Diet during menopause is just thinning in low and sedentary women - The Province

Weight loss is complicated for women with menopause, even with a hypocaloric Mediterranean diet (food intake less than energy expenditure), if it is not accompanied by physical exercise of more than two and a half hours a week, and still it is difficult for some female groups as patients of shorter stature (below 1.62 meters) or sedentary for longer (more than 12 years). This is the result, at least, of the work carried out by professionals from Gran Canaria David Rodríguez and Irina Medina, awarded in the nineteenth edition of the Congress of the Association of Nurses of Nutrition and Dietetics (Adenyd).

Developed from October 18 to 20 in Santiago de Compostela, the state forum of nursing and nutrition distinguished as best short communication, among a score of studies presented, the island document Evaluation of the process of weight loss in women with menopause through the Mediterranean diet next to a study of colleagues from Madrid. With consultation in the capital of Gran Canaria, Irina Medina Ortega and David Rodríguez Ibáñez, graduates in nursing from the universities Fernando Pessoa Canarias (UFP-C) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), conducted a descriptive and retrospective study of 323 women aged 45 to 54 years, all patients with residence on the Island, with a plan an individualized nutritional plan but based on a general caloric reduction of 20% on the daily basal metabolism and several hours of weekly physical exercise.

"We use a heterogeneous sample of our extensive database to analyze whether the methodology of our own work, based on the Mediterranean diet to generate negative caloric balances and adjust to physical exercise in order to lose weight, was effective in menopause," he explains. the head of the Food Consultation David Rodríguez, based in the district of La Isleta. With an average of 2.95 kilograms less, according to the results of the communication awarded by Adenyd, Medina and Rodríguez conclude that "women of menopause age require a caloric and carbohydrate restriction to achieve control or lose weight" .

However, the research of the members of the College of Nursing Las Palmas highlights several nuances to appreciate a "statistical significance (p <0.05) between the variables of height and body fat, visceral fat and musculoskeletal mass", ie Women with menopause and a hypocaloric Mediterranean diet above 162 centimeters have a "higher probability of improving" their percentages. "We realized, although it was not a reason for initial study, but it arose when analyzing the independent variables to look for some significant data, that women under 1.62 meters if they had more than twelve years of sedentarism, although they started physical exercise, they did not get results, "says David Rodríguez before adding that" the size influences the dispersion of visceral fat, the lower they begin to accumulate more, genetically more common in men, and further complicates the loss of weight with the menopause".

Although the height increases the difficulties, however, the problems to control or lose body fat extends to the entire female population with extensive sedentary lifestyle. "Women without physical exercise more than twelve years or less than two and a half hours a week, especially if it is pure aerobic walking, did not achieve their weight loss goals, even if they met the Mediterranean diet with a negative caloric balance" Rodriguez continues to recommend almost three hours of activity from Monday to Sunday, at least one intense training (HIIT, for its acronym in English).

After recalling the debate generated in Santiago de Compostela about the correct prescription of physical exercise, as well as medication or nutrition, David Rodríguez underlines the importance of "education for health, promotion and prevention in women under 35 years of age and 1 , 62 meters in the face of menopause ", to reduce the risk of suffering from various cardiovascular diseases associated with both overweight and obesity and the permanent cessation of menstruation.