Perimenopause Weight Gain — and Why the Scale Misleads

Quick answer: In the largest study to measure this with body scans rather than a scale, the rate of total weight gain did not change when women entered the menopause transition — in the paper's own words, "there is no discernable change in rate of weight gain at the start of the MT." What changed was what the weight was made of: fat mass gain roughly doubled, from 1.0% to 1.7% a year, while lean mass flipped from a small annual gain to a small annual loss.

If your clothes fit differently while the number on the scale looks much as it always did, you are noticing something real. The scale is a poor instrument for it — it reports one total and cannot say which tissue that total is made of. The National Institute on Aging puts it plainly: during the menopausal transition "the body begins to use energy differently. The distribution of fat in the body changes," and "You could lose muscle and gain fat" (NIA).

What actually changes (and what doesn't)

The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) followed 1,246 women with repeated dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans from 1996–1997 through 2011–2013. DXA separates fat mass from lean mass; a scale reports only their sum. That distinction is the whole finding (Greendale et al., 2019).

The paper states the weight result twice, and precisely. "The rate of increase in the sum of fat mass and lean mass is 0.32 kg per year in premenopause and 0.40 kg per year during the MT. This is not a discernable change in rate." And, statistically: "weight and BMI slopes at the onset of MT did not differ statistically from slopes during premenopause (P = 0.98 for change in weight slope)." A p-value of 0.98 is about as flat as this kind of analysis gets.

Both things are true at once. Weight kept climbing at the rate it already had, and underneath that unchanged total, fat accumulated roughly twice as fast while muscle went the other way. Two different bodies can produce the same reading — which is why being told the number looks fine can feel at odds with what you are seeing.

The timeline: when it starts and when it stops

The changes are anchored to the final menstrual period rather than to a birthday. In the same analysis, fat and lean mass measures began shifting about 2 years before the final period and decelerated about 1.5 years after it, reaching a zero slope somewhere between 1.5 and 10.5 years afterwards. On weight itself, the authors write: "Weight climbed linearly during premenopause without acceleration at the MT. Its trajectory became flat after the MT" (Greendale et al., 2019).

That is a defined window of roughly three to four years, not an indefinite decline — which almost nothing written on this subject bothers to say.

Working out where you are in it is harder, since the final period is only identifiable in hindsight. The average age at menopause in the United States is 52 (NIA) — 51 is also widely quoted, from older datasets — a discrepancy covered in when perimenopause starts. And under STRAW+10, perimenopause does not end at your last period; it includes the 12 months after it (Harlow et al., 2012), as explained in what perimenopause actually is. Body composition and the transition run on two different clocks.

Why "menopause makes you gain weight" is the wrong explanation

It is the standard line, and it does not match what the scans measured. Weight was already climbing before the transition — about 0.32 kg a year — and kept climbing at a statistically indistinguishable rate through it. What the transition was associated with was not a faster total, but a change in what that total consisted of, and in where the fat sat.

This distinction matters practically, because the two explanations point at different responses. "Hormones are making you gain weight" points at eating less. "Fat is accumulating faster while muscle is being lost" points at defending muscle. Only one of those is what the measurement actually found.

It would be just as wrong to overcorrect. This is one cohort study, and it does not show that hormones have no bearing on weight in any population. What it shows is what happened in 1,246 women in a US, community-based rather than population-based sample drawn from five of SWAN's seven sites, without direct examination of hormone trajectories. It is the best measurement of this question we could verify — not the last word on every question nearby.

Belly fat and "meno belly": where the weight goes

"Meno belly" is a lay term for the increase in abdominal fat that many women notice during the menopause transition. It is not a diagnosis, and it is not clinical vocabulary: a PubMed search for the phrase returns no indexed papers (checked 20 October 2026). The change it describes is real and measured, so the research below names the fat by depot — android, visceral, subcutaneous, gynoid — rather than by nickname. The NHS states the plain version: "Weight gain during perimenopause and menopause is common. It often happens around the stomach and upper body" (NHS). Why the same midsection change often gets attributed to stress instead is the subject of how menopause belly differs from "cortisol belly".

