Middle age spread hints & tips needed

KateB989

Morning all,

So, I am 35 at the end of this month and within the last year with no change to my diet or lifestyle I have somehow managed to put on 1.5 stone, which my mother calls the middle age spread! An I’m wondering if this is actually a thing due to age, female hormones etc?

Anyway, I have started to stick to my daily calories and exercising every day with a mix of cardio and weights and the weight is coming off very slowly!

Has anyone got any hints & tips to help me shift it quicker or motivational stories?

LockdownLoser23

1.5 stone is very doable - I have a mate who shifted that walking every morning. Yeah she does about 4 or 5 mile (lunatic), but it worked. Find what works for you and what you are comfortable with and it will be easier. Some people like to have cheat days and some don't - see what works. Will send you a FR

Ddsb11

You are not middle aged and no that’s not a thing. Your diet, muscle mass, and how much you move has changed. Change your lifestyle CICO and you will see results.

Theoldguy1

msalicia07 wrote: »

You are not middle aged and no that’s not a thing. Your diet, muscle mass, and how much you move has changed. Change your lifestyle CICO and you will see results.

Agree it's not a thing.

claireychn074

People can move less as they got older (for a variety of reasons) which can lead to weight creep, and once through the menopause the change in hormones can mean a change in fat distribution for women to the stomach area (but not always). So the key is exactly the same regardless of age - calories in and calories out 👍

You can move more to increase calories burnt and do strength training to help prevent sarcopenia, but ultimately middle age weight gain is, I’m afraid, the result of eating more than you burn (says someone not that far off 50 and sadly genuinely middle aged!)

NovusDies

With so little to lose it should come off slowly. That is healthy.

The true cause of the middle age spread is eating more food than you burn in a day. This happens when we our activity slows down and/or our eating speeds up. The changes can very noticeable like moving from a very active job to a desk job or they can be very subtle like doing a few things less often or eating out a little more often.

sardelsa

msalicia07 wrote: »

You are not middle aged and no that’s not a thing. Your diet, muscle mass, and how much you move has changed. Change your lifestyle CICO and you will see results.

This. I'm 36 and I have an easier time with weight loss because of my muscle mass and activity level. (Knowledge acquired over time helps too )

charmmeth

KateB989 wrote: »

So, I am 35 at the end of this month and within the last year with no change to my diet or lifestyle I have somehow managed to put on 1.5 stone, which my mother calls the middle age spread! An I’m wondering if this is actually a thing due to age, female hormones etc?

I am wondering if there is something genetic for some people. My maternal grandfather, my mother and I were all thin/slim until our mid-thirties and then put on a significant amount of weight. Like you, it happened to me at a time when I did not change my lifestyle or my eating habits. My sister and my father, by contrast, both quite well-padded as children, became very thin/slim in their twenties and stayed that way throughout their thirties and beyond.

For myself I was quite pleased by the added weight in my thirties as I had been a bit too thin and liked being more rounded; I am 180cm and weighed 68kg when I met my husband (when I was 36) which was a good bit up from where I had been seven or eight years before. I was less happy when I found myself moving steadily up into the overweight range after we got married. I joined mfp and lost weight a few years ago, in my late forties, when I got up to 88kg. losing steadily to my goal in the low 70s, and maintained there for several years. I put on again after bout of acid reflux medication compounded by moving into menopause, got back up to 88kg after Easter 2020, and am losing again now. The weight is definitely coming off again, but what I am noticing is that I need to be a lot more active on the same diet to lose weight now than I did five years ago. My body seems to be processing carbs differently from back then.

So a long way to say, that unlike others who posted above, I do think that genetics can have an impact on weight, but so too can other factors (hormones, medication) as well as the obvious ones of how much you eat and how much you move.

I would also say that I found it very enlightening one day being shown by a friend who is an artist what body developments she teaches art students to expect to see at different times of life. I am not trying to suggest that one cannot counter many of these by diet and exercise but some changes (to how one's hips meet one's pelvis, for instance, which broadens one's hips) are to do with how our skeleton changes over time.

