What do you know about menopausal fat? Woman's bodies begin to prepare for menopause as early as mid 30s. Most of women will gain an average of 12 pounds, and their waistlines will expand by several inches by the time we reach menopause. So when we think about menopause belly fat, we think in negative way, because this is what makes us look and feel bad. Menopause fat is the reason woman body shape changes from "pear" to "apple" and makes it more difficult to lose weight.

But not everything about menopause belly fat is bad. In actuality menopausal fat is helping women to go through menopause with lower health problems, by regulating production of estrogen, which is decreasing during menopause.

Estrogen, known as a "female hormone" produced by ovaries, together with progesterone, regulates the changes that occur with each monthly period and prepares the uterus for pregnancy. Before women enter menopause ovaries make more then 90% of estrogen.

Women's fat cells also can produce estrogen, but not as much. That's why overweight women who have more fat cells, have fewer problems with hot flashes and osteoporosis, when they are going through menopause.

The second most important female hormone is progesterone and like estrogen, the ovaries make most of it. During menopause when women start losing estrogen and progesterone, woman's fat cells are trying to compensate the decrease by expanding. The bigger the fat cells become, the more estrogen they can make. But this means increase of menopause belly fat as well as our waistlines.

But that's not everything. Another important hormone produced by ovaries is testosterone.

Deficiency of testosterone during menopause results in loss of muscle tissue and lean body mass. Lean body mass burns calories at a higher metabolic rate, so any reduction of muscle reflects in menopausal weight gain and even higher accumulation of menopausal fat.

So, why losing menopausal fat is hard? I think you already got the picture.

Menopause belly fat produced by fat cells in woman's body is its weapon against lost estrogen. Lack of estrogen makes the menopausal symptoms more sever. Also lower estrogen interferes with the normal action of leptin (protein hormone), which controls appetite, so lower estrogen means higher appetite, more calories to burn and more menopause belly fat to deal with. Decrease in testosterone adds to it, because our metabolism slows down and we burn fewer calories with smaller muscle mass we have.

But this does not mean we have to accept menopausal fat. On the contrary, we have to fight it because fat increases the risk of heart disease, higher blood pressure, breast cancer, diabetes and level of "bad" cholesterol.

Find out how you can fight menopausal fat by making a few changes to your lifestyle.

Visit http://www.menopause-weight.com and Learn The Simple Solution To Your Menopausal Belly Fat.

Article originally published on Ezine.