Why is it hard to lose weight after 50?

aarp.org - 5 Factors That Make Weight Loss Harder After 50 - AARP

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| It's not your imagination. Losing weight after age 50 really is more challenging. The reasons are a mix of lifestyle and physiological factors that combine to make dropping a few pounds more onerous than it was at 35 or 40 (not that it was easy then). William Yancy Jr., M.D., director of the Duke Lifestyle and Weight Management Center in Durham, North Carolina, explains that adults in their 50s face a number of roadblocks to maintaining a healthy weight — from arthritis and other health conditions that can affect stamina, mobility and balance, to sleep and stress issues that can derail any well-intentioned diet. But that doesn't mean you have to accept weight gain as an inevitable part of the aging process. Read on for some expert tips on how to clear the five most common hurdles for losing weight in your 50s.

Hurdle 1: Loss of muscle mass

By age 50, you've lost about 10 percent of your muscle mass, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. It's not just a cosmetic concern: Dwindling muscle mass impacts the way you burn calories. “Muscle is more metabolically active — it burns more calories than fat,” Yancy explains. “So having a higher ratio of muscle to fat will mean you burn more energy — just while sitting. To build that muscle, you have to exercise, and that burns calories, too." How to clear it: All exercise is good, of course, but strength training — like lifting weights — is the secret to building muscle. A landmark study published in 2017 in the journal Obesity enlisted 249 people age 60 and above to compare the effectiveness of diet and exercise on their fat and muscle composition. The participants were divided into three groups. One group was asked to cut around 300 calories a day from their diets. Another group cut calories and also did about 45 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week. The third group combined calorie-cutting with strength training. After 18 months, those who combined diet and exercise lost the most weight (20 pounds on average). But the strength-training group lost more fat (18 pounds) and less muscle (only 2 pounds) than the aerobic group. “Aerobic activity burns calories, but it doesn't build muscle as much as strength training,” Yancy says. And that goes for both men and women. A review of studies published in 2021 in Sports Medicine shows that resistance training (sometimes called strength training or weight training) isn’t just a guy thing. Women over age 50 reap just as many benefits as men over 50.

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Hurdle 2: Slower metabolism

Conventional wisdom has long held that metabolism slows with age. But new research challenges that assumption. According to a study published in the journal Science, metabolism actually holds steady from ages 20 to 60 — so long as your muscle mass doesn’t change — and then declines by about 0.7 percent a year after 60. Your resting metabolic rate — meaning the number of calories your body burns when you're doing nothing — can decrease if your muscle mass decreases as you age, says Holly Lofton, M.D., director of the NYU Langone Medical Weight Management Program in New York City. If we don't adjust our eating and exercise habits to accommodate that metabolic change, the weight can creep up over the years. How to clear it: Muscle mass loss can come from both a lack of strength training and inadequate protein intake. To help remedy the latter issue, Lofton says to seek out high-quality protein sources such as eggs and low-fat meats, as well as possible high-quality nutritional supplements. One study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating equal amounts of protein at all three meals boosts muscle strength, and by extension, metabolism, in adults over age 67. Lofton also suggests keeping up your fluid intake throughout the day. When you drink water, your body goes through a process known as thermogenesis to bring the liquid to body temperature. Since that process requires energy, you essentially burn calories and get a metabolism boost just by drinking H20. Fluid intake is also important to the complex cycle of converting protein and carbohydrates into usable energy, Lofton notes.

aarp.org - 5 Factors That Make Weight Loss Harder After 50 - AARP

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