That analysis could not address where the fat went — the authors say they "were unable to consider the effect of the MT on regional body composition and visceral fat." The same group answered it later, in 380 women with regional DXA measurements followed for a median of 11.8 years (Greendale et al., 2021).

Visceral and gynoid fat began increasing at the transition; android fat, already rising, accelerated more than fourfold. This is also the better-evidenced explanation for a midsection change in midlife than the stress-hormone story sold as cortisol belly, which rests on far weaker ground than the DXA trajectories here. The authors' conclusion is direct: "The MT is associated with the development of central adiposity. Waist or hip circumferences are less sensitive to changes in fat distribution." Read that second sentence twice — waist girth grew at rates not statistically different across the three stages, even while the scan showed visceral fat rising sharply. The tape measure is as blunt an instrument here as the scale.

Two caveats: these are the White referent figures, and the authors found significant differences in some trajectories among Black and Japanese participants; and 380 women is a much smaller sample than the 1,246 above.

When the visceral fat starts to accumulate

It begins before the final period, not after it. A separate SWAN analysis put a start date on the acceleration: in 362 women from the SWAN Heart study (61% White, 39% Black), visceral fat was measured by electron beam computed tomography rather than DXA, and the trajectory turned at two points. More than two years before the final period, there was no significant change. In the two years leading up to it, visceral fat rose 8.2% a year (95% CI, 4.1% to 12.5%). After it, the rise continued more slowly, at 5.8% a year (95% CI, 3.7% to 7.9%). The authors conclude that "women experience an accelerated increase in VAT starting 2 years before menopause" (Samargandy et al., 2021).

That agreement is worth weighing carefully. The DXA analysis above and this CT analysis were run on different groups of SWAN women and measured visceral fat by different machines, and both still place the acceleration at the transition rather than at a particular age. The rates they report are a different matter: 6.24% a year by DXA against 8.2% by CT is not a settled figure, and neither number forecasts what will happen to one person.

An earlier four-year study separated ageing from menopause more cleanly than any snapshot comparison can. Of 156 initially premenopausal women (103 Caucasian, 53 African-American) scanned annually, 51 became postmenopausal during follow-up. "All women gained SAT over time; however, only those who became postmenopausal had a significant increase in VAT" — SAT being the subcutaneous abdominal layer you can pinch, VAT the deeper depot around the organs. The authors' conclusion splits the two drivers: "Middle-aged women gained SAT with age, whereas menopause per se was associated with an increase in total body fat and VAT" (Lovejoy et al., 2008).

What that distinction means here: the soft outer layer thickens with age whether or not the transition has begun, while the deeper depot is the part that tracks the transition itself. The same study measured energy expenditure in a whole-room calorimeter in a subset of 34 women: sleeping energy expenditure fell in everyone, but the fall was 1.5-fold greater in those who became postmenopausal (−7.9% versus −5.3%), and fat oxidation dropped 32% in that group while not changing in women who stayed premenopausal. Thirty-four women is a small subset, so the direction of those two findings is more dependable than their size.

What a tape measure can and can't tell you

Detecting this change and flagging risk are two different jobs, and the tape measure is only good at one of them. For detecting the redistribution it is weak, for the reason above: waist girth grew at rates that were not statistically different across the three stages even while the scans showed visceral fat climbing sharply. For assessing risk at a single point in time it is the standard instrument, and the threshold is published. "A waist circumference of more than 35 inches for women or more than 40 inches for men increases your risk" of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, measured by standing and placing "a tape measure around your middle, just above your hipbones," and reading it "just after you breathe out" (NHLBI).

Both halves of that matter. A waist measurement that has not moved in two years does not rule out the change described here, and a measurement over the threshold is worth raising with a clinician whether or not perimenopause accounts for it.

