Adding to the metabolic slowdown is a shift in your body composition. 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.
Tissue loss reduces the amount of water in your body. 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.
Factors like age, decreased activity levels, loss of muscle mass, a slower metabolism, and even your menstrual cycle can all cause you to gain a few extra pounds. So unexplained weight gain isn't always something to worry about, especially if you can pinpoint the reason after thinking about it for a few minutes.
But researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine found that while people don't grow taller after age 20, they do grow wider—well into their 70s. On average, the pelvic width of the oldest people in the study was nearly 2.5 cm larger than the youngest patients.
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.
A combination of things happens as we age. We tend to lose muscle mass, so our abdominal muscles aren't as tight as they once were, and the loss of elastin and collagen in our skin allows gravity to have its way so skin starts to sag. Both can cause the waistline to expand.
As we get older, our bodies don't respond the same way to weight loss efforts, and science has some explanations to offer. As we age we naturally tend to gain weight, to the tune of 1 to 2 pounds (lb) per year, according to a review by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The biggest changes typically occur when people are in their 40s and 50s, but they can begin as early as the mid-30s and continue into old age. Even when your muscles are in top working order, they contribute to facial aging with repetitive motions that etch lines in your skin.
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.
Most people don't grow any taller after the age of 20, but a recent study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research found evidence that the pelvis -- the hip bones -- continues to widen in both men and women up to about age 80, long after skeletal growth is supposed to have stopped.
One of the main reasons that undereating can lead to weight gain is because consuming too few calories can cause your resting metabolic rate to slow down. This means you may burn fewer calories throughout the day.
Diet and lifestyle factors contribute to development of obesity and overweight. Some of the most common ones are: eating large amounts of processed or fast food – this is food that's high in fat and sugar. drinking too much alcohol – alcohol contains a lot of calories.
Epidemiologists have observed that the average person typically puts on 1 to 2 pounds a year from early adulthood through middle age. The CDC's numbers show that much of the increase is concentrated in the 20s, for men and women.
People Don't Grow Forever
The only bones that continue to get larger are the skull and the pelvis. The growth of these two body parts isn't dramatic, however. Your pelvis might gain an inch in diameter between the ages of 20 and 79, and your skull may get slightly more prominent around the forehead.
The finding of the study suggests that people in middle age certainly gain weight and it is harder for them to lose it, but slow metabolism is not the real reason behind it. It was revealed that from the 20s to the 50s the energy expenditure is the most stable.
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.
This happens because as you get older your basal metabolic rate, or the amount of calories your body needs, begins to decline -- and so does muscle mass. This means you can eat the same and exercise the same at 50 as you did at 30 years old, but not have the same amount of muscle or be able to maintain the same weight.
“Retinol and alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) can rejuvenate the skin and eliminate fine lines and wrinkles,” Dr. Patel says. “Hyaluronic acid helps your skin retain moisture, which gives it a smooth, glowing look.” Opt for serums and night creams with retinol and AHAs, and a daily face moisturizer with hyaluronic acid.
Facial fat-pads shift, while the fat-pads beneath the chin can increase in prominence, causing fullness between the neck and chin, also known as a “double chin.” The effect of the lower face getting fuller can be described as the pyramid of age. Aging is also unique to each individual.
Hormonal changes: Hormonal changes are often responsible for weight gain that contributes to your stubborn upper arm fat. Pregnancy and menopause are two major causes of hormone changes. Genetics: Some people are simply genetically predisposed to accumulate excess upper arm fat.
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.
For many people, the term metabolism really means metabolic rate — the speed at which your body burns calories to keep its basic functions running. Your metabolic rate does change during your early life, but it plateaus between the ages of 20 and 60, and only decreases by around 1% per year after that.