Age an issue or an excuse?

Russellb97 · July 2016

So a little background. 13 years ago I weighed 330lbs and I lost 100lbs in 11 months and have lost another 30lbs gradually over the last decade. Man time flies.
What's super awesome is the fact I'm turning 40 next month and my weight is still trending down. I am active in life and play but in the past few years I only go to the gym to lift weights once a month. I'm not currently tracking but I have for years and I know I'm eating more than ever before and I'm still trending down. Sure my weight fluctuates day to day but it's in line and expected with my eating plan.
Age and metabolism may be another one of those etched in stone diet myths like eating 6 small meals a day but yet so many people claim this as a reason they gain weight. I'm just wondering what you guys think both anecdotal and research studies.

To be fair I'll give my opinion. I do not believe that metabolism is affected by age directly but more a product of losing lean body mass as we age and also adaptive response to years of dieting. Personally my metabolism at age 40 is much stronger than I was 27.

Be blessed!

ccrdragon · July 2016

I am in the same camp as you are - the main reason for the decline in BMR is the decline in lean muscle mass in the general population as people get older - the metabolism isn't really slowing down, there's just less to maintain.

I also believe that age is an excuse... there are many people using this site that are in their 50's and 60's that are successfully losing weight (or maintaining weight loss) and are probably in the best shape of their lives.

FWIW - I am 54 and have lost 50 lbs so far and in the best condition physically that I have been in for over 25 years!

Ready2Rock206 · July 2016

I'm old. Age is just an excuse! Food is my real issue!

geneticsteacher · July 2016

I think metabolism decrease with age is not that big of a deal. Sure, it happens, but not nearly to the extent most think. I will be 60 this year, post menopausal, and have lost 33 lbs.

vespiquenn · July 2016

I'm only 26, so I can't quite contribute to the excuse of age. But I think anything can be an excuse if you let it.

What I can say though, is there are folks that are in their 80s that often are lifting weights in my gym. All I can say is that I hope I kick that much butt at their age.

AJF230 · July 2016

Age is no excuse. People get older, have more disposable income and no little kids to chase around (generalizing, here), get themselves onto a bad feedback loop...and mistake a correlation with age to be a causation BY age.

EDIT: age could be a factor if an injury or condition correlated with age helps one gain a ton of weight, but again, its calories-in calories-out. People eating food they don't need is a whole separate situation

ninerbuff · July 2016

At 52 I'm in better shape than many 20 year old males in college today. Yeah as you age, recovery takes longer, but there's no reason, any health issues, that one can't stay in decent physical shape till they are 6 feet under.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

kshama2001 · July 2016

ccrdragon wrote: »

I am in the same camp as you are - the main reason for the decline in BMR is the decline in lean muscle mass in the general population as people get older - the metabolism isn't really slowing down, there's just less to maintain.

I also believe that age is an excuse... there are many people using this site that are in their 50's and 60's that are successfully losing weight (or maintaining weight loss) and are probably in the best shape of their lives.

FWIW - I am 54 and have lost 50 lbs so far and in the best condition physically that I have been in for over 25 years!

Agreed. I so wish I'd maintained the muscle I had in my 20s. However, I'm in better shape now than I was 10 years ago and at points in my 30s.

kshama2001 · July 2016

vespiquenn wrote: »

I'm only 26, so I can't quite contribute to the excuse of age. But I think anything can be an excuse if you let it.

What I can say though, is there are folks that are in their 80s that often are lifting weights in my gym. All I can say is that I hope I kick that much butt at their age.

My mom is coming up on 79 and kicks butt at the gym

She can out-walk and out-garden me.

However, I've got her beat when it comes to swimming and yoga. I think the swimming is partially mental though. She's been doing the same swim for decades. I used to think lack of upper arm strength was holding her back but she should have more of that now that she's been going to the gym for a year.

At the beginning of the swimming season, I go for 20 minutes and keep increasing it until I'm over an hour. She just swims to the same point she always has.

middlehaitch · July 2016

Another oldie but goodie here.

Age can certainly be used as an excuse.

I do however believe it does attribute to the lowering of ones metabolism even when one keeps as active, and retains the muscle mass one had in their 20's.
Keeping up ones activity level can however make the decrease in metabolism a lot less.

And as it is a gradual decrease of 50-100 cals per decade, depending on gender, height, and weight, one can rarely claim it as a sudden 'oh I am older therefore it's harder' excuse.

I was 54 and menopausal when I noticed 30 lbs had sneaked on. Damn those stretchy comfy yoga pants.
Was it my age?
Was it menopause?
Was I eating more?