There is a reason to care beyond appearance, and it needs no alarm. The same window is when SWAN recorded a distinct shift in blood lipids: among 1,054 women, "only total cholesterol, LDL-C, and apolipoprotein-B demonstrated substantial increases within the 1 year interval before and after FMP" — tied to the transition rather than to ageing — leading the authors to conclude that "monitoring lipids in perimenopausal women should enhance primary prevention of CHD" (Matthews et al., 2009). This is the stage where a lipid panel starts to carry information; normal cholesterol levels by age covers how to read one.

What actually reduces belly fat

Exercise is the only measure with direct visceral-fat evidence behind it, and that evidence is stronger in general adult populations than in postmenopausal women specifically. Those two bodies of work do not say the same thing, and the difference between them is where most advice on this subject goes wrong.

Exercise, with and without weight loss

A meta-analysis of 117 studies in 4,815 people compared exercise training against hypocaloric dieting, with visceral fat quantified by radiographic imaging. Both reduced it (P < 0.0001). Dieting produced the larger weight loss (P = 0.04), while exercise showed a trend toward the larger visceral reduction (P = 0.08). The result that bears on this page is what happened when the scale did not move: "In the absence of weight loss, exercise is related to 6.1% decrease in VAT, whilst diet showed virtually no change (1.1%)." The authors' closing point on measurement matches the rest of this article — "total body weight loss does not necessarily reflect changes in VAT and may represent a poor marker when evaluating benefits of lifestyle-interventions" (Verheggen et al., 2016). These were general adult and obesity populations, not women in the menopause transition.

Where the evidence in postmenopausal women stops short

Two randomised trials have tested aerobic exercise in postmenopausal women with abdominal imaging, and both stop short of the visceral claim.

In the first, 173 sedentary, overweight postmenopausal women aged 50 to 75 were randomised to moderate-intensity exercise — mostly brisk walking, averaging 176 minutes a week — or to a stretching control, for 12 months. Against controls, body weight fell 1.4 kg (95% CI, −2.5 to −0.3), total body fat 1.0% (95% CI, −1.6% to −0.4%) and subcutaneous abdominal fat 28.8 g/cm² (95% CI, −47.5 to −10.0), with a dose response across increasing exercise duration. Intra-abdominal fat fell 8.6 g/cm², but its interval runs from −17.8 to 0.9 (Irwin et al., 2003). That interval includes zero. The paper's abstract lists the result among the statistically significant differences, so we flag the discrepancy and cite this trial for its total and subcutaneous findings only.

The second compared doses rather than exercise against none: 400 inactive postmenopausal women were randomised to 300 or 150 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise for a year, achieving a median 254 and 137 minutes respectively. The higher dose won on total fat, the trial's primary outcome (least-squares mean difference −1.0%; 95% CI, −1.6% to −0.4%; P = .002), on subcutaneous abdominal fat (−10.8 cm²; 95% CI, −19.5 to −2.2; P = .01) and on waist-to-hip ratio, with stronger effects among women with obesity. It did not win on weight (−0.7 kg; P = .11) or on intra-abdominal fat (−1.5 cm²; 95% CI, −5.9 to 2.9; P = .50) (Friedenreich et al., 2015).

The disagreement, stated rather than averaged: the general-population meta-analysis finds that exercise lowers visceral fat even without weight loss, while the two trials conducted in postmenopausal women find clear reductions in total and subcutaneous abdominal fat and no statistically significant change in the deeper intra-abdominal depot. These are not the same measurements in the same people. One pools radiographic visceral measurements across 117 largely non-menopausal study populations; the others measured a CT-defined intra-abdominal depot in a few hundred postmenopausal women each, with intervals wide enough to contain no effect. What all three support is narrower and still worth acting on: in postmenopausal women, exercise reduces total and subcutaneous abdominal fat, more minutes did more than fewer, and the scale understates both.

Abdominal exercises alone don't reduce abdominal fat

The premise behind most targeted programmes has been tested directly. Twenty-four sedentary adults aged 18 to 40 (14 men, 10 women) were randomised either to seven abdominal exercises, two sets of ten repetitions, five days a week for six weeks, or to no intervention, with diet held constant throughout. The trained group finished measurably stronger on the abdominal endurance test (47 ± 13 curl-ups versus 32 ± 9). Nothing else moved: no significant effect on body weight, body fat percentage, android fat, abdominal circumference, or the abdominal and suprailiac skinfolds. "Six weeks of abdominal exercise training alone was not sufficient to reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat and other measures of body composition" (Vispute et al., 2011).

