It is thought that women's ability to burn fat reduces after menopause due to hormone estrogen deficiency. For the unversed, estrogen is believed to promote fat burning. Following menopause, estrogen levels drop, and deficiency of this hormone is thought to lead to weight gain and metabolic health impairment in menopausal women. However, a new study has argued that women burn fat even after menopause.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Jyv skyl , stated that the influence of menopause on fat utilization is likely minor compared with nutritional status or fitness levels.
Both at rest and during a bicycle test, no difference was found in the rate of fat utilization of postmenopausal women from those who had not yet reached menopause or were using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to restore estrogen levels.
"Women burn fat also after menopause if their energy intake is less than their expenditure," said Doctoral Researcher Jari Karppinen, adding that the result was expected.
In the study, women with the highest fitness and physical activity levels achieved the highest fat utilization rate. Higher fat utilization was also seen in women whose energy intake was lower compared with their energy expenditure.
Karppinen suggested that women should focus on improving their fitness with endurance training to improve their ability to burn fat.
"In this case, you do not need to worry about menopause that much. Previous research has shown that the ability to burn fat while exercising improves with training even after menopause," Science Daily quoted the researcher as saying.
Endurance exercise, also called aerobic exercise, generally refers to physical activities that increase your breathing and heart rate. These include walking, jogging, swimming, biking and jumping rope.
The ketogenic diet, a high-fat and very-low-carb eating plan, is one of the highly touted weight-loss diets. It is claimed that keto diet allows the body to burn more fat from bodily sources.
However, Karppinen said, "This is a common misunderstanding."
"A high-fat diet indeed raises the total amount of fat used in energy production. However, this is due to increased fat intake and does not mean that you suddenly begin to shed more body fat. When energy intake is less than energy expenditure, the weight drops similarly regardless of diet macronutrient distribution," he elaborated.
In the study, higher fat utilization during exercise did not indicate better glucose tolerance.