I actually never even considered any of the above. I knew what it was. I had become a couch potato and bought a car.
I wasn't moving, my CICO balance had changed.

I started calorie counting and going to the pool the same week. (Replacing natural activity with purposeful exercise)
Lost the weight, got fit.

That was 2008.
At 62 I have been maintaining my pre weight gain weight for over 6 years , but have slowly and surely improved my fitness level to something better than I have had since I was in my 20's when I was most naturally active (never exercised). My metabolism is however still lower than what I perceive my metabolism was in my 20's and more in line than that of my 40's.
(No empirical data, just perception.).

TLDR Sorry that whole ramble was to say that age is often used as an excuse when it is not valid, but can often be a valid reason.

Cheers, h.

frankiesgirlie · July 2016

All I can say is I've never been overweight according to the charts, but off and on through my 20s, 30s and 40s I would get complacent and my weight would go up 10 lbs. Then I would buckle down, count calories, go for a run every day and the weight would be gone in 2 months.

Now at 55, and in menopause, I'm finding it much harder to lose the 10 lbs.

Funny thing is, I've never worked out harder, and have never been in better physical shape, but the menopause belly doesn't want to go away.

Not an excuse. Just an observation. Because I don't EVER intend to give up trying.

Machka9 · July 2016

At 48, I thought age was an issue ... I discovered it was just an excuse and I've lost the weight.

thequeena47 · July 2016

Age is just a fact, we age. However, i do think it contributes to how easily we bounce back from things, which i believe is also just a fact. Most of us can confirm that at 20 you were likely able to drink and party 'til dawn and still get to class or work the next day... but now in your 40'sor 50's, you need a little longer to recover from that sort of thing. For me, same thing applies with exercising - i can still walk 10 km, but i won't feel like i want to do it again tomorrow, or garden all day moving soil and rocks but the aches and strains seem to hang about a bit longer now at 49 than they did at 29. And that is natural.... at 29 i was up all day working, up much of the nights with one or the other of my babies, no time to be seriously ill or otherwise out of commission and we are made to be more resilient when we are younger as we are biologically wired to have offspring that need watching, chasing and protecting. Not so as we near and surpass middle age.... So,if i say i am tired or sore the day after a big workout, it isn't an excuse not to work out again, but it is just a fact that i don't recover as easily as i used to, things get a little worn with time, a little crooked with overuse, and need a little extra care to function as they used to. does my age keep me from losing weight? Not all by itself... but the fact that i can only handle one or two glasses of wine now, when several double cocktails wouldn't slow me much 25 years ago is evidence that my whole system is moving slower - i take longer to metabolize alcohol out of my system, i don't burn as many calories as quickly as i used to, i take longer to recover from intense efforts.... Aging is just aging. We age up and things change in our bodies, from infant through to the end of our days, and we don't just keep getting better and stronger all the way through. If that were the case, we would all be super fit at 90!

singingflutelady · July 2016

I'm 40 and a consistent bmi 19.6-20.0 so it's possible

feisty_bucket · July 2016

Russellb97 wrote: »

yet so many people claim this as a reason they gain weight. I'm just wondering what you guys think

I think it's a crappy excuse but super-common. I read recently that adult Americans watch, on average, six hours of video a day. There's plenty of time. People don't value their health much (beyond finding a sex partner), most of our culture is lame, and they get in a downward feedback loop.

DM01234 · July 2016

Machka9 wrote: »

At 48, I thought age was an issue ... I discovered it was just an excuse and I've lost the weight.

This is me....

I'm going to be 50 in a few days. I'm in WAY better shape now than I was turning 30 or 40. Heck, I'm in better shape today than I was turning 49 for that matter.

Pawsforme · July 2016

I think age absolutely matters.
I didn't start telling much of an effect until I reached my late 40's.
Activity level and muscle mass matter too, of course.
The problem is that as you age and your body naturally develops some aches and pains and stiffness it can become harder to motivate yourself to exercise or just move as much as you used to.
They can be seen as excuses, or they can be simple statements of fact.
At 53 I know my body doesn't respond as well as it did at 43. That's a fact. I don't use it as an excuse to not be the best 53 year old I can be!
And to offset the declining metabolism "excuse" -- I've also found that with age my appetite has declined. It's significantly easier for me to maintain a reduced calorie diet now than it was ten or twenty years ago. Still not easy, but easier.

I think calling something an issue or an excuse is really just looking at different sides of the same coin.

LivingtheLeanDream · July 2016

Age is no excuse imo. I'm in my late 40s and have never been fitter, looked better or have eaten more in my life LOL - that's what having lots of muscle and being really active has done for me

But I do have good health in general, so that helps.

rainbowbow · July 2016

Metabolism slows down with age mostly due to a loss of lean body mass and lower sex hormones (especially testosterone in men).

