Healthy diet wont stop menopause weight gain Being a healthy eater will not stop women gaining weight once they hit middle age, Australian researchers have found. A study of more than 7000 Australian women found once they hit their late 40s they were likely to gain weight irrespective of how closely they followed the Australian Dietary Guidelines for healthy eating. "Women, on average, will gain two kilograms over the menopause years and the only women who resist that are women who put either extra focus on their diet or extra focus on physical activity or both," the study's chief investigator, Clare Collins, said. The study followed healthy women aged 48 to 56 for six years, and found those who ate the most healthy foods gained just as much weight over that time as those who ate the least healthy foods - about 1.7 kilograms. "Our earlier research had found people who had a higher diet quality score also consumed more calories, because if you have a greater frequency and variety of healthy foods you also consume more energy," she said. So the good news is we showed they don't gain [more] weight. Professor Collins said analysis did seem to be finding a link between high fruit and vegetable intake and less weight gain, which she suspected was due to switching from unhealthy foods.