KateB989

Hi, yes I totally agree that genetics must have a part to play! My great nan, nan and mum all have the exact same shape and have all had the same
Weight gain and shape change at the same time of life and I seem to be going the same way! We call it the duck shape 😂 we have all been size 6-8 up until our 30s when we have grown to a 10-12 but it seems to be only the belly and bum that have grown! We are all still very slim on the legs, arms and other areas! Which is why we look a little out of proportion! Constantly feel like I look pregnant! However, we all have had c sections aswell which could also play a part. I’ve started trying my best to watch my calories and exercise more but if it’s genetics I don’t know whether to just accept the inevitable duck look and enjoy the food and alcohol 😂 x

NovusDies

KateB989 wrote: »

Hi, yes I totally agree that genetics must have a part to play! My great nan, nan and mum all have the exact same shape and have all had the same
Weight gain and shape change at the same time of life and I seem to be going the same way! We call it the duck shape 😂 we have all been size 6-8 up until our 30s when we have grown to a 10-12 but it seems to be only the belly and bum that have grown! We are all still very slim on the legs, arms and other areas! Which is why we look a little out of proportion! Constantly feel like I look pregnant! However, we all have had c sections aswell which could also play a part. I’ve started trying my best to watch my calories and exercise more but if it’s genetics I don’t know whether to just accept the inevitable duck look and enjoy the food and alcohol 😂 x

Genetics plays a part in how we look but not weight. While there are differences between one person and the next being human means we are fundamentally the same. One of those fundamentals is that we run on energy. When food energy is more than needed for the day's needs we store it for days there may not be enough. That storage is fat.

When many of us were kids we seldom were still for long. This would often annoy our parents who demanded that we sit still for things like Church and it felt like torture to do so. It felt like we would explode because there was so much energy inside. The further I have gotten away from the kid version of myself the less I have moved. The big drop offs were in my mid 20's and mid 30's and each of those brought a lot of excess weight. I was moving less (largely NEAT reduction) and still eating the same.

NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenisis) is one of the hardest variables to track outside of steps. A person that is "fidgeter" can burn a lot more calories in a day than a person who can sit still as I have, unfortunately, learned to do. When I began losing weight and started to feel better (I had a lot more to lose than you) my NEAT increased without me realizing it. I began losing faster than I intended. Weeks later when I crunched the numbers I was startled and then it finally dawned on me that I was getting up and moving around (just the house) more than I had been. The increase was 150 calories per day on average. Not much but it was just the beginning.

1BlueAurora

Middle age is age 45 to 65, so no, you don't have middle aged spread. I'm 60, and experienced a redistribution of weight throughout menopause. My doctor says it's due in part to the decrease in estrogen women experience. All I can say is that I now carry excess weight in my abdomen, and on my sides and back, when that was never an issue before. I've begun to look like my elderly aunt, so there's definitely a genetic component. I'm using MFP every day, and my shape is starting to improve.

AnnPT77

I don't know how long it took you to gain 1.5 stone (about 21 pounds, for other people who use that bodyweight measure like I do).

But gaining 1.5 stone over the course of 2 years requires averaging only about 101 calories daily above maintenance calories. That would be about half a serving of peanut butter, or the exercise equivalent of reducing moderate walking by about 26 minutes for a 150-pound person, or some combination of the two. If it took longer than that to gain the 1.5 stone, the calorie excess to gain it is proportionately smaller. In a context where simply the difference between being fidgety vs. non-fidgety can be in the low hundreds of calories daily, it takes really small amounts of excess calories to gain slowly, over a long-ish time period.

As others have said, "middle aged spread" is mostly a consequence of reducing our daily activity level (not just exercise), and maybe some portion creep. Muscle mass loss with age and inactivity can contribute to it, over decades - aging will cause that loss, if we do nothing to counter it, but it's super slow.

These things are not universal, but many of us, as we move from teens to 20s then 30s and beyond, tend to go from more active jobs (retail, waitstaff, etc.) to more sedentary jobs (admistrative things at desks, say). We go from playing volleyball or frisbee on the weekend, and going dancing at night, to less active hobbies. If we have kids fairly young, we go from chasing toddlers around the house to driving older kids to activities and sitting while they do their thing there. At the same time, we may be more exposed to work environments with donuts and treats, and may be able to afford richer restaurant meals more often, with a social life that is more eating/talking-centric. We have more automated conveniences and hired services (for cleaning, lawn/garden care, etc.) vs. doing everything manually. We go from cycling and walking to/riding public transit, to driving our own car from just outside our house to close to our job and errands. And so forth.

