That unexpected belly fat that seems to appear out of nowhere once you hit your 40s can feel impossible to lose. No matter how many sit–ups you do or salads you eat, that stubborn midsection just doesn't budge like it used to. I know exactly how frustrating this is because I've been through it myself.
As a fitness coach who specializes in helping women over 40, I discovered the real solutions to menopause belly fat through my own journey competing in bikini competitions. Back in 2018, I was struggling just like you might be now – trying all the usual methods and seeing no results until I finally cracked the code.
Today, I'm going to share the exact process that has helped over 13,000 women lose menopause belly fat – a straightforward approach you can follow to flatten your midsection in just 6–8 weeks. If you're tired of feeling uncomfortable in your clothes and ready for real solutions that work with your changing body, you'll want to read every word of what follows.
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Why We Get Menopause Belly Fat
First off, I'm going to show you the shocking reasons you have gained fat around your midsection and how, once you hit the age of 40, your body has changed.
Linda is one of my clients – she was struggling with belly fat after having a child. The lifestyle she adopted was catching up with her, but she couldn't understand why. She was doing the same things she did in her younger days, but gradually her waist was expanding. She couldn't find clothes to fit, and she realised she had to make a choice to either go and buy new clothes or do something about her expanding waistline.
She decided to take action and join my program. As each week passed, she saw her waistline diminishing and lost 20 lbs. Linda was elated she had found success when it had eluded her before. You can see from these pictures and the smile on Linda's face talking about it that she was really happy with her results in just 8 weeks.
So what had happened to Linda's body, and why had she gained so much weight?
There are three things in Linda's body that were causing her belly fat and preventing her from losing weight using the traditional methods.
1. Insulin Resistance
If you try pouring water into an already soaked sponge, the sponge can't absorb any more water. That's the same as your glucose or sugar in your body – it can't be absorbed like it used to, so you get blood sugar spikes that cause fat gain.
The fat gain will typically sit around your midsection, as Linda found.
2. Loss of Estrogen
Linda's body once she hit the age of 40 is changing due to her hormones. This is because her body has lost estrogen. You can see here she started to store fat around her midsection. That's because as her body has lost estrogen, it's trying to make more, and with that, it makes more fat too. And that typically sits around her midsection. She hasn't changed anything – she has the same lifestyle habits, but her body is storing more fat because it's lacking in estrogen.
3. Loss of Muscle
There is another important thing that is happening to Linda's body, which is adding to the already expanding waistline.
Linda and every woman at this stage will find that her muscles are declining. It's declining at a rate of 1% per year once you hit the age of 40.
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Why Is That Important?
Muscle is like logs I am putting on a fire—the more you have, the longer and hotter the fire burns, even when you're not stoking it.
When you have more muscle, like more logs on the fire, your body is going to burn calories without effort, just when you're sitting, resting, and sleeping.
But as you age, you are not getting that magic effect of muscle. Take me – I'm 58 – if I hadn't done anything about it, I would have lost 18% of muscle or 18% of the logs I had available to burn.
Inflammation
Let's move on to the fourth thing that is happening in your body.
When I was perimenopausal, I was suffering from 2 things I couldn't quite understand. I was getting water retention and bloating. This was during the time I was doing bikini shows, and leading up to the show, I would get really anxious about the water retention and bloating. My ankles would always swell up towards the end of the day, and my coach would order me to have my legs raised to ease this.
And the bloating would get worse throughout the day, and I would have a particular reaction to eating certain foods, like dairy and even natural sweeteners.
What was going on was inflammation, which is a huge problem for perimenopausal and menopausal women and contributes to our belly fat.
Simply put, your body becomes more inflamed as a way of healing itself. But many women experience chronic inflammation, and when left unchecked, it will lead to weight gain, joint pain, and even autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's.
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What Doesn't Work For Belly Fat
So we've learned why we get belly fat, so I'm going to show you why some traditional methods for fat loss won't work anymore. These were methods when you were younger, and some people will even get upset and angry with the first one I'm going to talk about because they love it. But I am not talking about whether you love it, I'm talking about whether it reduces belly fat.
Do you remember the role of muscle, and loading more logs on the fire would keep the fire burning longer and hotter without effort? Well, there are some things that are going to put that fire out, like throwing cold water on it. In other words, they are going to slow your metabolism down.
