A fitness guru has revealed that while weight gain during menopause and perimenopause is unavoidable, there’s a specific type of exercise that can help mitigate its impact. Joy Puleo, the education director at Balanced Body, shared with GB News that certain exercises can assist women in managing their weight during and post-menopause.
She emphasised the importance of building muscle mass and converting fat into muscle, as opposed to relying solely on traditional ‘fat-burning’ exercises.
Joy stated: “Strength training is a necessity to keep muscle tone in primary powerful muscles (think quads, glutes, hamstrings, pecs, biceps, triceps, and shoulders). Muscle tone starts on the decline as early as age 30 but sharply declines during the menopausal years. This is a great time to put strength training top of mind.”
In the long run, weight training can burn more fat than cardio exercise. It enhances your metabolism, increasing the number of calories you burn even when you’re not exercising.
Joy suggested that the routine could incorporate activities like pilates and yoga instead of gym workouts – as well as home-based exercises. She advised: “Adding walking lunges or some basic squats will work the legs quite effectively. As for the upper body, countertop push-ups and triceps dips off the stairs are good places to start,” reports the Liverpool Echo.
Joy concluded by saying: “Move, move often, and move joyfully.”