# Preventing menopause weight gain with strength · Menopause Lift > Source: https://menopauselift.com/articles/how-to-prevent-menopause-weight-gain Weight and muscle ## How to prevent menopause weight gain Lift weights on at least two days a week, walk briskly for about 150 minutes, and eat regular meals with some protein in each. In a six-year trial, postmenopausal women who kept up their strength sessions held their weight and body fat steady, while those who rarely trained gained both. By Claire Hollis, 1 November 2026 None of this switches off the change menopause brings. What it does is push back on the part of that change you can reach: the muscle you lose and the fat that builds up in its place. Strength work is the centre of the plan because it is the one habit aimed at the muscle side, and the rest of this page is what to put around it. ### What you are trying to prevent A long NIH-funded study of more than a thousand women found that during the menopause transition, fat gain roughly doubles and lean mass starts to fall, while the scale keeps rising at about the same slow pace as before. Our article on [whether menopause causes weight gain](/articles/does-menopause-cause-weight-gain) walks through those numbers. The practical point is that the target here is your shape and strength as much as your weight. A plan that only cuts food can bring the number down and still leave you with less muscle than you started with. The NHS says the extra weight often settles around the stomach and upper body, and its advice for this stage is regular exercise with a focus on weight-bearing exercise to build strength, a healthy balanced diet and calcium-rich food ([NHS, Things you can do](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause-and-perimenopause/things-you-can-do/)). ### What trials show about lifting and weight The most direct evidence on strength training for menopause weight comes from a University of Arizona trial that followed 122 postmenopausal women, average age 56, all inactive at the start, for six years ([Bea and colleagues, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2010](https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2892016)). The exercise groups were asked to do eight core moves, two sets of eight repetitions with a fairly heavy load, three times a week, plus balance and stretching work. Over six years, the women who came to more sessions and lifted more weight in squats and overhead presses gained less weight, less fat and less fat around the trunk. The third who did the least squatting, about 2.5% attendance, put on weight, fat and trunk fat. The third who did the most, about 64% attendance, held their weight and their fat where they were. The authors conclude that resistance training is a workable long-term way to prevent weight gain and the shift in body composition after menopause. A 2023 review pooled 101 controlled trials with 5,697 postmenopausal women ([Khalafi and colleagues, Frontiers in Endocrinology](https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2023.1183765)). Exercise of any kind raised muscle mass and lowered fat mass, body fat percentage, waist size and the fat stored around the organs. Aerobic and combined training did more for fat. Resistance and combined training did more for muscle. The authors suggest doing both, which is what the NHS guidelines ask for anyway. Notice the attendance figure in the Arizona trial. The women who stayed steady turned up to about two sessions in three, so nobody had to be perfect. Turning up most weeks for years is what separated them from the women who gained. ### How much strength work, and what kind The NHS asks adults to do strengthening activity that works the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms on at least two days a week, and to keep going until they need a short rest before another repetition ([NHS physical activity guidelines for adults](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults-aged-19-to-64/)). Weights, resistance bands, bodyweight moves and heavy gardening all count. I would start with two sessions a week and aim for three once two feel routine, since the Arizona women were asked to train three times a week. Each session can be short: a sit-to-stand from a chair, a squat, a wall or bench press-up, a row with a band or dumbbell, and a calf raise cover most of the list. Slow repetitions with a weight that makes the last few hard do more than fast ones with a weight you barely notice. If you are starting from nothing, our guide to [starting strength training during menopause](/articles/strength-training-menopause-how-to-start) covers the first sessions at home, and the [4-week strength plan](/articles/your-first-month-of-strength-training-a-4-week-plan) lays out a first month for a chair, bodyweight or light weights. ### Add the walking minutes On top of the strength days, the same guidelines ask for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. The NHS weight-loss advice adds that you can break those minutes into shorter sessions ([NHS, Tips to help you lose weight](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/managing-your-weight/tips-to-help-you-lose-weight/)). Three ten-minute walks a day, five days a week, add up to the full 150. Since the review found aerobic work did more for fat and lifting did more for muscle, the two are partners in this plan. A brisk walk on the days between strength sessions also gives sore legs something gentle to do. ### Eat to keep the muscle you are building The NHS Eatwell advice is to base meals on higher-fibre starchy foods, eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, have some dairy or fortified alternatives, and include beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat or other protein ([NHS, Eating a balanced diet](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-eat-a-balanced-diet/eating-a-balanced-diet/)). It describes protein as essential for the body to grow and repair itself, and dairy as a source of both protein and the calcium bones need. Three habits follow from that for anyone lifting through these years: * Put a protein food on the plate at every meal, such as eggs or yoghurt at breakfast and fish, chicken, lentils or tofu later in the day. Our guide to [protein after menopause](/articles/protein-after-menopause) works out how much that adds up to. * Eat at regular times. The NHS lists skipping meals as something to avoid, because hunger later tends to turn into snacking. * Swap sugary drinks for water, which the same NHS page suggests, flavoured with a slice of lemon or lime if plain water bores you. Crash diets cut against everything above. The NHS advises against losing weight suddenly with diets, and the US National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases lists excessive dieting and poor protein intake among the risk factors for osteoporosis, which it calls the major cause of fractures in women after menopause ([NIAMS, Osteoporosis](https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/osteoporosis)). ### How to lose menopause weight you have already gained If the weight is already on, the NHS suggests aiming to lose 0.5 to 1 kg (1 to 2 lb) a week, one change at a time, and checking first that you are above a healthy weight with its BMI calculator. That pace means eating a little less, never a lot less. My advice is to keep the strength sessions going the whole time you are eating less, and to start them before you change your food if you can only manage one new habit at first. Lifting protects the muscle that these years already wear away, and a lighter body with less muscle is the outcome the SWAN scans warn about. Expect your clothes and your waist to move before the scale does. ### Keep a record you can read in three months Because the scale is slow to show this kind of change, track three things: your waist once a month, a weekly average of three or four morning weigh-ins, and one strength marker such as how many slow sit-to-stands you manage in a row. A notebook with one line a week is enough. Add a tick for each strength session and each day you hit your walking minutes, since the Arizona trial tied results to how often women actually turned up. Give it three months before you judge it. By then a waist that has held steady and a sit-to-stand count that has gone up tell you the plan is working, even if the average weight has barely moved. ### When to talk to a GP The NHS suggests speaking to a GP before starting if you have not exercised for some time or have a health condition, and NIAMS asks anyone told they have low bone density to check which exercises are safe for them. If weight comes on quickly, or along with other changes you cannot explain, book an appointment to talk it through, since menopause is only one of the things that can cause it. The NHS also offers self-referral to local weight management services in some areas, without seeing a GP first. --- [ ](/) Strength training, muscle, bone and weight in perimenopause and menopause for women aged 35 to 65 and beyond, based on NHS, NIH and other official guidance. 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