In that complex of things, it's hard *not* get to a point where we're burning 100 more calories daily than we're moving (10 pounds a year gain, roughly). It's so slow that we don't really notice, but it adds up. As we get heavier, moving becomes less easy, less fun, and we do less of it: Negative spiral.

However, once we're aware of this, it can be surprisingly easy to reverse. It should be extra easy, at your age.

I'm 64. At 59-60, I lost just under 3.6 stone (50 pounds), and have stayed at a healthy weight since. Nothing about your (young) age will prevent you from doing similarly. Focusing on what you can control - eating habits, daily life movement, exercise - is the path to success. Blaming amorphous, unchangeable things like "middle aged spread" (or "hormones" or whatever) is a waste of time and energy, frankly.

Don't worry about shifting the 1.5 stone quickly. Worry about shifting it permanently. Find sustainable habits of eating and exercise you can see yourself continuing permanently, to stay at a healthy weight forever.

Wishing you much success!

kshama2001

I've had a full time desk job since I was 40 and, unless I work at it, a sedentary lifestyle. It's this, not my age, that made the weight creep up.

My mom is 82 and has to work at staying above Underweight because she is so active. She gardens, swims, walks, practices yoga, and does a lot of work around her 200-plus year old house. I don't think she'll be painting the outside of it again, but did spend a summer painting it while in her late 70s.

kimny72

Middle age spread is a thing because as people hit that point in life they tend to be more stressed, less active, and eat less mindfully. So yes, it is pretty common, but it's still about energy balance, we just don't notice that we're eating a little more and moving a little less.

Once you start tracking your food and activity, you can get back in balance. It can also call your attention to a need to find ways to manage stress and sleep, which can make it easier to eat better and move more. It's like a lovely cycle of continuous small improvements

Check out the Most Helpful Posts threads pinned to the top of each sub-forum, lots of great info there!

ythannah

kshama2001 wrote: »

My mom is 82 and has to work at staying above Underweight because she is so active. She gardens, swims, walks, practices yoga, and does a lot of work around her 200-plus year old house. I don't think she'll be painting the outside of it again, but did spend a summer painting it while in her late 70s.

I love this so much Most of the gerontological literature does support the "use it or lose it" adage and I'm hoping that I can maintain a decent level of function by continuing to do what I do. It's when we give up and say "I'm too old to do X any more" that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At 35, I wouldn't call the OP middle-aged.

I'd agree that there are physical changes with menopause caused by the dramatic shift in hormones. It's been difficult to pinpoint where I am in menopause due to a hysterectomy at age 33 but I did notice that what little muscle I carried melted away in the span of about a year, with no change in activity level. I'm very much a creature of routine: I've worked the same desk job for 32 years, walked at lunch, shovelled snow/mowed lawn, walked dogs for decades. Nothing changed except the chemical stew in my body, other than gradual improvements in the quality of my diet over the years, particularly protein intake. I took up resistance training, then weight lifting, and managed to put on more muscle than I'd had before menopause.

A little over a year ago my father was hospitalized for 5.5 months and I had to look after his home as well as my own. Due to time constraints I ended up eating badly (not enough) and although my activity level had increased and I maintained my lifting routine, the muscle fell off again. It's taken me longer to regain it this time around, I'm guessing my hormones have decreased even more in those years.

I'd say that menopause is the game-changer, not age per se. And the OP is most likely about 10 years away from that stage.

kimny72

@ythannah Good point. I didn't mention what you touched on because as you say, OP is not actually middle aged. But hormone imbalances can come into play for both women and men as they move thru their 40s and 50s. Those imbalances can slightly affect metabolism and fat distribution, and that handful of calories, added to a slightly lower activity level and slightly higher intake can easily cause a person to gain 10-15 lbs per year without noticing all those subtle shifts in the numbers.

Life really sneaks up on ya sometimes

memickee

I lost 51 lbs at 43. Not a real thing CICO was my problem.

JoDavo66

My body totally started changing shape at about 50- just before perimenopause started seriously- my weight crept up & it is now a serious battle to loose- not helped by sugar craving & I'm led to believe this is due to insulin having a higher % as female hormones drop.
I'm having a total diet shake up in terms of macro balance. Hoping for a summer of health. Bought in the shopping ready today.

