Why Fat Around the Tummy Can Be Harder to Shift in Midlife

If you’ve noticed your waistline changing during midlife, even though you’re exercising regularly and eating well, you may be wondering why. It’s something I’m asked about often. Perimenopause and menopause can bring changes to our body composition, including where we tend to store fat. Hormones can play a part – muscle mass, everyday movement, sleep, stress and our changing lifestyles can all have an influence too.

Rather than focusing on weight or how your clothes fit, it can be helpful to understand what’s happening within your body and where your efforts can make a difference. Let’s look at why abdominal fat can become more noticeable in midlife, why it matters for your health and what you can do to support your strength, fitness and overall wellbeing.

Different Types of Fat

When we talk about “tummy fat”, it’s helpful to understand that not all abdominal fat is the same.

There are two main types:

• Subcutaneous fat is the fat stored just beneath the skin. This is the softer fat you may be able to pinch around your tummy, hips and thighs.
• Visceral fat is stored deeper within the abdomen, around internal organs such as the liver and intestines.

Having some body fat is normal and essential for good health. Carrying too much fat around the middle (particularly visceral fat) is associated with an increased risk of health problems. The important thing to remember is that you cannot tell exactly how much visceral fat you have simply by looking at your body or stepping on the scales. Waist measurements can give us useful information about how much fat is carried around the middle, but they don’t tell us precisely how much is visceral versus subcutaneous fat.

When thinking about your health, try not to focus solely on the number on the scales or how your clothes fit. I personally never use scales, your weight is only one part of the picture. Your waist measurement, strength, fitness, activity levels and overall health can tell you much more about how you’re doing.

Why Does Your Waistline Change During Midlife?

There isn’t always one single reason why your waistline changes during menopause. Here are some thoughts on what can play a part in this change:

1. Your Hormones

Perimenopause and menopause can influence where your body tends to store fat, with more fat potentially accumulating around the abdomen. Hormonal changes doesn’t mean fat here is inevitable. You may notice a change in your body shape or fat distribution, even if your weight hasn’t changed significantly. Everyone experiences menopause differently, so changes in body composition will vary from person to person.

2. You May Be Losing Muscle

We naturally tend to lose muscle as we get older, particularly if we’re not doing regular resistance exercise.  Maintaining muscle supports a healthy body composition and contributes to your overall energy output. Losing muscle can mean that fat makes up a greater proportion of your body composition, even without a dramatic change on the scales.

Regular strength training will help preserve and build muscle at any age. That’s why I’m such a fan of including strength training in your weekly routine.

3. Your Everyday Movement May Have Changed

Even if you’re still doing your usual workouts, you might be moving less during the rest of the day.

This could be because you:

• Spend more time sitting at a desk.
• Drive more and walk less.
• Have a busier schedule with fewer opportunities to move.
• Spend longer periods sitting without realising it.

While your workouts matter, so does everyday movement. 

4. Sleep and Stress Can Make Things More Challenging

Menopause symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and mood changes can make it harder to get a good night’s sleep.

When you’re tired or stressed, you may have less energy or motivation to exercise, notice changes in your appetite or eating habits and generally find healthy routines more difficult to maintain.

Stress in particular can cause fat to be stored in this area. Cortisol signals the liver to release quick-turnaround glucose into the bloodstream. At the same time, it can cause cells to become more resistant to insulin, leading to elevated blood sugar and insulin levels that actively encourage the body to store fat in the abdomen

It is therefore so important to support your health during menopause beyond food and exercise alone. Sleep, stress management, strength, movement and recovery all deserve attention too.

Can You Target Tummy Fat With Specific Exercises?

Where you lose fat first, and where you tend to hold onto it for longer, is largely determined by your body, and the pattern varies from person to person. Endless sit-ups aren’t the key to a flatter stomach – crunches, planks and other abdominal exercises can strengthen your core, improve stability and help you move with greater control. They’re valuable exercises and can absolutely have a place in a well-rounded routine.

What they can’t do is selectively burn the fat covering your abdominal muscles or the visceral fat stored deeper within your abdomen.

