Metabolism is most likely to be affected by changes in diet and exercise during the transitional phase, which usually begins when women are in their 40s.
At the outset, the researchers asked their study volunteers to fill out questionnaires on diet, activity and sleep.
Next, the women’s body composition was evaluated. When the researchers compared the three groups, they found that women in the perimenopausal group had the most unfavorable composition overall — more weight accumulated as fat rather than muscle.During moderate exercise, the postmenopausal group was the least able to use fat to power muscles.
Although the new study is small, there are messages women can take from it, said Nancy Reame, the emeritus Mary Dickey Lindsay professor of health promotion and risk reduction in the Columbia University School of Nursing. “Perimenopause is the time when you should start paying attention, if you haven’t before, to your body and to your metabolism,” she said. “It’s a time of slowing down. And a time to think about weight gain and diet and nutrition in ways that can help you eat well and have more energy.”
Reame suggests women start tracking their periods when they are in their mid-30s so they can anticipate perimenopause. “It’s a way of engaging with your body,” she said. “You can look at it as one of the biomarkers of the beginning of changes.”