What happened to my metabolism?!!

You guys can mock all you like, but aside from a broken bone that sidelined me for a few weeks, I'm in as good of physical shape today as I have been at any time during my life. Studies have shown that people who remain physically active do not display many of the forms of physical decline that are associated with aging. While it may become more difficult to maintain physical activity as we age, metabolism will remain higher for those who do.

TimothyFish wrote: »

You guys can mock all you like, but aside from a broken bone that sidelined me for a few weeks, I'm in as good of physical shape today as I have been at any time during my life. Studies have shown that people who remain physically active do not display many of the forms of physical decline that are associated with aging. While it may become more difficult to maintain physical activity as we age, metabolism will remain higher for those who do.

Yes--there's a great study that showed endurance cardio (running OR swimming) forestalled metabolism decline (resting metabolic rate, *not* TDEE accounting for activity) in women from age 20 to after menopause.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9329340

For a lot of people, the real kicker isn't the ~20-50 kcal/decade decrease in "metabolism," but the reduced activity in lifestyle that comes with settling down. You're not walking your laundry down the block to the laundromat once a week, you're not going out dancing with your friends on Friday, you're on the sidelines of your kid's soccer game instead of playing in your university co-rec tournament, etc.

cheshirecatastrophe wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

You guys can mock all you like, but aside from a broken bone that sidelined me for a few weeks, I'm in as good of physical shape today as I have been at any time during my life. Studies have shown that people who remain physically active do not display many of the forms of physical decline that are associated with aging. While it may become more difficult to maintain physical activity as we age, metabolism will remain higher for those who do.

Yes--there's a great study that showed endurance cardio (running OR swimming) forestalled metabolism decline (resting metabolic rate, *not* TDEE accounting for activity) in women from age 20 to after menopause.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9329340

For a lot of people, the real kicker isn't the ~20-50 kcal/decade decrease in "metabolism," but the reduced activity in lifestyle that comes with settling down. You're not walking your laundry down the block to the laundromat once a week, you're not going out dancing with your friends on Friday, you're on the sidelines of your kid's soccer game instead of playing in your university co-rec tournament, etc.

I was actually having a similar discussion with my best friend a couple of weeks ago. He's always been pretty lean but relatively recently has put on a little fat. He's of course seen me drop weight and he was picking my brain about how to improve his physique and fitness and I gave him the run down on what I do basically.

One of his comments was something to the tune of, "remember when we didn't need to do anything...we were just lean and healthy and fit...no gym, etc...we just were." To which I responded by reminding him that while we didn't really do much in the way of deliberate exercise...like going to the gym and stuff...but we were active.

Both of us were without a vehicle for a time and biked/walked everywhere. We were students, so even though we were spending some time sitting in class, we were also walking around a large university campus all day. Living in Albuquerque, the Sandia mountains are right there...we spent a lot of time in those mountains hiking. We played ultimate frisbee with our friends...we went out on weekends to clubs and danced, etc.

Ultimately, all of that changed...we settled down and took desk jobs...we bought cars...we got married and started family life, etc. I think people forget how much they actually were on the go when they were younger...and settling down tends to be a gradual thing so people don't realize how much less they move when they're older.