The Older You Get, The More Your Diet Affects Your Weight

Why does it get harder and harder to lose weight (or easier to gain) as you get older?

There is at least one explanation for this normal process, which affects millions of people. In this article we explain why food has an increasing influence on your weight as you get older.

More years = more pounds?

Your body actually evolves and changes all the time throughout your life. Your muscles, bones and metabolism are constantly changing.

The body of a ten-year-old does not function in the same way as the body of someone who is twenty-five, forty or even sixty years old. During your adult years you will have more or less muscle mass, depending on how old or young you are.

Therefore, it is also normal to observe changes in your body weight and in the way your body stores fat.  For example, it will suddenly store in places where you used to have relatively little fat.

The amount of energy you consume will also change with each new phase in your life. When you are younger, your body uses more energy, but this decreases with age. This is because your body gets used to using energy more efficiently.

There are two factors that cause your body to use less energy, which we will discuss with you.

1. Your body composition changes

As you get older, you lose muscle mass and gain more fat.

The body fat percentage of a man between twenty and thirty years old is somewhere between eighteen and twenty-one percent. While the fat percentage of a man between forty-one and fifty years old has already risen to twenty-five percent. When a man reaches sixty, this fat percentage will be above twenty-six percent.

The same happens with women, of course. Women of around twenty to thirty years old have a fat percentage that is between twenty-two and twenty-four percent. This rises to twenty-seven to thirty percent when they are between forty-one and fifty years old. Ultimately, this exceeds thirty-one percent when they are sixty years or older.

The percentage of fat naturally increases while muscle mass decreases – this is because your muscles use more energy.

2. Changing Your Hormones

This happens not only in women going through menopause, but also in adult men.

Your hormonal patterns have a lot to do with your weight, as they affect the way you eat and sleep.

The older you get, the harder your hormones try to conserve energy, because they can’t do the same thing they were when you were younger. This means that your body will store more and more fat (especially around your waist).

This is how your body prepares for the fact that you will move less as you get older.

It’s easier to gain weight after your thirties

This doesn’t mean you have free reign to eat whatever you want before you hit your thirties. It’s just a way of reminding you that the changes in your body aren’t just due to old age.

As you get older you will see that your waist gets wider, you may get a tummy and your clothes will not fit as they used to.

The connection between the number of candles on your birthday cake and the increasing number of pounds on your scale may seem unavoidable, especially if you stick to the same eating habits.

The fight against obesity and overweight is getting tougher as the years go by.

A poor diet, too much stress, genetic factors, a sedentary lifestyle, can all affect how much you gain. This includes any medications you may be taking or the hormonal imbalances you may be experiencing.

Hormones

Hormonal imbalances are the main cause of increasing fat accumulation.

After your thirties, the hormones estrogen, progesterone and androgen no longer function as they did before. Because these hormones are essential for balancing your body mass, it is normal to see changes in your hips, abdomen or thighs.

Those energy resources that seemed so inexhaustible when you were between fifteen and twenty years old are now beginning to disappear. And your lifestyle is starting to become more and more sedentary.

If you factor in the number of hours you spend at work and all the relaxing activities you do (such as eating out, going on a cruise, going to the movies), this will inevitably lead to weight gain as you get older . This is super simple.

Weight gain isn’t the only change that occurs as you get older

What if you lead a healthy lifestyle, get enough exercise and eat right? Then it is important to take into account the number of calories you consume daily.

• For example, a thirty-one-year-old woman who weighs 57 kilograms will need to consume 2000 kilograms per day to maintain her weight.
• That same woman, once she is forty-five, already has enough of 1850 calories.

If you choose to continue consuming 2000 calories, you will be consuming 150 calories too much each day. Within six months this comes to about four kilos of body weight.

However, it’s not just the extra pounds that you have to take into account. It also concerns possible diseases and conditions that you can suffer from as you get older.

Consider, for example, osteoporosis, because your bone mass decreases, or osteoarthritis due to joint problems.

To avoid weight gain as you get older, it’s important to constantly adjust your habits to accommodate your new reality. For example:

• Do more light forms of exercise (yoga, pilates, swimming, etc.).
• Try to consume less fat, salt and flour.
• Avoid alcohol and cigarettes.
• Make sure you get enough sleep.

Finally, it is important to accept that it is virtually impossible to maintain the same body at 50 as when you were 25. Not only has twenty-five years passed, but your habits will also be different and your body will have changed accordingly.