The middle-aged spread and weight gain stems from a variety of factors, including the fact that older women are simply less physically active. There’s also a slowdown in metabolism, which may indicate your thyroid is off balance.
And then there is the link to adrenals and cortisol levels. Day-to-day stress causes your nervous system to fire constantly and the adrenals to release cortisol. One thing that cortisol does is make us hungry and crave sweet things.
These repeating stresses can put one in a fight flight response frequently and your body will want to store more energy just in case of an emergency. It wants a store of energy that can be broken down really quick and that one place that’s easiest to stores around the midline. This change happens with all those other hormone changes, and so the weight mostly happens right around your midline.