Will increasing your protein intake reduce menopause belly-fat?

Weight gain in menopausal and post-menopausal women is an important topic.

In New Zealand alone there has been an increase in overweight and obese status in women over the past few years and yes, menopausal and post-menopausal women contribute to these stats. New Zealand has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD, and our rates continue to increase. (MoH, 2025).

The NZ Ministry of Health reports a significant increase from 2019/20 to 2022/24 for women (31.9% to 35.9%) and stats are similar in other western countries as well.

Canada stats are similar. During the 2022-2024 period, 34.8% of women over the age of 45 years were classified as having obesity (BMI of 30.0 or higher), while an estimated 30% were in the overweight range (BMI 25.0-29.9). Combined, nearly two-thirds of women in this age group are classified as overweight or obese.

Why do women put on weight during menopause?

It’s the question that I had to ask myself when I put on 15kg, and yes, I was on HRT. I had no idea at the time that the menopause transition increases susceptibility to weight gain and obesity for so many women. But it’s not just to do with our hormones. 

It was my studies that led me to explore the role of the liver and gut health on menopause-related weight gain.

There are also changes occuring in our muscles, espeically the mitochondria in skeletal muscle,(the organelles that help to ‘burn fat’). With changes occuring in the size and density of muscles (sarcopenia), then there are inflammatory changes that may be occurring within the mitochondria, which are also ageing. 

Muscle tissue is replete with oestrogen receptors, which is why, when oestrogen is declining, there is now such an emphasis on very high protein diets and resistance training. 

The question is however, for overweight and obese women, who may also have a fatty liver and/or a fatty pancreas, how high is too high? 

I mention these organs, because it is the gut, liver and pancreas, which are doing a lot of work to turn-over protein in foods, in order for the amino-acids, to be utilised in muscle. 

Some amino acids do go directly to both skeletal and cardiac muscle. These are the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), which are leucine, isoleucine, and valine and these proteins largely bypass initial metabolism in the liver and are primarily taken up and catabolized by extrahepatic tissues, particularly skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle. [Paulusma et al., 2022].

This is why, for women wanting to manage their weight, or to lose weight, then it’s important to understand protein requirements to offset muscle tissue breakdown and to maintain metabolism.

Muscles are at the heart of your metabolism, as is the liver and gut.

That’s why I enjoyed reading the proposed study into protein requirements during the menopause transition [Simpson et al., 2023]. 

Based on analysis of nutritional changes during the menopause transition, the authors of the study, identified enhanced bodily protein breakdown as a trigger for weight gain during and after menopause. 

This mechanism is known as the Protein Leverage Effect. (Simpson et al, 2023].

It arises when progressive net bodily protein losses induce increased appetite for protein. If there is not a corresponding increase in the dietary protein concentration, the predicted consequence is excess non-protein food intake. 

In other words, part of the purpose of the slightly increased protein intake during and after menopause, is not only with the reduction of muscle loss in mind, but also because protein is filling.   

The research suggests to get protein intake up to around 20% of total daily intake and for the average woman, this equates to around 1.0 to 1.4 gms/kg/day of healthy, low fat protein. 

For overweight and obese women, in my own 12 week Transform Me programmes I do focus on whether women are having too much or too little protein. 

I suggest starting around 1.0gm of protein per kg of body weight per day (1.0gm/kg/day) and move this up to 1.2 or 1.4 gm/kg/body weight as they add in their exercise.

This should account for around 20%-25% of total daily intake, a percentage that the research suggests as well. 

I know that numerous Exercise Professionals and others working in the menopause space, encourage around 30%-40% of the total daily intake of food from protein, however, for women who are overweight and not doing a lot of heavy exercise, then too much protein can stress the kidneys and the liver. [Lonnie, Hooker et al, 2018; Osuna-Padilla et al., 2018].

Excess protein converts to excess energy and greater storage in fat cells as well as places stress on an already over-burdened liver.

This is why I also have a focus on liver health and improved oestrogen clearance for women who are overweight. 

Conversely, for those women who are having too little protein in their diet, then this may also contribute to a more rapid rate of muscle breakdown. This is what we are trying to prevent during the menopause transition.

When we lose muscle, then this changes our metabolism and we don’t tend to ‘burn-fat’ as efficiently and this loss of muscle may have implications for sarcopenia and osteoporosis further into post-menopause.  

“A failure to change the composition of the diet by the introduction of additional protein and removal of excess processed carbohydrates and/or excess fat, may result in an increased energy intake and storage and therefore, increased body weight during menopause.” [Simpson et al, 2022].