Middle age spread hints & tips needed

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!