Changes in total body weight vary for men and women. Men often gain weight until about age 55, and then begin to lose weight later in life. This may be related to a drop in the male sex hormone testosterone. Women usually gain weight until age 65, and then begin to lose weight.
Lowered Testosterone
As levels of testosterone start to decrease naturally from about the age of 30 onwards this encourages the body to store fat – particularly around the belly, where it not only is it unwelcome from a looks standpoint but can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The amount of body fat goes up steadily after age 30. Older people may have almost one third more fat compared to when they were younger. Fat tissue builds up toward the center of the body, including around the internal organs. However, the layer of fat under the skin gets smaller.
Boys tend to show the first physical changes of puberty between the ages of 10 and 16. They tend to grow most quickly between ages 12 and 15. The growth spurt of boys is, on average, about 2 years later than that of girls.
As you get older, the muscles don't work as well, and your scrotum stays in a more slackened position. Combine that with your skin's natural decline in elasticity, and the sagging gets worse. If you're over 40, a hydrocele can also make your scrotum sag. It happens when fluid builds up around one or both testicles.
ED can happen at any age, but it's more common in older men. By the time a man is in his 40s, he has about a 40% chance of having experienced ED. That risk increases by about 10% for each decade of life—a 50% chance in his 50s, a 60% chance in his 60s, and so on (Ferrini, 2017).
Most men notice that their scrotum, the sack of skin that holds the testicles, starts to sag as they get older. This process might start as early as your teenage years. Saggy testicles are a natural part of aging, and don't necessarily indicate that there's anything wrong with your scrotum or your testicles.
The pelvic width of the oldest people in the study (ages 70 to 79) was, on average, about an inch larger than the youngest people (ages 20 to 29), according to the study. That translates to about a three-inch increase in waist size between someone age 20 and someone age 79.
You can build muscle at any age. It just gets a little more challenging later in life. “Old and young people build muscle in the same way,” explains Roger Fielding, PhD, a professor of medicine at Tufts University. “But as you age, many of the biological processes that turn exercise into muscle become less effective.
Older Guys Can Still Make Gains
They found that guys between 35 and 50 years old built just as much muscle as those between 18 and 22 years old. DEXA (duel-energy x-ray absorptiometry) scans showed that the college-aged men gained around two pounds of muscle, while the middle-aged men put on 2.5 pounds of muscle.
While the rest of our body shrinks as we get older, our noses, earlobes and ear muscles keep getting bigger. That's because they're made mostly of cartilage cells, which divide more as we age. At the same time, connective tissue begins to weaken.
Many women also notice an increase in belly fat as they get older — even if they aren't gaining weight. This is likely due to a decreasing level of estrogen, which appears to influence where fat is distributed in the body.
Although some men may continue to grow in their 20s, most men's growth plates are closed by 21 years. Hence, it is unlikely for men to grow after 21 years, with some exceptions. In a healthy growth pattern, your bone increases in length due to the growth plates in the bone called epiphyses.
If you eat too much and exercise too little, you're likely to pack on excess pounds — including belly fat. Getting older plays a role too. As you age, you lose muscle — especially if you're not physically active.
Men are the strongest between 26 and 35 years of age.
But of course there are individual differences between athletes and some people peak before or after that age window.
As we age, our prolonged exposure to testosterone starts to play a visible role on other body hair as well. Just like it transforms the vellus hair on a young man's face into a thick beard, it also changes the nearly invisible hair that grows in places like our ears into thicker strands.
It's never too late to build muscle and strength. You can build muscle no matter your age. A proven strength training program for building muscle after 50 is to lift two or three days per week, doing 10 sets per muscle and week, with about 8–15 reps per set. Eat a healthy high-protein diet.
It's Never Too Late to Build Muscle
Though you might not see improvement in days, you likely will in weeks. For example, one German review found measurable increases in muscle size occur in as little as six to nine weeks of consistent strength training in adults older than 60.
Repeated research has shown that, through weight training, men and women in their 60s and beyond can grow muscles as big and strong as an average 40-year-old.
With age, that fat loses volume, clumps up, and shifts downward, so features that were formerly round may sink, and skin that was smooth and tight gets loose and sags. Meanwhile other parts of the face gain fat, particularly the lower half, so we tend to get baggy around the chin and jowly in the neck.
The cause is age-related sarcopenia or sarcopenia with aging. Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you'll still have some muscle loss. There's no test or specific level of muscle mass that will diagnose sarcopenia.
Your skin turns drier and itchier and may look like crepe paper or tissue. Wrinkles, age spots, creases, and bruises become more noticeable. Your sweat glands also get less active. That means you might not sweat as much, but wounds on your skin may take longer to heal.
If your balls feel full and appear larger, it's usually because you're aroused. But if you're aroused and don't get any release via an orgasm, you may also experience an uncomfortable aching feeling in the testicles, known as "blue balls." However, despite the name, your testicles don't actually turn blue.
When your body gets too cold, the cremaster muscle (responsible for lowering the testicles down and lifting them back up) makes sure your scrotum and testicles contract and sit closer to the body for warmth. And when your body gets too warm or sweaty, they droop down to keep your sperm fit, healthy and viable.
When the cremaster muscle contracts (tightens), it pulls the testicle upward toward the body; this is known as the cremasteric reflex. The cremasteric reflex is brought on by such things as cold, touch, and anxiety. In some boys, this reflex is exaggerated and causes a retractile testicle.