Ever since I can recall, the phrase “slow metabolism” and “fast metabolism” have been thrown around during conversations about eating and losing weight but do you know what “metabolism” actually means? Many women commonly express concern that their metabolism slows down with age but they don’t know how to prevent it or how to keep it fired up and working efficiently.
Find out what metabolism really means and how to prevent it from slowing down as you age.
Metabolism is the conversion of food to energy. Metabolism is an internal chemical process, where our bodies burn calories and expend energy and it’s working all the time, whether we’re sitting or sleeping because the body is converting the nutrients from the food we eat to help us with muscle growth, repair cells, blood circulation, hormone production and much more. Think about it like a car, where we put fuel into the gas tank to keep it running. Our bodies work in the same way, where food is our fuel.
Metabolism influences how much energy (calories) our bodies require to maintain our current functions and weight. Regardless of our size or physical composition, metabolism is different in everybody and can be slow, average, or fast. With slower metabolism, the body burns fewer calories and the remaining calories are stored as fat cells, and with a faster metabolism, the body burns calories at a quicker rate.
Regardless of having a sluggish metabolism or average metabolism, if you're aiming for weight management or weight loss, a factor for success is knowing how many calories your body requires and how much physical energy you expend or need to expend.
Age does affect the changes to our metabolism, at a linear rate as we age. But here’s why. Our body is made of our skeletal muscle, which means that our lean muscle mass decreases as we age. As the volume of muscle decreases, fat percentage increases to replace it. Another factor of slowing metabolism with age is that people become less physically active.
To break it down, a younger adult has more muscle mass, which means the body burns more calories because muscle burns more calories than fat does. With age, an older adult has a significant decrease in muscle mass but if nothing is done to maintain muscle, then the body burns less calories and the excess calories you eat get stored as fat.
Whether you’re younger or older, if you struggle with excess body fat percentage and weight management or weight loss, it may be easy to blame a “slow metabolism” but there are other major factors contributing to this issue, which includes poor diet choices and lack of physical activity.
Here’s how you can prevent your metabolism from slowing down and keep it fired up and working efficiently throughout your life. While we may hear about foods that “boost your metabolism”, realistically this has a very minimal effect. What will help is:
Be more physically active throughout your day. Walk, take the stairs, and exercise!
Do more strength training to help you increase and maintain lean muscle mass as you age. There are older women that ignore weight lifting in favour of cardio but it’s even more crucial to do weight training as you age. Build strong bones and muscles, and remember that muscle does burn more calories than fat.
Pay attention to your body’s hunger cues so that you eat mindfully, and eat smaller portions of healthy food throughout the day.
Eat healthy foods that support your metabolism and body’s natural ability to thrive with health. The more nutrients you can gain from eating healthy foods, the better your body can function.
Create a goal and know what foods, fitness, and relaxation techniques you enjoy the most so that you follow through and keep your metabolism working efficiently.
Comments