Why You Can’t Lose Weight Like You Used To
By John Hoeber, MS, RD

Have you ever heard anyone say, “10 years ago I could lose weight easily, but not anymore.”? As people, particularly women, reach 40 or 50 losing weight suddenly becomes extremely difficult. Those extra holiday pounds tend to stick around longer, or perhaps never go away. It surprises most people, but it’s not a problem that develops suddenly, it’s been sneaking up on you slowly over many years. Yes, your metabolism has slowed, but it’s not the natural process of aging that’s to blame, it’s the natural process of deconditioning. It’s been said that the difference between someone who is overweight and someone who is not is an average of 50-100 calories per day compounded over a decade. If you lose five pounds of muscle through inactivity your resting metabolic rate ( the rate at which you burn calories while at rest ) will slow by 50 calories per day.

The engine that drives metabolism is muscle. The bigger your engine, the more gas you’ll burn. Unfortunately we lose muscle as we age, and much more if we don’t exercise. Research shows that sedentary individuals will lose a half pound of muscle per year after age 40. Each half pound loss of muscle will lower metabolic rate by 5 calories per day. Over the course of a year that 5 calories per day adds up to enough calories (1825) to gain a half pound of fat. If nothing else changes, the lowering of metabolic rate will continue each year as more and more muscle is lost. The loss of muscle may be constant from year to year, but the gain of fat accelerates as it is compounded each year. In the sixth year of this process the accumulated losses of metabolic rate adds up to 30 calories per day, and could account three pounds of fat gain. By the tenth year, you’ve lowered your metabolic rate by 50 calories per day, and can expect to see an additional five pounds of fat gained that year.

If you’re only looking at the weight scale you may not notice the trend right away. During the early stages, the overall weight changes just a few pounds, and you can make it up by being careful with your diet. (Unfortunately, eating less also tends to lower metabolic rate and dieting tends to reduce muscle mass). By age 50 it’s so bad that indulgences, such as holiday parties, spell disaster for your waist line. Don’t blame middle age or menopause; blame the slow loss of muscle and metabolism.

What is to be done? Strength building exercises to gain five pounds of muscle should be one of your primary goals. Not only do you regain that 50 calories per day, but the exercise itself burns a tremendous amount of calories. Middle aged women should expect it to take 6-10 months of weight lifting, but that quick compared to the 10 years it took to lose it.

Weight and fat gain from decreases in metabolic rate due to muscle loss in sedentary adults.