lead you to gain weight around your belly. 

The body no longer distributes its weight like it used to and menopause belly can become a problem if we are not careful. 

Belly fat is not only annoying for us but it is also dangerous. A North American study found that accumulation of weight around your middle section increases your chance of cardiovascular disease. 

We know it is common for midlife weight gain in both men and women but we need to make sure that we do what we can to reduce belly fat.

Why Is My Stomach So Big During Menopause?

Let’s be honest, Perimenopause and Menopause come with a lot of other symptoms along with belly fat. 

It’s worth taking a quick look at what else may be contributing to the increase in weight during this time. 

Sore Joints – feeling like your joints are on fire, painful and stiff is a common symptom of menopause. This means it is unlikely you want to do any exercise, even if you have done lots before. This, unfortunately, contributes to the weight gain. 

Anxiety – have you gone from running in the park without a care in the world, to now feeling like the world outside is scary and unsafe? For me, I was suddenly afraid to go to meetings in the city, which meant I was walking so much less than before. This didn’t help with body fat. 

Fatigue – some days getting out of bed, brushing my hair and smiling on the morning meeting Zoom call is all I have in me. Perimenopause wiped me out, the exhaustion was real. To deal with this I ate a load of sugar and coffee. Not getting enough sleep also played a big part in putting on weight for me.

Brain Fog – This sounds like a weird one when considering body weight, but my brain fog was so bad that my stress levels went through the roof. I turned to comfort eating and drinking more wine to help me cope with chronic stress. 

Each of us menopausal legends will have had to deal with many symptoms and these were just a couple of examples of what could be contributing to stubborn belly fat. 

How Can I Flatten My Stomach During Menopause?

God I miss the days of a flat stomach, but let’s be honest it is not just menopause that has caused issues, well, for me anyway. 

Let’s look at some of the things we can do outside of exercise (I am coming to that) to help ourselves on the quest of avoiding heart disease thanks to our growing waistline. 

Food

Here it is, the big one. A healthy diet is always going to be important in losing weight. I heard someone say that you can’t out-train a bad diet, and it is true. 

I am not going to go down the calorie conversation but I am going to let you know what has helped me. 

I eat too much glucose, no doubt. I have a sweet tooth and I eat starchy food. After I watched a documentary about the Glucose Goddess, I changed to a Mediterranean diet of fish, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and fresh vegetables.

Keeping an eye on my blood sugar has helped me to sleep better, lose weight, and give me more energy to try and exercise. 

Eat healthy they said, you are what you eat, they said. They were right. It has made a difference to my waistline for sure. 

Also, we need fewer calories now we are a little more mature, I believe it is around 200 calories less per day, so go for smaller portions if you can. 

Stress Release

When we are stressed we release the stress hormone cortisol which can encourage fat deposits around the abdomen. 

I know this is easier said than done when you are struggling with depression, anxiety, brain fog, sore boobs and hot flushes to name a few. 

Some things that helped me are meditating, delegating household chores, letting key people at work know I need a little support, finding little hacks to cope with brain fog and really taking time for myself.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

I know not everyone is down for HRT but it works wonders for me. My combination of estrogen and progesterone sorted out my joint pain, anxiety, brain fog and a bunch of other symptoms that were keeping me from doing my normal things. 

This meant I started to get out and about again, walking more, doing some gentle exercises and it made a massive difference to how I felt in my body. 

If you think HRT might be an option for you, definitely have a chat with your doctor. 

What Exercises Get Rid Of Belly Fat?

Meno belly can be a real pain to get rid of and we know that a healthy diet is great for helping with it but so is exercise. 

I really cannot be bothered exercising, I think it is a pain in the backside but I know I need to do it. It has to be better to exercise that keep my dome and get heart disease. 

So when look at the best exercise for menopause belly, what exercises can help? Cardio exercise? Weight training? High-intensity exercise? Or just any physical exercise? 

EVERYONE is giving different advice on this so I am going to show you the most common approach to reduce belly fat with exercise that I keep coming across. 

Stand 

Yep, let’s start with an easy one.

Choose to stand as much as you can, the more we stand the more calories we burn. There is research out that that shows abdominal fat is connected to sitting for long periods of time. 

So get up from your desk and stand for as much of the day as you can. 

Try little things like, when you are on the phone during the day, stand up. Try and standing desk or just set little reminders on your phone to make you stand for a bit every hour. 

Walk

For me this is the best exercise for menopause belly. This is the most effective for me. Walking briskly in the morning not only clears my head but it gets my blood pumping around my body. 

If you can build up to a brisk walk every day and throw in the odd hill walk you will reap the rewards. 

It is hard to do this if your joints are in bits, so make sure you deal with any symptoms causing you pain before you take on any of these exercises. 

Swim

If your joints are feeling a bit ropey and you want something less impactful then try swimming. It is great for cardio, gentle on the joints, and good for stress levels.

There is always that anxiety of putting on a costume and heading to the pool, but try and remember that most people are more bothered about how they look than what you are wearing. 

Strength Training

This does not mean legging it to the gym to start lifting 16kgs off the bat, this is about using your own body weight to help with strength. 

As we age we lose muscle mass so it is really important to rey and keep out muscles in good condition. Not just to feel strong but to protect our bones. 

As we age and the estrogen depletes we are more likely to suffer from osteoperosis and we need our muscles to help keep our bones protected.

Planking

I do not like planking but it really does wonders on building some core strength. If you start off with very low expectations and build yourself up a few seconds in position each day, you will definitely see a difference.