Maxematics

Gonna chime in as I am 35 years old.

When I first lost weight, people were telling me wait until I hit 30. That I was wasting my time because at 30 things would go downhill regardless. Well, 30 came and went, so coworkers started shifting the magic age where everything turns to poop to 35. "Just you wait and see..."

My 35th birthday was seven months ago; at 5'3" and 115 pounds I guess my body didn't get the memo. My body looks the best it ever has and it's because of the work I put into it. As others said middle age spread, which I do not consider 35 middle aged in the LEAST, comes from moving around less and eating more than you realize even if it's just by a hundred calories per day.

The weight coming off slowly still means it's coming off. Please don't get discouraged and don't give up!

gradchica27

AnnPT77 wrote: »

These things are not universal, but many of us, as we move from teens to 20s then 30s and beyond, tend to go from more active jobs (retail, waitstaff, etc.) to more sedentary jobs (admistrative things at desks, say). We go from playing volleyball or frisbee on the weekend, and going dancing at night, to less active hobbies. If we have kids fairly young, we go from chasing toddlers around the house to driving older kids to activities and sitting while they do their thing there. At the same time, we may be more exposed to work environments with donuts and treats, and may be able to afford richer restaurant meals more often, with a social life that is more eating/talking-centric. We have more automated conveniences and hired services (for cleaning, lawn/garden care, etc.) vs. doing everything manually.
(Snip)
Nothing about your (young) age will prevent you from doing similarly. Focusing on what you can control - eating habits, daily life movement, exercise - is the path to success. Blaming amorphous, unchangeable things like "middle aged spread" (or "hormones" or whatever) is a waste of time and energy, frankly.

As usual, @AnnPT77 hits the nail on the head. I’m about to turn 39, and I can see how my lifestyle has changed over the last decade: not walking to and from bus, not walking around campus where I taught, not taking little kids to park almost daily and following them around, not up and down playing w kids inside and out, sitting and teaching for longer as kids get older and there are more of them to teach, more kid activities to go and sit through, not holding a kid on my back or in my arms all the time while walking and doing housework, kids can pitch in a housework so less for me.

Extra hours for husband and more disposable income = not mowing the lawn every week, groceries delivered instead of shopping w coupons at 3-4 stores, I can hire someone to clean every other week instead of doing it all myself weekly.

Easy to say my lifestyle hasn’t changed—it doesn’t change much year to year but it has over a decade. I didn’t start doing all that stuff less in one fell swoop...one year we got a lawn service once a month, then biweekly, then weekly, so I gradually reduced mowing. Same w cleaner and groceries—first I could just shop one store, then I would only get pickup/delivery every few weeks for big orders, now it’s all the time. The kid related activity decline was likewise gradual.

Same w diet—our diets are never exactly the same. This year my go to meals are different than 5 years ago bc our tastes change. Maybe you eat out weekly instead of once a month, or you drink a little more wine, or now that kids are in activities around dinner time or you work later, dinner is more convenience food or fast food just a bit more often than before.

But it’s not an inevitable slide into softness! I’m smaller and lighter at 39 than 29, by about 10lbs. And lighter than 25 by 20lbs. I do, however, need to pay attention more to what I eat (esp the random handfuls of snacks...that’s how it’s easy for calories to invisibly add up for me) and I have to intentionally exercise a bit more, even if that is making time for a walk.

Mouse_Potato

Maxematics wrote: »

Gonna chime in as I am 35 years old.

When I first lost weight, people were telling me wait until I hit 30. That I was wasting my time because at 30 things would go downhill regardless. Well, 30 came and went, so coworkers started shifting the magic age where everything turns to poop to 35. "Just you wait and see..."

My 35th birthday was seven months ago; at 5'3" and 115 pounds I guess my body didn't get the memo. My body looks the best it ever has and it's because of the work I put into it. As others said middle age spread, which I do not consider 35 middle aged in the LEAST, comes from moving around less and eating more than you realize even if it's just by a hundred calories per day.

The weight coming off slowly still means it's coming off. Please don't get discouraged and don't give up!

Agreed! I am 46, also 5'3" and also 115 pounds and I ALSO look the best I ever have!

OP, don't give up!