It’s inevitable, you think, you are getting older, your diet hasn’t changed, yet your waistline has! You blame it on a slowed metabolism that is often associated with aging. What if this did not have to be the case? What if there was a way to keep the fire stoked on your metabolism, well into your later decades?

Weight gain, and most importantly feeling out of control with your body does not have to accompany aging! Certainly, there are changes that occur as we age, however the biggest impact on our metabolism as well as overall functioning is mostly within our control, this is the amount of muscle we have.

After the age of 30, we start losing as much as 3% to 5% per decade. Over a lifetime, loss of muscle can be as much as 30%! Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, meaning that with less of this precious cargo, your ability to burn calories even at the same weight goes down. Use or lose it, as the saying goes has powerful implications when it comes to maintaining your metabolism. Let’s consider this scenario from your body’s view of the world, which is to protect you and ensure you don’t use more calories than is necessary. If you stop using your muscles, slowly overtime, as is often associated with aging, or abruptly, as can occur with an injury, your bodies response is to get rid of muscle as quickly as possible. In fact, disuse, such as seen with those on bedrest, even for previously healthy adults, can lead to 12% loss of muscle in just one week!

What steps can you take today to keep your metabolism fired up?
1) Exercise: whatever activity you enjoy that is able to get your heart rate up and challenge your muscles. It is critical to continue this activity consistently above all else! Your body needs to move every day. I would prefer that someone did 10 to 30 minutes of activity everyday, versus 90 minutes one day a week. Ultimately, any exercise you choose should be sustainable over the long run. It may be an accomplishment to finish a marathon, but most people will not be able to sustain that level of activity.

2) Diet: when it comes to building muscle, protein quantity and quality are critical. 30 to 50 grams of protein at each meal is a wide range to shoot for. Quality of protein is also critical, there may be protein in grains and vegetables, but your ability to utilize that protein may be very different than the protein you get from an egg for example. Personalization of these recommendations are key. Many factors affect your personal ability to digest and ultimately use protein that you are consuming.

3) Sleep: this is actually the main time that you rebuild and grow muscle, assuming you have stimulated it during the day! In addition, sleep impacts hormones such as cortisol and insulin that are also necessary to be in balance for muscle growth to occur.

Final takeaway: There are things that we can’t control as we age, but maintaining a healthy metabolism doesn’t have to be one of them. Stand don’t sit, consume high quality protein and make sleep a priority.

If you want to know how a personalized plan could be the missing link in achieving your goals, please call now 941-685-8074 to schedule a free 15 minute discovery call.