Of course this is not an excuse to be fat and lazy. You can still be fit, active, and within a healthy weight range no matter your age. What i have seen trending though is replacement for "low t" for men over the age of 40, so if you feel sluggish or crappy or have a hard time recovering because of that i say go for it! And by this i mean with a physician, i am not saying to take steroids off the guy in your gym.

edit: p.s. in women it's also incredibly important to remain active with some sort of resistance training as we age as it can help prevent injuries/slips/falls and force your body to strengthen bone mass. The last thing you want as you age is to be sedentary and overweight.

MamaFunky · July 2016

Some people had so many excuses as they were aging that now they use age as an excuse. Does that even make sense? lol. Still trying to have my coffee this morning.

Exercise has always been a part of my life from a very young age. My parents are in their 70's and still go hiking, kayaking, zip-lining, etc. They set a great example on how to stay physically active as you age. Now that I am 42 I make sure exercise stays part of my life. I have never been considered over weight, but I was seeing my weight creep up as I was about to turn 40. I lost 10 lbs and reduced my BF% and have been maintaining for over two years now. It is such a great feeling to be physically fit in my 40's. Plus, I like setting a good example for my kids. Another bonus is my husband and I have been together over 20 years and he still tells me how much he loves my body. (super motivating there

) Age will never be an excuse for me. We love to eat, but we also love to move!

tlflag1620 · July 2016

I think age is absolutely a factor, but it's only an excuse if you let it become one.

I've had four children, so that's four times I had to lose weight. Two of my children were born while I was in my mid to late twenties, the other two in my early to mid thirties. There was definitely a difference. With my first two, I simply cut portions and counted calories and lost the weight. It wasn't easy, took a long time, and I struggled a lot, but it worked. After my third child, eating the same way became much, much harder. I just couldn't cut my calories to the needed level without feeling constantly hungry. I suspected increasing insulin resistance (something that happens to lots of folks as they get older). I was hopelessly stuck until I switched up my diet, and went low carb. Then I lost the baby weight, plus an additional 25 lbs I never thought I'd be able to lose. My fastest post-baby weight loss so far was after my fourth child, at 35 years old, when I was already eating low carb to start with (I gained the same amount each pregnancy, so it wasn't even that I had less to lose). Anywho... I guess that's my rambling way of saying that as we age, physical changes often occur that do make it harder to lose weight the conventional way. But it only becomes an excuse if you refuse to experiment with other options.

Francl27 · July 2016

Of course it's a factor. You can call it an excuse as you want, but if you go to any TDEE calculator and enter the same number of calories for a 25yo than a 40yo... you'll see that the 40yo will gain weight... And I don't know about you, but my appetite hasn't changed one bit since I was 25. I mean, OF COURSE there are other factors, but down the line, metabolism does slow down with age. Even if it's just 50 calories a day, that could make you gain 10 pounds in 2 years, not changing anything... don't change anything for 10 years, and you have 50 pounds to lose...

So yea, sure, it's an 'excuse' I suppose because people still decided not to do anything about it (I was one of those people, not judging). But that doesn't mean it's not a factor.

pondee629 · July 2016

Born January 1955.
On July 4 2015 (at 60) I weighed 220 pounds. I started MFP with the intention to get to 190, a weight 5 pounds over what I weighed when I left Uncle Sam's Misguided Children in the 70's.

Now (aged 61) I weigh 185, lost 6 inches off my waist, can complete exercise routines that previously left me gasping half way through, and have a reasonable expectation of completing a Half Marathon in September of this year. I have completed three sub 30 minute 5Ks this year, and my training 10 mile runs are under two hours.

Age is a factor, genetics is a factor, environment is a factor, everything is a factor. Anything can be an excuse. The only determinate is YOU and whether YOU want something different. If YOU want something different the only thing stopping YOU is YOU. The only thing that makes the change possible is YOU.

