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| Weight Gain and Aging |  The age related loss of muscle is called Sarcopenia.
You’ve probably heard that our metabolism changes after we hit the big 30. The reasons why, and what we can do about it is often misunderstood.
Naturally after the age of 30, the person starts to lose 1/2 lb. of muscle for each year. One of the reasons for this is the loss of nerve stimulation to the muscle and diminished protein synthesis – an essential process for muscle growth.
Other factors include nutritional changes like dieting, under-eating, poor nutritional choices, hormonal changes and reduced physical activity.
Muscle is a very active tissue. Moreover, it is much more active than fat tissue. In some cases one pound of muscle may burn up to 500 calories for each week.
As we lose muscle and gain fat, consequently, we mechanically gain weight, except we do something different to challenge our body and get better our diets.
As it is possible with the help of proper nutrition and strength training to persist to build muscle well into later life, Mother Nature requires we work at it.
Let’s say a thirty-year-old woman gets into the best shape of her life. Her diet is ideal and she exercises on a regular basis.
She then decides to keep doing the same things for the rest of her life, hoping to stay in great shape because of it.
The next year, 31 rolls around and she loses 1/2 lb of muscle. The year after that, another 1/2 lb is lost, and so on.
Even if this person will be doing the same things she did at 30, by the time she hits 38, she will have lost 4 lbs of lean muscle and her body will be burning 2000 calories less per week.
One pound of fat comprises 3500 calories. For the reason that this woman's body is burning this many calories less every 10 days, in a one year period she may gain approximately 30 lbs of fat!
Having her same exercise program over and over for years is not effectual in stopping this weight gain since your body has not only accommodated to it, but has also increased its need for greater challenges.
Following the same eating patterns also is not reasonable for the reason that your needs for calories and nutrients are also different as you get older.
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