Is it true that age affects a person's weight?

As people get older, it is not uncommon for people to have difficulty maintaining their ideal body weight. Does this really have anything to do with age? How can increasing age affect a person's weight? Check out the full review below.

Is it true that age can affect a person's weight?

The older you get, the more your numbers change, it can go up or it can go down. Age can indeed be a barrier for someone to get the ideal body weight.

Basically, the human body consists of fat, connective tissue such as muscle, bone, and water. After turning 30 years of age, the body begins to lose connective tissue, namely the cells in the muscles.

In addition, as people get older, the mineral content in human bones decreases, so the bones become less dense.

On the other hand, the aging process in the body also reduces the fat under the skin, but the belly (visceral) fat actually increases. In fact, belly fat is bad fat because this condition can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and even death.

Why can age affect body weight?

Every year, a person's weight will increase to 1 kg. Although you may not realize it, this increase also increases a person's risk of obesity.

According to an obesity specialist, Craig Primack, people aged 40-59 years are more prone to obesity than those aged 60 years and over. This is caused by genetics and an unhealthy lifestyle with age.

Several reasons make it difficult for an aged person to reach the ideal body weight.

1. The older the muscle mass decreases

After 30 years of age, your muscle mass will decrease 3-8 percent per decade, allowing you to develop sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia is a condition that decreases in muscle mass with age as a result of a clash between anabolic and catabolic signals. The clash causes more muscle cells to be destroyed than to build new cells.

If muscle mass decreases, the body will also reduce its calorie needs without you knowing it. As a result, you eat foods according to your calorie needs when you are young without knowing that your body has reduced calorie needs. Finally, you will gain weight without you knowing it because you have less muscle mass to burn calories,

In addition, this condition is also accompanied by a lack of active activity, such as exercising due to age-related diseases that restrict your movement, such as arthritis. Therefore, the age factor greatly influences changes in body weight considering that your body can no longer be as active as when you were young.

2. Experiencing hormonal changes

As reported by the CDC, as part of the aging process, hormonal changes must occur in most people, especially when they reach middle age.

For women aged 45-55 years, this is the period when they begin to experience menopause. This condition causes the production of estrogen to decrease dramatically, and it has the potential to accumulate fat in your stomach.

In addition, these hormonal changes also have an impact on a woman's mood, which can make it difficult for them to maintain their diet. Therefore, when the perimenopause and menopause lasts, it is not uncommon for body weight to increase to 2 kilograms.

On the other hand, changes in the male hormone testosterone will alter circulating fat and muscle mass. In other words, older men age and reduced testosterone production make it difficult for the body to burn calories, which affects body weight.

3. The metabolic process is getting slower

The slow metabolic process in older people is also a factor why it is difficult for you to get the ideal body weight. This is because the reduced muscle mass makes your metabolic processes slow down.

If you have more fat than muscle, it can reduce calorie burn. Plus, being less active with age slows down your metabolism as well.

However, age is not the only reason why your metabolism slows down and affects weight. There are various other causes why this problem occurs, such as body shape, gender, and hypothyroid disease.

Changing your lifestyle to be healthier is the main key

In addition to the body and the aging body, lifestyle can also affect a person's weight. As you get older, you do have more time because you are no longer working, but you have less energy because you are old.

Therefore, lifestyle is one of the main keys to returning your ideal weight by living a healthy life. Some tips that might help you have the ideal weight with a healthy lifestyle, including:

1. Eat healthy foods

There are many variations of healthy foods, but the easiest thing to do is to increase the consumption of vegetables and fruit in your diet. In addition, try to reduce fast food and processed foods so that you can control the number of calories you intake.

2. Adjust the portion of the meal

A good portion of food can help you have the ideal weight even though you continue to get older.

If you are accustomed to eating with 3-4 tablespoons of rice, you can reduce it to 1-2 spoons. Not only rice, pay attention to the number of calories that enter the body so that the body doesn't receive too many calories.

You can reduce it little by little. The results will not be instant, but this method is effective so that your stomach is not shocked when suddenly reducing portions to an extreme.

3. Drink lots of water

Meeting fluid needs is an obligation for everyone at any age. Therefore, it is very important to regularly drink 7-8 glasses of water a day so that the body does not lose fluids and increases the body's metabolism.

Remember, soft drinks or drinks that contain added sugar are not good drinks to meet your fluid needs.

4. Exercise regularly

Age can indeed affect your ideal body weight. So that the bad effects can be minimized, do regular exercise.

You can restart this healthy habit by taking it slowly, such as taking 30 minutes each day to exercise. If you can't, you can take a leisurely stroll or jogging for 10 minutes in place to keep your sweat out.

Physical activity that does not take a long duration turns out to have the same effect as other sports if you do it regularly.

Although age can affect a person's ideal body weight, that does not mean that it is a reason for you to get older and to be lazier. Change the habits of life to be healthier, so that your body weight remains ideal and avoid various kinds of diseases.

Photo Source: Forks Over Knives