Does your metabolism slow down with age???
The short answer is NOooooooooo!
This is one of MANY, MANY myths and misconceptions out there that keep women just like you trapped, feeling helpless and hopeless when it comes to losing weight.
I blame the ‘dieting’ industry and its many so called ‘gurus’ and ‘experts’ who echo and support this propaganda.
Here is the thing (and I’ll try to keep it simple for you).
Your metabolism is a total sum of many essential functions which we’re not going to get into here, but one of those functions is energy balance – the process of balancing your energy (calories that you get from food) and energy expenditure (calories you burn off by moving your body) which is a primary function that regulates your body weight and body fat levels.
With that said, your metabolism doesn’t have a constant speed or gear at which it functions. This article on package internet deals has a great study that talks all about it.
Your metabolism is an adaptive based system, that responds to what ever stimulus is being received and it changes it’s functions accordingly and very efficiently in order to keep you in a ‘homeostatic’ state (meaning internal – balance)!
So what leads to this misguided assumption that your metabolism slows with age?
One of the common reasons is that we tend to gain weight with age — so let me give you two primary examples of why that happens and why it’s not your metabolisms fault!
Your metabolism isn’t slow, here is what’s contributing to your weight gain with age!
1. With age we tend to move less (we’re just not as active as we used to be) – hence we burn off less energy than we used too and on average we tend to eat more (research is strong on this). This process tips the energy balance into a positive flux – also knows as caloric surplus where you tend to take in more calories than you burn off/expend on consistent basis which results in accumulation of fatty tissue (stored energy).
–as you can see, the weight gain that occurs ‘with age’ isn’t due to a sluggish metabolism per se, but rather a shift and change in how we live our lives – we move less and consume more = weight gain. So it’s not that your metabolism slows down, it’s you that slows down
Maybe it’s time to get active and get moving again?
2. Another thing that happens with age which contributes to less energy expenditure in the later years, especially with women is muscle loss!
Women tend to lose anywhere between 3-5% of lean muscle mass per decade after the age of 30.
Muscle plays a big part in overall metabolic processes and body fat/weight regulation. As you lose muscle you tend to burn less and less calories over time, and if you consume the same amount of food (or more which tends to happen) you will gain weight!
On a side note: cardio such us long distance running (which is commonly used for weight loss and doesn’t work very well) breaks down muscle tissue very rapidly which essentially leads to less energy expenditure and MORE FAT being stored on the body! This is one of the reasons why I don’t have any of our TFC girls doing any cardio (unless it’s walking).
So this should come as great news for you!
What I’m ultimately saying is that you’re not broken and your metabolism is just as functional as it was 10 years ago and you can improve your situation very quickly!
Here is what you need to start doing in order to turn yourself around, make progress and lose weight.
1. Start lifting weights!
As I had mentioned above, muscle loss impacts your overall metabolic profile a great deal, so the more muscle you have the more energy you tend to burn (at rest and during exercise). So it makes sense to start lifting! Not only will you prevent Sarcopenia (muscle loss), but as you build new lean tissue you’ll also shape, tone and firm your body!
2. Figure out how many calories you’re taking in and how much you’re expending on average.
Most people have no idea how many calories they’re consuming on average. You need to know this if you’re going to attempt to lose weight. Once you figure out how much you’re consuming and how much you need to consume in order to lose weight consistently you’ll want to keep track of everything. If you can do that then you’ll lose weight, regardless of age and training experience! Your body is not broken, you just need to learn what works best for you.
All in all, you’re not broken, there is nothing to fix!
For those of you in my TFC coaching program, this is exactly why we lift, we move frequently and consistently and we track our nutrition!
Hope this clears things up for you and gets you moving in the right direction!
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