Three limits belong with that: 24 participants is a very small trial, six weeks is a short exposure, and nobody in it was in the menopause transition. It cannot settle the question for women in their forties and fifties. What it does is put the underlying idea — that working a muscle reduces the fat lying over it — to a direct test, and the idea failed.

Does hormone therapy change where the fat goes?

Slightly, on the most favourable honest reading. The Menopause Society's 2022 hormone therapy position statement grades the question at Level II and words it with care: "Although hormone therapy may help attenuate abdominal adipose accumulation and weight gain associated with the menopause transition, the effect is small" (The Menopause Society, 2022).

The underlying results explain that wording. In the Women's Health Initiative, women randomised to estrogen with or without a progestogen showed "no statistically significant difference in slowing of weight gain and a lesser increase in waist circumference over the first 3 years of use" against placebo. In SWAN, "women who used hormone therapy did not have observable differences in the trajectory of weight or body fat gain compared with those who did not take hormones, although numbers are relatively small." The older randomised evidence agrees about weight: a Cochrane review of 28 trials in 28,559 women found differences of 0.03 kg for unopposed oestrogen and 0.04 kg for combined therapy, although it dates from January 2000 and had insufficient data to assess fat distribution.

One figure in the 2022 statement sits above the scan data at the top of this page. It gives average weight gain during midlife and the transition as "1.5 lb per year" after controlling for body size and ethnicity, citing two other analyses, where the DXA study measured 0.32 to 0.40 kg a year — 0.7 to 0.9 lb. Both figures trace back to SWAN by different methods, and we could not find a published reconciliation of the two.

None of this makes body composition a reason to start. The same statement lists what hormone therapy is approved for: "moderate to severe VMS; prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women; treatment of hypoestrogenism caused by hypogonadism, BO, or POI; and treatment of moderate to severe vulvovaginal symptoms" (Level I). Abdominal fat is not on that list.

What this changes about what to do

One honest limitation first: SWAN describes what happened to a group of women over time. It tested no intervention, so it cannot tell you what prevents or reverses these changes, and nothing below should be read as evidence that it does.

What the mechanism supports is a change of target: if lean mass is what shifts from slow gain to slow loss, preserving it is the goal. A strategy judged only by the scale cannot distinguish fat lost from muscle lost — precisely the distinction that matters.

On protein, this page gives you the floor and not a target. The adult Recommended Dietary Allowance is 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight, or 46 g a day for women (DRI summary tables). Higher intakes exist but were set for a different population — PROT-AGE advises 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg for people over 65 (Bauer et al., 2013) — and women in their forties are not that group. We could not verify a protein target set specifically for the menopause transition, so we publish none; our perimenopause diet guide works through it in detail.

The same discipline applies to resistance training. No trial we could verify has tested a training prescription for preserving lean mass through the transition specifically. What exists is general adult guidance: "Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity and that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week" (Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2018) — population-wide advice, not a menopause-specific prescription.

One point needs care, because it is easy to misread. Exercise appears on The Menopause Society's not recommended list at Level II — a verdict about treating hot flashes and night sweats, the only outcome that panel assessed (The Menopause Society, 2023). It is not a finding that exercise is useless in perimenopause. The statement did not evaluate it for lean mass, bone density, cardiovascular risk, mood or sleep, which is where the reasons to do it actually come from.

Does weight loss help symptoms?

Yes, with a qualified grade — and it is one of the few lifestyle interventions here that gets an affirmative recommendation at all. The Menopause Society's 2023 statement concludes: "The limited available evidence suggests that weight loss may be used to improve VMS for some women. (Levels II-III; recommended)" (The Menopause Society, 2023). Levels II-III means limited or inconsistent evidence plus expert opinion — not the Level I grade carried by cognitive behavioural therapy, SSRIs and gabapentin — and the panel notes that the supporting studies "are either small pilot studies, nonrandomized trials, or post hoc analyses of studies designed for a different purpose."