Sued0nim · July 2016

As I age people around me, particularly those I gave birth to, seem to get more irritating

:bigsmile:

But it has not affected my weight loss or maintenance in any way ..unlike being lazy, having a car, having disposable income and a social life does

kshama2001 · July 2016

thequeena47 wrote: »

Age is just a fact, we age. However, i do think it contributes to how easily we bounce back from things, which i believe is also just a fact. Most of us can confirm that at 20 you were likely able to drink and party 'til dawn and still get to class or work the next day... but now in your 40'sor 50's, you need a little longer to recover from that sort of thing. For me, same thing applies with exercising - i can still walk 10 km, but i won't feel like i want to do it again tomorrow, or garden all day moving soil and rocks but the aches and strains seem to hang about a bit longer now at 49 than they did at 29. And that is natural.... at 29 i was up all day working, up much of the nights with one or the other of my babies, no time to be seriously ill or otherwise out of commission and we are made to be more resilient when we are younger as we are biologically wired to have offspring that need watching, chasing and protecting. Not so as we near and surpass middle age.... So,if i say i am tired or sore the day after a big workout, it isn't an excuse not to work out again, but it is just a fact that i don't recover as easily as i used to, things get a little worn with time, a little crooked with overuse, and need a little extra care to function as they used to. does my age keep me from losing weight? Not all by itself... but the fact that i can only handle one or two glasses of wine now, when several double cocktails wouldn't slow me much 25 years ago is evidence that my whole system is moving slower - i take longer to metabolize alcohol out of my system, i don't burn as many calories as quickly as i used to, i take longer to recover from intense efforts.... Aging is just aging. We age up and things change in our bodies, from infant through to the end of our days, and we don't just keep getting better and stronger all the way through. If that were the case, we would all be super fit at 90!

I'm your age and have noticed all these slower bounce back issues myself.

StealthHealth · July 2016

Age is just an excuse. And a pretty poor one at that.

StealthHealth · July 2016

geneticsteacher wrote: »

I think metabolism decrease with age is not that big of a deal. Sure, it happens, but not nearly to the extent most think. I will be 60 this year, post menopausal, and have lost 33 lbs.

Agree that it is not as significant as some would have you believe but also add that metabolic slow down as we age is a correlation but not the cause of the slowdown - it is that as we get older, we typically lead more sedentary lives. So, those that buck that trend (by leading more active lives) maintain their metabolic rate.

LaceyBirds · July 2016

I am 60.7 years old. I have gone from a high of 238 pounds about five years ago to 147.8 this morning. So, yes, it is possible to lose weight at any age, as seen consistently on these forums.

But it is a simple fact of life that our metabolisms slow down with age. Other things that happen, through no fault of our own, without using excuses, are numerous, including changing/failing eyesight, degeneration of joint tissues, bone loss in both men and women, hormonal changes, cognitive decline, and many others.

Using the USDA TDEE tracker (I've used others with the same basic results, regardless if calories were higher or lower), here are the daily maintenance calories for a 5'6", 145 pound, sedentary female by decade:

20: 2024
30: 1955
40: 1886
50: 1817
60: 1748
70: 1679
80: 1610
90: 1541

So my 60 year-old self must eat 276 calories less a day than my 20 year-old self did to maintain the same weight.*

I doubt that any person I know in real life knows this. They may have some generalized idea that their metabolism slows down at some point, but they don't have this knowledge about needing to actually eat less calories than they did when they were a lot younger. Over years, or decades, they gain an extra 10 or 20 pounds even though they're eating a healthy diet and exercising, albeit eating the same amount of calories as they always have, and wonder why. The only thing that seems different is that they've gotten older, and so they figure that's what's wrong. And they're right! So, in this scenario, no, it's not an excuse.

I think most of the people that have taken the time and initiative to actually find sites like MFP simply don't have the knowledge (yet) of how this all works, just like many of the people posting in this thread didn't have the knowledge until they started learning about weight loss, nutrition and exercise. Their belief that age is keeping them from losing weight can be modified by learning and by asking questions and by reading the success stories of people their age or older who have successfully lost weight. I've seen this happen a lot, and I've seen what may be termed as "excuses" change into knowledge that leads to success over and over.

*I actually weighed 118 at 20 years old.

leajas1 · July 2016

I don't know the answer, but I'm 40 and am in the best shape of my life.

RoxieDawn · July 2016

I am 48 in a month, I have never ever been in better shape. Sure it took getting my kids out the house before I started, but at least I started.

A short testimony for me is that I drove 3 hours to Atlanta last night to see a concert (Guns and Roses) and I did feel a little old there, but not for long. I realized while I was there that I looked and felt much better than most younger people that were there. This is really the first time I ever thought that about that, as I do just sort of hang with people my age or older (husband 9 years older).

MY take after all of this and two years into my new found youth, age is a state of mind!

FitOldMomma · July 2016

Age does affect metabolism, but it's not set in stone. Being and staying active helps tremendously.

I seemed to gain weight much easier the several years after menopause, but once I started tracking my food and eating at a deficit the pounds came off. Once I became more active, I developed good muscle mass the weight came off even quicker and seems easier as well. I'm nearly 60 now, but with better muscle tone than when I was 30.

Age an issue or an excuse?

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