Why am I gaining weight when my diet hasn't changed?

Menopause Diet

If I had a pound for every time a woman in midlife has asked me this question since I qualified as a Menopause Coach, I would be a very rich woman indeed.

I understand how frustrating it is as the same thing happened to me and I was absolutely furious!!! I was still working out at least 5/6 times a week and my diet hadn't really changed much since I cleaned up my eating habits a number of years before, yet my waistline and ribcage were expanding (either that or someone was shrinking my bras AND jeans!!)

Approximately 75% of women will experience weight gain as they enter their perimenopause and it is thought that most of those women will gain around 3lbs per year each year that they are in perimenopause.

If the average perimenopause length is roughly 5-6 years then women can expect to gain around 1.5 stone (or thereabouts) if they make no changes at all. A whole dress size bigger when we are already dealing with so many other debilitating symptoms and changes, seems like a very harsh cherry on the proverbial cake!

So why does this happen?