

Suddenly, she noticed her midsection thickening. "I think everybody feels (like), 'I'm eating the same way I always have been and yet I'm getting this roll.' What is that about?" she said.



Even though the research doesn't provide weight-loss solutions, it may bring a sense of relief to millions of middle-aged women who have been fighting an often losing battle against the dreaded "postmeno belly."

"It doesn't mean you're absolutely doomed," said Dr. Michael Jensen, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic and one of the study's authors, "but it does mean it's going to be harder probably" to lose weight.


"There's that sense of 'Oh, this is just normal,' " she said. "While you don't have to just lie down and take it, you know you're not doing anything wrong. At least you feel like it's OK, everybody is going through this. Not just me."


Beyond just vanity

More than 50 million women in the United States are 50 years of age or older; and 75 percent of women age 50 to 55 are postmenopausal, according to the Menopause Center of Minnesota. Most -- if not all -- of them will have to confront postmenopausal weight gain.



"It just happens," she said. "You just blow up like a balloon."

Chapman-Clay, who now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., is one of 24 women who participated in the five-year Mayo study, the results of which were published recently. The group included Minnesota women who were premenopausal and those who were postmenopausal. They were all the same age -- between 49 and 50 -- and had the same body fat levels, Jensen said.



Belly fat is a sign of visceral fat around vital organs and increases a person's risk for obesity-related illnesses. According to the Mayo Clinic, a waist measurement of 35 inches or more can lead to a greater risk of problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

That's why medical professionals focus on the health issues related to weight gain.

"We do a lot of counseling with our patients about nutrition and exercise," Greenquist said.

Getting under control


"We tend to overindulge on carbohydrates and not get nearly enough protein. Those two conditions contribute to fat on their bodies," she explained. "I give them some basics on changes that could be helpful. Exercise needs to be muscle-building exercise -- doing things that will increase their metabolism."


"Those kinds of questions we weren't able to address with this study," he said, "but that's something we'll have to consider in the future."

Sylvia Santosa, an assistant professor of nutrition science at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and the study's co-author, added that while science doesn't offer any fixes for the postmeno belly, the findings shed much-needed light on the issue. "It puts us one more step toward understanding how estrogen affects how and where we store fat," she said.

Mary Rossi, 64, of Minneapolis, used to take pride in her "marked waist."

Since menopause, she's watched her midsection grow five inches, despite the fact that she now eats less and is still active. She's healthy and her body is proportionate, but she says, "I've given up trying to go back to the waist I had when I was 50."