The timing detail is the useful part. Adiposity acts as a risk factor for vasomotor symptoms "earlier in the transition (perimenopause and early postmenopause) but not when women are older or later in the transition," so weight loss may do more earlier in it. That is a finding about symptom relief for women who want it, not a statement about how anyone should look. Where it sits among better-evidenced options is covered in perimenopause treatment options.

What the evidence doesn't support

We found no verified evidence that any supplement prevents or reverses the body-composition changes described on this page. That is a statement about an absence and should be read as one: we did not locate credible trials testing the question — not that evidence exists showing supplements fail at it.

Separately, The Menopause Society does not recommend supplements or herbal remedies for vasomotor symptoms at Levels I-II — again a verdict about hot flashes and night sweats, not about body composition, which the statement did not assess. Our supplements guide covers the individual products and what each was tested against — the question worth asking of anything sold for "menopause belly."

Frequently asked questions about perimenopause weight gain (FAQ)

How do I get rid of meno belly? Exercise has the best evidence behind it, and that evidence is narrower than the advertising suggests: no trial has tested a programme against "meno belly" as a target. In general adult populations, a meta-analysis of 117 studies found that exercise lowered visceral fat by 6.1% even when body weight did not change, while dieting without weight loss moved it 1.1%. In postmenopausal women specifically, two randomised trials found that exercise reduced total and subcutaneous abdominal fat, but neither detected a statistically significant reduction in the deeper intra-abdominal depot. Abdominal exercises on their own did not reduce abdominal fat in the trial that tested them directly.

Why am I gaining weight in perimenopause? In SWAN's study of 1,246 women, the rate of total weight gain did not measurably speed up at the start of the menopause transition — women were already gaining steadily beforehand. What changed was composition: fat gain roughly doubled from 1.0% to 1.7% a year, while lean mass went from +0.2% to −0.2% a year. The same reading on the scale, a different body underneath it.

Does perimenopause cause belly fat? A SWAN analysis of 380 women found visceral fat began increasing at the menopause transition, at 6.24% a year, while android (abdominal) fat accelerated from 1.21% to 5.54% a year. Waist circumference grew at rates not statistically different across the stages, so a tape measure detects it poorly compared with a scan.

When does perimenopause weight gain stop? The changes SWAN measured began about 2 years before the final menstrual period and decelerated about 1.5 years after it, with the weight trajectory becoming flat afterwards — a defined window rather than an open-ended decline. These are cohort averages, not a schedule any individual will follow exactly.

Does hormone therapy help with belly fat or weight gain? Only slightly, and it is not prescribed for either. The Menopause Society's 2022 position statement concludes that although hormone therapy may help attenuate abdominal fat accumulation and weight gain across the transition, "the effect is small" (Level II). In the Women's Health Initiative, women randomised to estrogen with or without a progestogen showed "no statistically significant difference in slowing of weight gain and a lesser increase in waist circumference over the first 3 years of use" against placebo. On weight alone, a Cochrane review of 28 randomised trials in 28,559 women found differences of 0.03 kg for unopposed oestrogen and 0.04 kg for combined therapy, though it dates from January 2000 and could not assess fat distribution. The four indications hormone therapy is approved for do not include body composition.

Can I prevent perimenopause weight gain? The SWAN data cannot answer that: it describes what happened in a cohort rather than testing any intervention. The mechanism it identified — lean mass shifting from gain to loss while fat accumulates faster — points toward protecting muscle rather than eating less alone, but no trial we could verify has tested whether that prevents the change.

Medical disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.

