Why do women tend to gain abdominal fat after menopause?

Question

I am seeking an answer from the viewpoint of physical anthropology. I understand most of the changes that occur and are related to loss of fertility.

Answer 1

Well, first of all, you have to know the reason why women get thigh and hip fat. That fat, deposited there thanks to high levels of estrogen, is easier on the body, and more difficult to lose, than fat elsewhere. It's used as storage to support pregnancy. Then, when you are nursing, the body releases a hormone that makes that fat much more accessible, so you have the energy for nursing. Then, when you hit menopause, you don't have the high levels of estrogen that caused you to deposit fat at hips, and thighs, and fat becomes redistributed to your abdomen and above your waist. That fat is easier and quicker to use. Older women will need fat to support themselves as they would not be expected to be as physically fit as when they were younger, and can't get as much food.

Answer 2

If they have had children that area of skin has been stretched. It is easy for fat to attach itself there and it just stretches that skin out again. It is not as elastic after children and won't hold the fat in after it has been stretched. The more you skin was stretched when you were pregnant, the easier it will stretch later.

Answer 3

'Apple' shaped weight deposition, AKA central obesity, is to do with insulin resistance. As you get older, you become more insulin resistant, and prone to carry weight around the abdomen. Applies to men as well as women.

Answer 4

Well, we stop producing eostrogen, the slim, noheartattack, protectionagainstosteoporosis hormone.