Winning the weight battle after menopause

Lifestyle changes may not always be enough to control biologically driven body changes.

You spend hours in the gym every day. You eat nothing but grilled chicken, fish, and salads. Yet the numbers on the scale don't budge — or worse, they slowly creep up, along with your waist measurement.

Welcome to menopause.

"The change" actually does bring changes for many women, including weight gain that can resist even the most diligent efforts to reverse it, says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.