As you age, your muscle mass decreases and your fat mass increases. Fat is less metabolically active than muscle—you don't need as many calories to maintain fat as you do to maintain muscle. Hormonal changes can also lead to weight gain.
Food and Activity
People gain weight when they eat more calories than they burn through activity. This imbalance is the greatest contributor to weight gain.
Muscle gets replaced with fat as we age
[2] This process, known as sarcopenia, accelerates around the age of 60. Muscle loss is often replaced with fat, which requires less energy to operate than muscle. And if we don't adjust for this decreased calorie need, then weight gain usually occurs.
On average, adults gained 17.6 pounds during their 20s and 30s and 14.3 pounds during their 30s and 40s. They also found that, on average, women gained more weight than men, putting on an average of 12 pounds compared with six pounds for men.
As you age, your muscle mass decreases and your fat mass increases. Fat is less metabolically active than muscle—you don't need as many calories to maintain fat as you do to maintain muscle. Hormonal changes can also lead to weight gain.
Causes include poor diet, lack of exercise, and short or low-quality sleep. A healthy diet and active lifestyle can help people lose excess belly fat and lower the risk of problems associated with it.
Unpasteurized milk and dairy products, fried foods, high-sodium foods, and certain raw produce are among the foods to avoid or limit at any age. If a limited income makes it difficult for an older adult to afford healthy foods, there are several food assistance programs available to help.
Which foods lead to the most weight gain or weight loss? Potato chips top the list of foods that cause weight gain, followed by potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, unprocessed red meats, and processed meats. Foods that lead to weight loss include yogurt, nuts, fruits, whole grains, and vegetables.
Our bodies burn more energy in cold climates, if you are living now where it is warm all year round your body will burn less energy naturally.
I'd say that breast cancer patients are the majority of patients who come to us for help with weight gain. Weight gain is also extremely common among patients with prostate cancer, as well as lymphoma, multiple myeloma and chronic leukemia.
1. Exercise: Vigorous exercise trims all your fat, including visceral fat. Get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days a week. Walking counts, as long as it's brisk enough that you work up a sweat and breathe harder, with your heart rate faster than usual.
To lose stomach overhang you have to burn fat cells in both the fat you can see directly under the skin and also the more dangerous fat that you can't see that surrounds your organs. Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store.
In addition to those health benefits, magnesium can also aid in weight management. A 2013 study in the Journal of Nutrition found that higher magnesium intake was associated with lower levels of fasting glucose and insulin (markers related to fat and weight gain).
Weight Training
Weight or resistance training is the best way to lose belly fat after 65. As mentioned earlier, burning belly fat can be challenging in this age group due to muscle loss. By doing resistance training exercises, you develop more muscle mass that helps your body burn more calories even at rest (1).
Diet, Nutrition, and Exercise
Diet can be a very effective way for seniors to lose belly fat. You might not ever get to have six-pack abs, but you can significantly reduce your weight and improve your health with a good diet and nutrition plan.
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.