Weight and appetite experts recently attended a conference to discuss obesity in men and women and noted that women tend to gain weight during menopause.
According to Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, the answer appears to be because women stop being as active.
"Many women get confused when they start to gain weight during menopause because their eating habits haven't changed," Dr Sainsbury-Salis noted.
"What the research shows clearly is that...just prior to menopause, women halve their amount of activity compared to pre-menopause levels."
The expert said that this reduction in energy expenditure makes weight gain "almost inevitable" unless women alter their diet plans.
Menopause occurs when the female reproductive system shuts down permanently. The average age for a woman in the UK to reach the menopause is 52.