That’s why, with Caroline’s Circuits, I take a whole-body approach. Across the four classes each week, we target every major muscle group to build strength, improve fitness and support your overall body composition.

What Helps Reduce Abdominal Fat?

Strip things back to basics! Consistency makes the world of difference:

1. Make Strength Training a Priority

If you’re not already doing resistance exercise regularly, this is an excellent place to start.

Strength training helps preserve muscle, supports bone health and improves everyday movement activities. Combined with other healthy habits, it can also help improve body composition. Aim to include strength-based exercise two or three times a week, adapting the intensity to your fitness level and experience. I always suggest starting with 2kg and building up from there.

Focus on movements such as:

• Squats or sit-to-stands.
• Lunges or supported split squats.
• Rows and pulling exercises.
• Presses and push ups
• Hip hinges and other exercises for your glutes and hamstrings.
• Core exercises that improve stability and control.

2. Find Cardiovascular Exercise You Enjoy

Walking, cycling, swimming and dancing to name a few support heart health, improve fitness and help reduce abdominal fat over time. For many women, walking is an excellent starting point because it’s accessible and can be fitted around everyday life. I recently wrote a blog here

You might take a brisk walk before work, head out during your lunch break or meet a friend for an evening walk.

As a general target, aim towards at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, alongside regular strength training. Build up gradually if you’re currently less active. You don’t have to do everything in one session, either. Shorter periods of movement throughout the week count. The best form of exercise is one you enjoy enough to keep doing.

3. Eat to Support Your Body and Blood Sugar

During and after menopause, changes in insulin sensitivity can affect how efficiently your body manages blood sugar and may be associated with increased abdominal and visceral fat.  Eating a lot of foods high in added sugar and highly processed carbohydrates can make blood sugar more difficult to manage, so try to limit these where you can. It’s worth being mindful of alcohol too, particularly as it can affect your sleep and food choices.

This doesn’t mean cutting out sugar completely, avoiding carbohydrates or following a restrictive diet. When your waistline changes, it can be tempting to cut out entire food groups or drastically reduce how much you eat, but overly restrictive diets can be difficult to sustain and may make it harder to get the nutrients and protein you need.

Instead, aim for balanced meals that include:

• Protein – eggs, fish, poultry, beans, lentils, tofu or yoghurt.
• Fibre-rich foods – vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, beans and lentils.
• Healthy fats – nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado.
• Carbohydrates – to provide energy for your daily activities and exercise.

Where possible, choose fibre-rich carbohydrates such as wholegrains, vegetables, fruit, beans and lentils. Combining carbohydrates with protein, fibre and healthy fats can help create balanced, satisfying meals. Protein is particularly useful for supporting muscle maintenance, especially when combined with resistance training.

Pay attention to portion sizes, regular eating patterns and the foods that help you feel satisfied. If fat loss is appropriate for your individual circumstances, a modest, sustainable energy deficit may help.

You don’t need to starve yourself or live on salads to make progress. Remember: food is fuel. 

4. Prioritise Sleep and Manage Stress

Ongoing stress means your body is repeatedly exposed to cortisol. While cortisol itself isn’t “bad”, prolonged stress, particularly when combined with poor sleep and less healthy eating or activity patterns, can make managing your body composition more challenging.

Aim for around 7-9 hours of good-quality sleep each night where possible and consider small changes that might help you wind down at the end of the day. This could include reading, gentle stretching, breathing exercises, meditation or yoga.

A Final Thought

I know how easy it is to become frustrated when your body changes, particularly if you’ve spent years feeling that you understand what works for you. This stage of life is an opportunity to rethink what your fitness routine is really there to achieve.

Yes, you may want to reduce abdominal fat. That’s a perfectly understandable goal. But I also want you to think about building muscle, protecting your bones, improving your cardiovascular fitness and feeling confident in what your body can do. You don’t need to punish yourself with exhausting workouts or chase every new diet trend. Start with manageable changes. Move more, build strength, eat nourishing food, prioritise sleep where you can and seek support when you need it.

Most importantly, be consistent without expecting perfection. You can’t control exactly where your body loses fat, but you can take positive steps to support your health, fitness and wellbeing throughout menopause and each stage of life.

As always, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

Caroline x