Women's health (8)
- Health issues for lesbians: Prevention first
- Women's health: Preventing the top 7 threats
- Kegel exercises: A how-to guide for women
- see all in Women's health
Breast health (10)
- Breast lump: Early evaluation is essential
- Breast implants: Saline vs. silicone
- Breast cancer prevention: How to reduce your risk
- see all in Breast health
Women's life stages (12)
- Menopause weight gain: Stop the middle age spread
- Menstrual cycle: What's normal, what's not
- Water retention: Relieve this premenstrual symptom
- see all in Women's life stages
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Belly fat in women: Taking — and keeping — it off
What does your waistline say about your health? Find out why belly fat is more common after menopause, what dangers it poses — and what to do about it.
By Mayo Clinic staffAn expanding waistline is sometimes considered the price of getting older. For women, this might be especially true after menopause, when body fat tends to shift from the arms, legs and hips to the abdomen. Yet an increase in belly fat can do more than make it hard to zip up your jeans. Research indicates that belly fat also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers — even premature death. The good news? The threats posed by belly fat can be cut down to size.
What's behind belly fat
Your weight is largely determined by how you balance the calories you eat with the energy you burn. If you eat too much and exercise too little, you're likely to pack on excess pounds — including belly fat. However, aging also plays a role. Muscle mass gradually diminishes with age, and fat accounts for a greater percentage of your weight. Less muscle mass also decreases the rate at which your body uses calories, which can make it more challenging to maintain a healthy weight or lose excess pounds.
In addition, many women notice an increase in belly fat as they get older — even if they aren't gaining weight. This is likely due to a decreasing level of estrogen, which appears to influence where fat is distributed in the body. The tendency to gain or carry weight around the waist — have an "apple" rather than a "pear" shape — can have a genetic component as well.
Why belly fat is more than skin deep
The trouble with belly fat is that it's not limited to the extra layer of padding located just below the skin (subcutaneous fat). It also includes visceral fat — which lies deep inside your abdomen, surrounding your internal organs.
Although subcutaneous fat poses cosmetic concerns, visceral fat is associated with far more dangerous health consequences. That's because an excessive amount of visceral fat produces hormones and other substances that can raise blood pressure, negatively alter good and bad cholesterol levels and impair the body's ability to use insulin (insulin resistance). An excessive amount of any fat, including visceral fat, also boosts estrogen levels. All of this can increase the risk of serious health problems, including:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Stroke
- Type 2 diabetes
- Breast cancer
- Colorectal cancer
Recent research also has associated belly fat with an increased risk of premature death — regardless of overall weight. In fact, some studies have found that even when women were considered a normal weight based on standard body mass index (BMI) measurements, a large waistline increased the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other causes.
Next page(1 of 2)
- Ferrara CM, et al. Differences in adipose tissue metabolism between postmenopausal and perimenopausal women. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2002;87:4166.
- Snijder MB, et al. What aspects of body fat are particularly hazardous and how do we measure them? International Journal of Epidemiology. 2006;35:83.
- Understanding adult obesity. Weight-Control Information Network. http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/understanding.htm. Accessed March 21, 2011.
- Jacobs EJ, et al. Waist circumference and all-cause mortality in a large US cohort. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2010;170:1293.
- Abdominal obesity and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: Sixteen years of follow-up in US women. Circulation. 2008;117:1658.
- Overweight, obesity and weight loss. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/overweight-weight-loss.pdf. Accessed March 21, 2011.
- Fat. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/print_presenter.jhtml?identifier=4582. Accessed March 21, 2011.
- 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.health.gov/PAGuidelines/pdf/paguide.pdf. Accessed March 21, 2011.
- Assessing your weight and health risk. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/risk.htm. Accessed March 21, 2011.
- Weight and waist measurement: Tools for adults. Weight-Control Information Network. http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/PDFs/Weightandwaist.pdf. Accessed March 21, 2011.
Find Mayo Clinic on