You’ve probably heard that once you hit 40, it’s all downhill when it comes to your weight. That inexplicable force we call our metabolism does begin to grind a bit slower every year from age 30 onward.
Here’s the good news: The rate at which your metabolism slows down is actually rather minimal. In reality, most weight gain that happens in midlife isn’t the result of a slower metabolism at all. Instead, it comes down to a simple but changeable truth: As we get older, we get less and less active. Ryan Fernando, Chief Nutritionist, Qua Nutrition, asks us to think of our body like a vehicle: “When you’re young your body is like a Mercedes Benz engine. As you get older, it’s like an auto engine. But even though the engine gets smaller, the petrol tank doesn’t get emptied because you’re not using as much. So you gain fat, and consequently, weight. As you grow older something called muscle atrophy happens in the body. This means you haven’t been able to maintain muscle mass, because you don’t actively exercise, leading a sedentary life.”
While this might sound depressing, it’s actually great news. Fitness expert Wanitha Ashok says that every decade body weight goes up by 4.5 kg especially if you don’t exercise and eat healthy. “But if you do, then it’ll probably be a lot less, just about one kg,” Ashok says.
There’s plenty we can do to counteract the slow, seemingly inevitable onset of weight. But first, here are some basics about what metabolism is – and what it isn’t.
How your body burns energy
Our resting metabolic rate is a measure of how much energy we expend – or “burn” – when we’re at rest. It’s determined by a combination of factors, including your height, sex, and the genes you got from your parents, and it can’t be altered much, no matter what you do. Fernando calls this “your engine’s idling speed”.
Beyond that, our bodies appear to enter into three more distinct phases of calorie burning, depending on what we’re doing. These three are the types of metabolism that most people are referring to when they say doing certain things, like eating spicy food or working out, can “boost” your metabolism.
Common myths
When we’re eating, we burn a small number of calories (roughly 10% of our total calories burned for the day). This is called the thermic effect of food. We can turn up the heat on this process a tiny bit (but not by a whole lot) by doing things like drinking stimulant beverages like coffee and eating large amounts of protein.
“Eating foods like green tea, caffeine, or hot chili peppers will not help you shed excess pounds,” notes an entry in the ADAM Medical Encyclopedia, hosted by the National Institutes of Health. “Some may provide a small boost in your metabolism, but not enough to make a difference in your weight.”
Instead, get active
Unsurprisingly, the most important calorie-burning activity we engage in is just that – activity. Whether we’re taking the stairs, stepping away from our desks for a coffee, or sweating it out in a hot yoga class, we’re expending energy. Researchers call this second phase physical-activity expenditure.
After a strenuous workout, we continue to burn more calories than we would while at rest – and that’s the third phase, or what’s called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. When it comes to counteracting weight gain, these two phases – the ones related to physical activity – are the most important. Your best bet for burning more calories throughout the day is to increase your levels of any kind of activity, be it running or walking.
Many people think strength training or weight lifting fits into this category, but the evidence suggests weight lifting can only do so much for your metabolism. Why? Because muscles don’t burn a whole lot of calories, as the NIH points out. As far as calorie-melting organs go, your brain is actually far more efficient than your bicep. Still, Fernando cites it as the best way to counteract muscle atrophy and keeping the calorie burn going even after you finish working out. He points to army officers, who even at 80, stand up straight and show less weight gain than a 50-year-old with a desk job. “The difference is the army officer/ soldier still gets up and does his training every morning.”
Ashok says that starting from the age of 23, there is a loss of lean muscle mass (200-300 gms every year). In addition, hormonal issues also result in weight gain. “Here, strength training helps build lean muscle mass and turns the body into a fat-burning machine,” she says.
Be mindful about eating
According to the NIH, in addition to getting less active as we get older, we also appear to become less perceptive about our body’s nutritional needs over time. Our natural appetite-control mechanism seems to dull. A good way to be more mindful of how full you’re getting is to eat smaller meals and get more only when you’re still hungry, rather than sitting down with a large plate of food, which might encourage you to overeat. “By staying active and sticking with smaller portions of healthy foods, you can ward off weight gain as you age,” the NIH website says.
Fernando agrees. “People underreport what they overeat, and, as they get older and more affluent and have a larger disposable income, start feeling entitled to eating out more, which includes weekend binges and alcohol consumption. We eat out of love and culture, but don’t plan our meals scientifically. All you have to do is figure the proportions of your dal, rice and roti, and eat in proportion for caloric expenditure.”
As you age, stay physically active, and eat mindfully. “Diet needs to be the most important critical focus,” Fernando says.
Inputs from The Independent
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