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Fighting the Fitness Battle Past 40

As one passes 40, life becomes cruel – it’s not only harder to lose weight, it’s harder to just maintain your current weight. There are several metabolic factors that cause this:

Basal Metabolic Rate

This function goes down with every decade. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment. The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, brain and the rest of the nervous system, liver, kidneys, sex organs, muscles and skin. (Think of it as your body’s engine running in neutral.) The (BMR) energy expenditure breakdown is: liver 27%, brain 19%, kidneys 10%, skeletal muscle 18%, other organs 19%, physical activity 20%, thermogenesis (digestion of food) 10%. The primary organ responsible for regulating metabolism is the hypothalamus in the brain. (See The Amazing Human Brain - Inside Your Brain).

Amount of Fat

The body's amount of fat increases and the amount of lean mass or muscle decreases (around 5% less muscle mass with each decade). Since lean muscle mass burns more energy than fat cells, we burn fewer calories.

Physical Activity

The amount of activity decreases with age. As most adults age and their responsibilities increase, more time is spent working and less playing. Weekends are spent taking care of the home rather than running off to the beach or softball field, etc.

Weight Accumulates

As we age and the basal metabolic rate slows down, the amount we need to lose is considerable, and so much harder than in earlier years. Now dieting means we have to cut way down on food just to maintain, and practically starve ourselves in order to lose.

Hormones

Testosterone production begins to decrease by about 1.5% a year. (The amount of testosterone a man has at age 45 to 50 could easily be 20% less than what it was in his 20s and 30s.) Growth hormone also begins to drop. But while both can affect stamina, a more direct contributor to lethargy could be thyroid hormone, which regulates how fast cells burn food to produce energy. Up to 5% of 45-year-old men may have sluggish thyroid glands, a condition treatable with hormone supplements.

The Heart

Middle age brings about a 1%-per-year decline in the ability of the heart to pump blood as well as the amount of blood it can pump. Just as skeletal muscles do, the heart muscle weakens as levels of testosterone fall. A slower heart rate means the body finds it more difficult to move and function. Carrying around excess body fat and having arteries clogged with plaque tax the heart even further, contributing to less vim and vigor. Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise, such as running, cycling or swimming, can help the heart stay fit. Studies have shown that the heart responds best to repeated stimulation, so medical authorities recommend engaging in aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes, three to five times a week.

The Lungs

The lungs lose about 30 milliliters to 35 milliliters of function a year. That means that at age 50, a man could have about 80% of the lung function he had at age 25. He'll feel less energetic because less oxygen is getting to his body. This decline is due to a gradual loss of lung elasticity, caused partly by a decrease in a protein, elastin. The lungs don't get in the air in and out as well as they do you when you're younger.

Sleep

Around the age of 40, sleep patterns begin to change, even though the standard eight hours is still needed. People begin to have less deep sleep, where rest and rejuvenation take place. Studies suggest that a natural drop in growth hormone may be a cause. They also suggest that sleep deprivation renders blood sugar metabolism less efficient — another source of tiredness.

Nutrition

Starting at about age 50, there are some nutrients that as we get old we're not able to absorb as efficiently and that can affect energy levels. One is vitamin B12, important in red blood cell formation. Another is vitamin B6, also important in metabolism. Zinc is a third. As people lose muscle, they also lose some ability to regulate blood sugar, which can cause tiredness. Muscles have receptors that take up blood sugar to replace what's been used during exercise. With less muscle, sugar regulation can become less efficient. Therefore, the issue of regular exercise becomes paramount to any weight loss.

Recommendations

1. Perform some meaningful form of exercise for 30 minutes each day.

2. Combine aerobic and strengthening exercise. Aerobics are excellent for burning fat, conditioning your cardio-vascular system and raising your basal metabolic rate (so you burn extra calories continuously). Weight resistance training strengthens skeletal muscles (making it less exhausting to function) and adds muscle mass to replace the fat (lean muscle mass weighs less than fat tissue, besides looking better).

3. Eat breakfast and nutritious meals throughout the day. Missing meals lowers blood sugar, increases food cravings and leads to inevitable binging (often on sugary, junk food because of the lowered blood sugar).

4. Take a quality B-complex supplement containing equal amounts of B1, B2, B6 and varied amounts of the rest of the B-vitamin family (B12, B3-niacinamide, choline, inositol) following breakfast, once a day. Don’t worry that your urine turns yellow after taking them, it’s just your body discharging the excess amount you didn’t absorb. (We never absorb 100% of anything we consume). The B-complex vitamins are water-based, so your body doesn’t store any excess, therefore it’s impossible to overdose on them.

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Sources: Assessment and Follow-up of Normal Aging Bulletin de l'Académie Nationale de Médecine 2007 Nov;191(8):1717-27 Living Fast, Dying When? The Link between Aging and Energetics Journal of Nutrition 132:1583S-1597S June 2002 Body Size, Energy Metabolism and Lifespan Journal of Experimental Biology 2005 May;208(Pt 9):1717-3 Healthier Lifestyle Predicts Higher Circulating Testosterone in Older Men Clinical Endocrinology 2008 Aug 7 Sleep Evoked Delta Frequency Responses Show a Linear Decline in Amplitude Across the Adult LifespanNeurobiology of Aging 2008 Jul 25

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