Running: It’s the worst kind of exercise you can do, because you will reduce your muscle mass.
Very low carb, low calories, or extreme fasting: again, as it will result in loss of muscle, so they are going to put your fire out.
Torch Belly Fat with These Exercises
Remember that fire we were talking about and how we can add more logs on so the fire burns hotter and for longer? That is done by building more muscle. So you need to lift weights to get this magical fat burning.
But you're not going to get bulky like a bodybuilder. You're just putting back the muscle you lost through the aging process.
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Lifting Weights
What happens to your body when you lift weights is that your metabolism speeds up and you are going to be burning calories when you are sitting around, sleeping, and doing everyday things.
It's not about the calories you burn when you are exercising, and it's the calories you burn throughout the day when you are lifting weights.
And that's not the only benefit of lifting weights.
Remember that sponge that couldn't soak up the water because it was full up because of insulin resistance? You can make your sponge bigger by adding more muscle. The more muscle you have, the better your body is at absorbing glucose. So lifting weights is your new friend.
Your body turns into a fat-burning machine when you lift weights.
This is why I have remained so lean for years after my initial success at transforming my body and becoming a stage competitor.
Now I strength train 4 times a week for around 45 mins to an hour per session. So I don't spend huge amounts of time working out. Some people are surprised by this.
And there are two more forms of exercise that will help you keep those logs on the fire, in other words, support your metabolism:
As well as strength training, you do want to be doing some sort of cardio, but not to the detriment of your strength training. We have already learned that too intense cardio can throw water on the fire, but there is a type of cardio that will enhance your muscles and help you put more logs on your fire….
Walking
Walking is amazing for menopausal women because it will not deplete your muscles and it's easy on your joints. You want to get in 7,000 steps per day, which will help your body burn extra calories with the minimum effort. To up your walking game, I love to add in a weighted vest, and that's what I do with my clients. It really is a game changer. Go for 10% of your body weight.
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High Intensity Interval training
Another option is to implement High-Intensity Interval training (HIIT). But only in small amounts. You want to be doing 15–20 minutes per session, no more than 4 times a week. You can go for 30 minutes, but I wouldn't do that anymore, so you don't end up depleting your muscles.
Personally, I love HIIT, but not everyone does, so if you don't like it, stick to walking.
Eat Your Way to a Flatter Tummy
Exercise is not the only tool in your armoury when it comes to the war against belly fat. How you eat is absolutely crucial, and I am going to reveal my secret to eating, which will absolutely torch belly fat and has been so successful for the thousands of women on my programs.
So we've discovered earlier that we get inflammation & insulin resistance; so how do we tackle them?
To reduce inflammation, we need to be eating food that will fight inflammation and cutting out foods that make it worse.
That's cutting out ultra-processed foods, refined carbs, and alcohol, and instead having a diet that is rich in vegetables, fruit, and whole foods.
Foods that actively fight inflammation are berries, tomatoes, peppers, green leafy veg, green tea, oily fish, and even 70% cocoa dark chocolate.
Remember that sponge that couldn't soak up the water because it was full. You can reduce the amount of water you are sending to your sponge. The water is glucose in your body and too much if it will make your sponge overflow. So you should be eating less sugar and fewer refined carbs like white flour and swap these for whole grains and starchy veg.
Then there is an amazing food group which will put more logs on your fire like strength training.
That's Protein
Protein helps with belly fat in 2 ways:
1. Your body takes longer to break down protein, so you are burning more calories than when you eat carbs and fats
2. Protein will support strength training and is the building block to putting on muscle, so it will help with putting those logs on the fire.
You want to be getting in 1g of protein per pound in body weight, which sounds a lot, but that's eating protein at every single meal and snack.
But is eating non-inflammatory foods and increasing your protein all it takes to lose belly fat?
No, you do need to be burning more energy than you are consuming in food for this to work. In other words, you do need to be in a calorie deficit.
I know many of you ask me how many calories I should be eating. The answer is – that depends on so many things. What your goal is, how much activity you are doing, and how much you currently weigh. You also need to have a workout plan that's designed for your level of fitness, experience, and goals. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.
About the author: Melissa Neill is a weight loss coach and the CEO of Body By Bikini
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