Does Our Metabolism Slow Down with Age and How Does This Affect Our Figure?
Today we want to deal with the common statement that as we get older our metabolism gets worse and the body starts to deposit fat regardless of the circumstances. Many people believe that when they were younger, it was easier for them to keep a slim figure and eat whatever they wanted without gaining weight. But as they age, they begin to notice that fat mass gradually accumulates and begin to blame their environment, circumstances and even their physiology. They believe that slowing metabolism is a normal process and there is nothing they can do about it.
However, all of these accusations and excuses may be unfounded, and it may be more than just a decrease in metabolism that is to blame for weight gain. Modern research shows that as we age, factors such as changes in lifestyle, level of physical activity, quality of diet and others play an important role. Let’s look into this in more detail and try to bust this myth about the impossibility of staying slim in older age.
How a Person’s Daily Energy Expenditure Changes Over the Course of His or Her Life
A recent article in Science magazine changed the way we think about metabolism. We used to think that the younger a person was, the more metabolism they had. However, according to the new data, this notion is wrong. To understand this topic, you need to know about the concept of basic metabolism. It describes the amount of energy a person spends at rest to keep his or her body functioning. At the same time, 65% of this consumption is taken up by organs such as the brain, liver, heart, and kidneys.
Surprisingly, they make up only 5% of our total body weight, but they expend most of our energy. To keep them working, to keep the blood moving in the organs, and to keep them at the right temperature, we expend energy even when we’re lying in bed doing nothing. It is this amount of daily energy that is called basic metabolism.
However, new research has shown that over a person’s lifetime, the basal metabolism does not decrease as we previously thought. Instead, it remains stable until around age 60, and then begins to gradually decline. This discovery has enormous implications for our understanding of the processes that occur in the human body during life.
Measuring basal metabolism is a key factor in the study of human metabolism. There are many methods, but the most accurate and expensive is the double-labeled water method. It is based on labeling water with deuterium and oxygen 18 isotopes. People drink the labeled water and then collect their urine over several days for analysis. It is the gold standard in measuring basal metabolism, but its use in clinical practice is limited because of its high cost.
However, the results of a recent study published in the journal Science provided data on basal metabolism over a person’s lifetime. The study was conducted over 40 years in several laboratories and involved about 6,500 people from 8 days old to 95 years old. All participants had their basal metabolism measured, which provided unique data on changes in metabolism as a function of age.
Interestingly, the study of daily energy expenditures over the course of a person’s life revealed four periods in which basal metabolism changes. The first period is before the age of 1 year, when children have the highest basal metabolism. The second period is from age 1 to 20, when each year the basal metabolism drops by about 3%.
The third period begins at age 20 and lasts until age 60, when the basal metabolism is set at a certain level and remains the same until the end of the period. Interestingly, in women during pregnancy and after the onset of menopause, the basal metabolism remained the same as in other adults. Finally, in the fourth period, starting at age 60, the basal metabolism begins to gradually decrease at a rate of 0.7% per year. Up to the age of 95, on average, people lose 20% of their daily energy requirements.
What Can Be Learned from the Results of the Study?
It is interesting to note that this study took into account the specific energy expenditure, which depends on factors such as height, weight, percentage of muscle mass and percentage of fat in a person. Thus, it was found that the basic metabolism of men and strong women is not different.
Even though men usually consume more food because of their greater muscle mass and body size, if you take a pound of a woman’s body with a certain amount of muscle and fat and compare it to exactly the same pound of a man’s body, they will expend energy in exactly the same way. Thus, there is no difference in the metabolism of men and women, the difference is only in body size.
It is important to note that this study was conducted on healthy people without endocrine or other body dysfunctions. Despite this, cases where excessive body weight is due to endocrine disorders or genetic abnormalities are rare. Most cases of weight gain (obesity) are simply due to a person consuming more food than he or she expends energy. Thus, this study busts the myth that people get fat simply because they are aging. In fact, people gain weight because they eat more and move less.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although the study did not provide any new practical recommendations, it did make it clear that weight is the responsibility of the individual. It is important to understand that no life or physiological circumstances can be an excuse for being overweight. When a person takes full responsibility, he becomes the master of his decisions and it helps him to get rid of painful conditions.
Being overweight has been found to be the cause of 75% of all diseases, so taking care of one’s health should be a priority for everyone. It is recommended to reduce the amount of calories consumed and increase the amount of physical activity. The key message is that weight control is everyone’s personal responsibility, and only your decisions can help you achieve a healthy lifestyle and prevent the development of many diseases.