The Older You Are, The More Your Diet Affects Your Weight

Why is it that as you get older, you find it harder to lose weight (or easier to gain weight)? This normal process that affects millions of people has at least one explanation. In today’s article, we will explain the reasons why as you get older, your diet affects your weight more and more.

Several years = more kilos?

Your body is constantly evolving and changing throughout your life. Your muscles, bones and metabolism change constantly.

The body of a 10-year-old child does not work in the same way as for the same person aged 25, 40 or 65 years. In adulthood, you will have more or less muscle mass depending on whether you are younger or older.

Therefore, it is normal to see changes in your body weight and to notice that fat is being deposited in different areas where it might have been easier to get rid of before.

Your primary energy expenditure also changes through each step of your life. When you are younger, you spend more, which decreases over time. This is because your body becomes more efficient at using energy.

Your energy consumption is reduced by two main factors:

1. Your body composition varies and therefore your diet affects your weight

As you get older, you lose muscle and absorb fat.

The body fat percentage of a man between 20 and 30 years varies between 18 and 21%. Between 41 and 50 years it reaches 25%, and over 60 years it is higher than 26%.

For women, the same thing happens: They have between 22 and 24% body fat between the ages of 20 and 30 and reach between 27 and 30% between the ages of 41 and 50 and eventually exceed 31% after reaching the age of 60.

Fat builds up naturally, while muscle mass is reduced – this is because your muscles use more energy.

2. Your hormones change and therefore your diet affects you more

This applies not only to women going through menopause, but also to adult men.

Your hormonal patterns have a lot to do with your weight because they affect whether you eat or sleep more, for example.

As you get older, your hormones work to conserve energy because you did not have the same abilities you had when you were younger. This means you are more likely to build up fat (especially around the waist).

This is how your body prepares for less physical activity.

It is easier to gain weight after 30 years

That does not mean you have free rent to eat what you reach 30 years of age. It’s just a reminder that the changes in your body do not only appear with age.

As you get older, you will notice that your waist is enlarged, your stomach may bulge out, and your clothes do not fit as they used to.

The connection between having more candles on your cake and gaining weight may seem inevitable if you maintain the same eating habits as before.

The fight against obesity and overweight is getting tougher as the years go by.

Poor diet, stress, genetic factors and leading a sedentary lifestyle can affect the number of pounds you put on, as well as the use of certain medications and hormonal imbalances.

The latter is one of the main reasons for building fat.

After the age of 30, the hormones estrogen, progesterone and androgens do not work in the same way as they used to. Because these are essential for maintaining body mass, it is normal to see some shifts in the hips, abdomen or thighs.

The energy sources that seemed inexhaustible at the age of 15 or 20 years disappear.  In addition, you begin to lead a more sedentary lifestyle.

Adding work and more relaxing activities (eating out, going on a cruise, going to the cinema) will result in weight gain as you get older. It’s a very simple equation.

Weight gain is not the only change that happens as you get older

What if you lead a healthy lifestyle, get exercise and eat well? You need to take into account the number of calories you need otherwise your diet will affect your body a lot.

• A 31-year-old woman weighing 57 kilograms, for example, must consume 2,000 daily calories to maintain her weight.
• The same woman aged 45 should only have 1850 calories.

If you instead continue to eat 2000 calories a day, you get a profit of 150, which together gives up to approx. 4.5 kilos extra over six months.

You don’t just have to think about the extra pounds that “appear” as you age, but also diseases or disorders that start to affect you as an adult.

This is the case with osteoporosis due to bone density loss or osteoarthritis due to joint problems.

To avoid gaining weight over the years, it is important to adapt the habits you already have to this new reality. E.g:

• Perform even more low-intensity exercise (yoga, pilates, swimming, etc.)
• Reduce your intake of fat, salt and flour
• Avoid smoking or alcohol consumption
• Get plenty of sleep

Finally, you have to accept that at the age of 50 you should not have the same body that you had at the age of 25. In addition to the fact that more than two decades have passed, your habits are different and your body has changed accordingly. And therefore your diet affects your body greatly.