In a podcast with Jimmy Moore about her new low carb book "Diet 101," Jenny Ruhl says that during menopause a layer of fat often develops under a woman's skin of her torso (subcataneous fat) and that this is rarely lost when the woman loses weight. Her basis for this statement is not a scientific study, but is observations of herself and of other women on the internet who have lost weight after menopause. She says that much of this fat remains even if the post-menopausal woman reaches her goal weight and that it is almost impossible to lose.

I'm curious as to whether women here who lost the bulk of their excess weight after menopause and reached goal or near goal have also experienced this.

I'm 55 years old and believe that I am finally post-menopausal as my last period was over a year ago. I've lost about 25 pounds in the last year and am almost at a BMI of less than 25, which would be in the "normal" weight range. I could still stand to lose another 10-20 pounds, however. I have a layer of fat that I can feel under my skin on my belly, back, and ribs. In 2002-2004, when I was about 5 pounds heavier than my present weight, this subcataneous fat wasn't there. It's only appeared in the past few years and, so far, it hasn't gone away with my recent weight loss. Abdominal exercises aren't helping it either, although my belly in general is getting smaller with exercise.

I'm hoping that there are post-menopausal women here who can tell me that their subcataneous fat did go away or reduce substantially.