Sources

1. Greendale GA, Sternfeld B, Huang M, et al. Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition. JCI Insight 2019;4(5):e124865 — Peer-reviewed longitudinal cohort analysis (SWAN). https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/124865
2. Greendale GA, Han W, Finkelstein JS, et al. Changes in Regional Fat Distribution and Anthropometric Measures Across the Menopause Transition. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2021;106(9):2520-2534 — Peer-reviewed longitudinal cohort analysis (SWAN). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34061966/
3. National Institute on Aging. What Is Menopause? — US federal institute health information page. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/menopause/what-menopause
4. The North American Menopause Society. The 2023 nonhormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause 2023;30(6):573-590 — Clinical position statement (PDF). https://menopause.org/wp-content/uploads/professional/2023-nonhormone-therapy-position-statement.pdf
5. Matthews KA, Crawford SL, Chae CU, et al. Are changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors in midlife women due to chronological aging or to the menopausal transition? Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2009;54(25):2366-2373 — Peer-reviewed longitudinal cohort analysis (SWAN), via PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2856606/
6. Kongnyuy EJ, Norman RJ, Flight IHK, Rees MC. Oestrogen and progestogen hormone replacement therapy for peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women: weight and body fat distribution. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 24 January 2000 — Systematic review and meta-analysis. https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD001018_hormone-replacement-therapy-has-no-effect-body-weight-and-cannot-prevent-weight-gain-menopause
7. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, 2018 — Federal guideline (PDF). https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf
8. Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies. Dietary Reference Intakes: Recommended Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes, Total Water and Macronutrients — Summary table via NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK56068/table/summarytables.t4/
9. Bauer J, Biolo G, Cederholm T, et al. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 2013;14(8):542-559 — Expert group position paper. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23867520/
10. Harlow SD, Gass M, Hall JE, et al. Executive summary of the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop +10: addressing the unfinished agenda of staging reproductive aging. 2012 — Consensus staging criteria, via PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3340903/
11. Samargandy S, Matthews KA, Brooks MM, et al. Abdominal visceral adipose tissue over the menopause transition and carotid atherosclerosis: the SWAN heart study. Menopause 2021;28(6):626-633 — Peer-reviewed longitudinal cohort analysis (SWAN Heart). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33651741/
12. Lovejoy JC, Champagne CM, de Jonge L, Xie H, Smith SR. Increased visceral fat and decreased energy expenditure during the menopausal transition. International Journal of Obesity 2008;32(6):949-958 — Peer-reviewed four-year longitudinal study with CT imaging and whole-room calorimetry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18332882/
13. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Heart-Healthy Living — Aim for a Healthy Weight — US federal institute health information page. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-healthy-living/healthy-weight
14. National Health Service. Symptoms of menopause and perimenopause — UK national health service information page. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause-and-perimenopause/symptoms/
15. Verheggen RJHM, Maessen MFH, Green DJ, Hermus ARMM, Hopman MTE, Thijssen DHT. A systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of exercise training versus hypocaloric diet: distinct effects on body weight and visceral adipose tissue. Obesity Reviews 2016;17(8):664-690 — Systematic review and meta-analysis of 117 studies. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27213481/
16. Irwin ML, Yasui Y, Ulrich CM, et al. Effect of exercise on total and intra-abdominal body fat in postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2003;289(3):323-330 — Randomised controlled trial. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12525233/
17. Friedenreich CM, Neilson HK, O'Reilly R, et al. Effects of a High vs Moderate Volume of Aerobic Exercise on Adiposity Outcomes in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncology 2015;1(6):766-776 — Randomised dose-comparison trial (NCT01435005). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26181634/
18. Vispute SS, Smith JD, LeCheminant JD, Hurley KS. The effect of abdominal exercise on abdominal fat. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2011;25(9):2559-2564 — Small randomised trial in adults aged 18 to 40. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21804427/
19. The North American Menopause Society. The 2022 hormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause 2022;29(7):767-794 — Clinical position statement (PDF). https://menopause.org/wp-content/uploads/professional/nams-2022-hormone-therapy-position-statement.pdf

Sources 1–10 accessed 6 August 2026; sources 11–19 accessed 20 October 2026.

Olivia Smith, RDN

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN)

A registered dietitian who cares what the scan measured, not just what the scale said.

View profileFollow on X