Muscle loss in women: it starts earlier than you think

You probably know your weight. You almost certainly know your height. 

Do you know how much of your body is muscle? 

Most of us have never been told that number, never had it measured, and never thought to ask. Which is strange, because it turns out to be one of the more important numbers about your body and it starts falling much earlier than most women expect.
 

You may already be past your peak 

A few years ago, researchers in Chandigarh went door to door through the city, recruited 804 healthy adults, and put every one of them through a DEXA body scan, a grip strength test and a walking speed test. 

Nobody had measured this properly in Indians before. They found that it is in the twenties and thirties that the body reaches peak muscle. 

Why nobody notices it happening 

The instrument most of us use to monitor our bodies is the bathroom scale, and the scale is blind to this.  

Muscle can be replaced by fat while the number underneath your feet stays exactly the same. This is called normal weight obesity.  

Then menopause speeds it up 

In Finland, a group of researchers followed 234 women through the menopause transition. Not with questionnaires – with DXA scans, CT scans, and actual muscle biopsies taken from the thigh. The ERMA study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2020. 

Their findings were consistent across every measure they took. Total lean mass, limb muscle, thigh muscle cross-section – menopausal status predicted decline in all of it. 

A 2026 review in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle gathered the wider evidence and put rough figures on it. Compared with women who hadn’t yet begun the transition, perimenopausal women carried about 2.5% less lean mass, and postmenopausal women about 5.7% less. 

The part that changes everything 

The problem is that with ageing and menopause, the body appears to respond less strongly to protein than it did before. The muscle-building response to a meal is blunted. 

Which means eating more is not, on its own, the answer. How you eat matters. 

Muscle building works per meal, not per day 

Your body doesn’t tally protein at midnight. It responds meal by meal. 

Each time you eat, muscle building takes place. For an older adult, roughly 25 to 30 grams of good-quality protein per meal is advised as a practical target for maximizing muscle protein synthesis. 

What actually helps 

Move protein earlier in the day, so more than one meal clears the threshold. An egg, a bowl of curd, a glass of milk alongside the usual breakfast changes that meal’s arithmetic completely. 

Physical activity independently protects muscle through the transition. Women who stay active hold on to more. 

If you’re approaching or past menopause, or managing any health condition, it’s worth talking to a doctor or dietitian about what’s right for you specifically.