Is it true that your metabolism slows down when you get older?

miinanov
miinanov Posts: 37 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
I heard many people say that your metabolism slows down as you get older. I am only 23 and for the most part of my life I always had a fast metabolism.

Replies

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    If you don't do anything to stop it, people tend to lose muscle mass as they age, so they will lose a bit of metabolism as a result. It's not all that much and can be prevented by developing good habits now.

    At 23, you only recently got out of the stage of your life where you were growing, and of course that speeds up metabolism. Activity is the biggest effect of how many calories you burn (beyond overall size) as an adult, and many people who are active when young do end up having a more sedentary lifestyle as they get older, so that is also something you can make sure to avoid.
  • nevadavis1
    nevadavis1 Posts: 331 Member
    For me, yes. In my 20s I could eat as much as I wanted and tended to lose weight without trying. Now I eat mainly salads and gain at the drop of a hat.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Yes...when you're young and still growing and developing, you're torching calories...'cuz growing and developing require a lot of energy. Also, as you age, people tend to lose muscle mass due in large part to a lack of activity and exercise...this can be mitigated with regular exercise and most importantly in this regard, resistance training.
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
    Yeah it does. It's very gradual and I wouldn't worry about it, cause there ain't nothing you can do about it. At 60 I eat about half the calories as 20.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    Any aging effect is fairly small, and can largely be countered (for most of your life at least) by staying active, doing exercise that maintains or increases your muscle mass, and avoiding repeated extreme low-calorie or yo-yo dieting.

    Now, at your current age, is the time to achieve a healthy weight (if you aren't there already) and learn how to stay there for life, plus to establish exercise habits that will sustain/improve your muscle mass and general health for life as well.

    I'm 61, didn't get really active until my mid-40s, and didn't get to a healthy weight (other than a brief period during college) until the last couple of years. I wish I'd done both decades earlier! The one favor I did myself was to mostly avoid yo-yo or extreme dieting.

    At this point, I'm able to eat around 25% more at age 61 than the online calorie calculators estimate. I'm guessing that part of the reason is the muscularity/fitness from that last 12-15 years of regular vigorous exercise, and the lifetime avoidance of crazy diets, but I don't really know why for sure.
  • southernoregongrape
    southernoregongrape Posts: 117 Member
    Mine slowed down, but not as much from aging (I'm 74) not from lack of activity (my jobs have always been hard work last one was as an overnight stocker for Walmart until I was 68. I messed mine up by eating way below my BMR for many many years because I was never hungry when I smoked. At least that is what my Dr. says. I quit smoking 10 years ago.
    So now, I am trying to get enough activity to at least stop the process. And hopefully to build more muscles in my chest area to aid with my breathing.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,687 Member
    Well ... I'm 50 and I don't think mine has slowed down. I'm not sure how I would tell. What would a slow metabolism look like?
  • southernoregongrape
    southernoregongrape Posts: 117 Member
    One sign in my case is that my normal temp is 96.8 instead of 98.6. And that I managed to gain 30 lbs in 3 months after I quit smoking. I even gained on Atkins induction. now, a loss of a lb. a month is normal if I do everything exactly right.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,687 Member
    I did a quick search on "Slow Metabolism Symptoms", but all I got were a bunch of 'women's magazine' type of sites.

    Are there any real medical sites which list symptoms of a slow metabolism?
  • crackpotbaby
    crackpotbaby Posts: 1,297 Member
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/8361073/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2880224/

    A couple of articles about aging and slowed metabolism.
  • southernoregongrape
    southernoregongrape Posts: 117 Member
    Thanks, those were interesting. The other thing that I have noticed, is that when I look at pictures of my ancestors in the 1800's the women who survived childbirths were all "matronly" before they were my age.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Yes, your metabolism slows down, but most people could make up for it by going for a brisk walk after supper.
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