So your trying to loose weight and your over the age of 25 and you have crappy nutritional habits. Welcome to the world of thousands.
Well don’t despair there are a few things you have control over to change. No- one of those things isn’t that you can stop time. No -there isn’t a magic fountain of youth and no- you aren’t immortal. Now that we cleared that up, lets take a look at whats really happening. According to a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology, 1998, after the age of 25, your RMR declines 2-4% with each passing decade. Oh and one more monkey wrench just for shit and giggles, you’ll loose about 5 lbs of lean muscle mass each decade from age 25-65. Sounds kinda glum ha?
I know what your thinking, holy cow my RMR is declining!!!! Whaaat the heck does that mean, cause I don’t know what part of my body is my RMR! And muscle mass loss - geez what next, aging really does suck! Well hold your horses, lets not panic here. If we break down whats happening in our bodies it looks like this. First, your RMR refers to your “resting metabolic rate”. This refers to the number of units of energy that your body uses to process all of the chemical actions during rest time.
So an average 25 year old female may have an RMR of 1500 kcal, then at 35 yrs her RMR is at 1400 kcal, at 45 yrs her RMR is at 1300 kcals and so on. In addition she’ll lose 5 lbs of muscle mass by 35 yrs, 10 lbs by 45 yrs, 15 lbs by 55 yrs and 20 lbs by 65 yrs. This chick has declined about 300 kcal of metabolic burning and 20 lbs of lean muscle by age 65. Great your thinking this is all bad news, so whats the silver lining in all this?
Since you can’t change your age, then change your lifestyle!!! Lean muscle is responsible for a huge amount of metabolic activity, so a loss of lean muscle is most likely responsible for a huge amount of decline in metabolic activity. Increase your muscle mass to increase your RMR. How do I increase muscle mass- contract your skeletal muscles. Run, jump, cycle, skip, lift weights- all use energy and build muscle. The more intense the activity the more calories burned and the more lean muscle built.
Now there is one more glitch. You can have the best exercise program ever, but if you have poor nutrient consumption (your diet is crappy) it may lead to the inability to build and preserve muscle mass.
Lessons learned: just because you may be aging that doesn’t mean you can’t impact your metabolic rate or ability to build muscle. High intensity exercise burns more calories during and after increasing your RMR. Proper nutrition plays a HUGE roll in your metabolic rate and ability to build and keep muscle.
Aging is natural but to stop moving your body is not! Proper posture, musculoskeletal alignment, correct nutrition and lots of movement--- the keys to keeping my body, mind and soul young!
