-As she approached 50 years, Susan Williams found it harder and harder to keep her weight, much less pour the extra pounds she worked for some time.
"I was working as hard as I was, but I was gaining weight," says Atlanta's film production executive. "It's a constant struggle."
Now 52, Williams says she recently renewed her diet to include more fruits and vegetables and less sugar and white flour-and she managed to lose a few pounds.
.Weight Loss Veggie Recipes - Keys to Weight Loss After Menopause
The researchers examined food behavior among postmenopausal women in their 50 years enrolled in a weight loss study. They identified those behaviors that were common in women who managed to pour pounds and keep them off.
Cut back in desserts and sugary drinks covered the list, followed by limiting meats and cheeses and eating more fruits and vegetables. .
"People who might lower their consumption of desserts and sugary drinks tend to have more success losing weight and keeping it," says Bethany Barone Gibbs researcher, PhD, Pittsburgh University.
The study included about 500 postmenopausal women overweight and obese with waist sizes higher than 31.5 inches. None of the women had high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.
Half of women followed a weight loss plan that included regular meetings with nutritionists, experts in exercises and psychologists. None of these options was available for other women, but they received the opportunity to participate in general health seminars.
Women were followed for four years. During this time, those in the nutritional group and exercise lost an average of 8 pounds, compared to about half a kilo between those of the General Health Group.
Behaviors associated with weight loss at six months in the combined groups included eating:
- less sugar (desserts and sugary beverages)
- less fried foods
- More fish
- Eating at restaurants less often
After four years, behaviors linked to long-term diet success emerged:
- Also eating less desserts and drinking less sugar sweet drinks
- Eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat and cheeses
The study appears in the newspaper of the Nutrition and Dietetics Academy.
Barone Gibbs speculates that strategies that led short-term weight loss, but not long-term, how to restrict fried foods And eating out less, can be difficult to support.
Margery L. Gass, MD, who is an executive director of the American Society of Menopause, says that the WebMD that the weight gain is common among women in their 40 and 50 years, menopause It's guilty. Gass is a professor of obstetrics at the University of Cincinnati.
"It happens to men as well as women," she says. "For some reason, as we get older weight, it seems to redistribute to our middles. This is not good because the fat in the abdomen increases [heart disease and stroke]."
Gass says, while weight gain is not inevitable, most middle-aged women need to eat less And exercise more than once you did to keep your weight.
"Virtually all my patients who have succeeded have told me they did it," she says.
It notes that weight gain around menopause time is much less common in Japan than in the US, suggesting that Western power standards are in Much of blaming. / p>
Women in Japan usually eat more fruits, vegetables and fish, and less sugar, red meat and fast food than women in the United States.
"Japanese women also live more than women in any other country (an average of 88 years), and their healthier diets are one of the main reasons for this," says Gass.
