Curious to hear everyone's input - metabolism/weight maintenance + aging?

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  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    As others have said, most of the slowdown in metabolism is just that older people on average have less muscle mass. If you look at the BMR calculators, those that estimate without knowing fat percentage will have a decline as people age. Those that use fat percentage don't take age into account. So you can prevent this effect by working to keep muscle mass.

    I am someone who gained weight in my late 20s after never having to think about it before then, but it had nothing to do with metabolism. It had to do with sharply reducing my overall activity level and my response to a stressful job plus way more opportunities to eat at really nice restaurants (job-related).

    Basically agree with this. I think any lowering of TDEE as adults age has much more to do with activity levels decreasing, muscle/lean mass decrease, stress we take on voluntarily, and ability to afford more food. You can control all of those things if you want to.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited September 2015
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    nvmomketo wrote: »
    Close to half of all people become more insulin resistant. I'm assuming that is what was meant by carb sensitive. For those people, reducing carbs does result in slightly more successful weight loss.

    Do you have a peer reviewed study to support this?
  • enkiemonkey
    enkiemonkey Posts: 82 Member
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    My mom is 65 and is between a size zero and size two. She eats healthy but often throughout the day and goes dancing twice a week plus walks to the library every day to read (2 miles round trip).
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
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    OsricTheKnight wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    What hit me hard after 40 years of yo yo'ing weight was that he states up to a third of each of my losses over the years was from muscle loss and most of my regains were more from fat than from new muscle. The reason weight loss got harder and harder for me was because I was more fat and less muscle than on each prior loss cycle.

    I have data on myself for this over the last 12 years. It's definitely a measurable effect, but not quite as severe as that. Of course this must vary from person to person, and depend in each case how you lost and how you regained.

    Osric

  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
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    Prior to middle age, food was something I had to pause and remember to eat. After middle age, food was one pleasure nobody could deny me. I stopped eating just until I was not hungry a d started eating until I was full.

    The difference added lbs per year I. Hence I am here.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    Yi5hedr3 wrote: »
    Generally, you become more carb sensitive as you age. This means MOST folks need to gradually decrease carbs as they get older, or they will begin to accumulate fat.

    Disagree.
    disagree +1

    disagree +2

    I've found inactivity to play such a huge role. Once I raised my activity levels, the weight started pouring off me. I've lately been losing weight too quickly, and I'm 53.

  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    nvmomketo wrote: »
    Close to half of all people become more insulin resistant. I'm assuming that is what was meant by carb sensitive. For those people, reducing carbs does result in slightly more successful weight loss.

    While it's true that insulin resistance can increase with age, it's not true that carb restriction results in "more successful" weight loss. Over time, weight loss is the same for all macro levels. Increased activity is also good for insulin resistance.

    I think macro balance is a matter of personal preference when dealing with IR. Activity? That should be a must.

  • HippySkoppy
    HippySkoppy Posts: 725 Member
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    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    The change over time is very small and probably mostly explained by loss of muscle mass rather than age, per se.

    I lost 122 pounds at 50. By and large, the metabolism excuse is just a cop out.

    +1 I was at a similar age when I lost the extra 168 lbs I was carrying around and have had no troubles maintaining that loss for nearly 3 years.

    It saddens me to see so many threads on here that have the premise that ageing causes successful weight and maintenance to be damn near impossible or significantly more difficult.


  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    edited September 2015
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    My thoughts:

    Life isn't fair. Most of people have to eat less than they used to even if similarly active.

    Staying active requires conscious effort.

    Resistance training seems to help.

    And that's all I have to say about that.
  • threadmad
    threadmad Posts: 190 Member
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    Metabolism shuts down at age 30? !?!?
    Uh oh, I died 37 years ago & didn't know it! Guess I'd better cancel my gym membership and tell my physical therapist and personal trainer I'm a figment of their imaginations. Oh, and tell my surgeon he just did ACL reconstruction on a corpse. And the 12 lbs I lost in the last 6 weeks must have been someone else's. Anyone missing their weight loss?? LOL
  • WakkoW
    WakkoW Posts: 567 Member
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    I'm going to be 44 in a couple of months. I really don't find it any more difficult to stay in shape now than I did in my 20's. It's really always been a priority.

    Use it or lose it is what my grandma used to say.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
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    Am I dead? No way!

    Yes my metabolism is a couple of hundred calories lower than when I was 22, but that was 40 years ago.

    I weighed more or less the same from 15 - 45, then put on 30 lbs between 50 and 55 ( high normal BMI). I had slowed down, less clubbing: more books, especially in winter when I took to hibernating.
    Counted calories for a year, added some structured and varied exercise, to replace clubbing, mostly winter work, and was back to my 'normal' weight within the year. That was 2008-09, and have maintained within a 5 lb range ever since.

    Oddly enough I take a smaller clothes size now, I suspect I have the best BF% I have ever had! Yeah exercise.

    A gradual slowing of the metabolism most certainly doesn't stop weight loss at any age, nor hinder maintaining it.

    Cheers, h.


  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
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    36 and losing weight gets easier everytime i decide to be lazy and eat like a pig. Already down 25lbs in a little over a month. Got 10 more pounds to goal weight.

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