When we think about elderly people, we usually have a certain image in our heads. They’re slower, not as strong, probably a little larger around the middle. But does it have to be that way?
How much of our aging is actually biologically determined? Do you always lose muscle and gain fat as you age?
Free Report: 9 Things You Can Do To Help You Live LongerDo You Lose Muscle and Gain Fat With Age?
One study, published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging did find that musculature does decrease, and fat content does increase with age. While potentially concerning, this study only looked at individuals who were already elderly. The youngest individuals in the study were 60.
How old you consider old is very important when considering the question of how muscle and fat are impacted by age.
Age-related Changes Usually Begin around Age 50
An older study of individuals between the ages of 19 and 91 published in the journal Age found that strength continued to increase with exercise until around age fifty. The study didn’t address fat, but it can be assumed that continued to decrease as muscle increased.
Another consideration is that bone density tends to decrease with age as well. Because your muscles generate force by pulling on your bones, bone health is just as important to physical activity in old age as muscle is.
The study in Age also found that after age 50 muscle mass started to decrease despite the individuals maintaining the same levels of physical activity. This certainly does suggest that at least to some degree things like muscle loss are programmed into our genetic code.
Is there a Point in Staying Active after 50?
The issue of fat gain remains somewhat removed, however. The study from Clinical Interventions in Aging found that the individuals in the study were less physically active because activities became comparatively more metabolically costly.
Theoretically, even though this might be the cause of decreased physical activity, it might also contribute to a decreased fat gain with decreased physical activity.
An article published by Springer did consider fat as well as their aerobic endurance – a measure of how long one can stay active without tiring. Like the article published in Clinical Interventions in Aging, this study only looked at people over the age of 60.
In addition to agreeing with the article published in Clinical Interventions in aging that physical ability decreased with age, this study did find that weight from fat tends to increase.
The good news from this study was that it separated participants into active and less-active groups. While fat did increase, and physical ability did decrease with age, both of these measures were more drastic in the cases of participants were less active. That means that even though muscle does seem to decrease, and fat does seem to increase after a certain age, these processes can be slowed down by maintaining physical activity.
What to Do about Age and Fitness
Another important thing to consider about the ‘lose muscle and gain fat’ scenario is that these processes start from somewhere. If you have a healthy amount of muscle and fat when you reach age 50 and your body starts to slow down, it will take the aging process that much longer to catch up with you than if you had high fat and low muscle at age 50.
There are unfortunate parts of the aging process that so far science hasn’t found a way to reverse. That doesn’t mean that you should give up on physical activity, however. Getting your body into good physical shape while you’re young and maintaining a high level of physical activity into old age won’t keep your body from aging, but it will help you to lead a healthier life for a longer time.
9 Things To Help You Live Longer
You probably already know that the way you choose to live your life has some effect on how long you’ll live. But, believe it or not, we do actually have some degree of control over our life expectancy! If you want to know exactly how you should exercise as you age and how to focus your efforts to live a healthier lifestyle check out my free report Top 9 Things To Help You Live Longer. The choices you make about your lifestyle don’t mean that you and your loved ones have to live shorter lives.
