Same goes for older people in general. Is it harder to lose weight because they simply move less? What’s happening that makes weight loss so much harder in 30s and above?
In: Biology
Cals in / cals out is all that matters; however cals out is impacted by various factors such as lifestyle, hormones & metabolic rate.
Calories out fluctuates based on a lot of factors and most people don’t actually accurately track calories in. If you’re not weighing your food and preparing it yourself, you are guessing at the calories. It is incredibly easy to underestimate, and you don’t actually end up having less calories. If you drink one soda, that’s like 30 minutes of cardio burned up.
You know how old people are frail and constantly breaking stuff? It’s too combat that, if you are old and fat, you’ve done it right,
society is just grotesquely warped by wealth and power so you think every natural thing about humans is wrong so you’ll buy something.
Not a single one of these answers addresses HOW MUCH does caloric output decline as a result of hormones, lower muscle mass, higher adiposity, etc.
It is 200 calories per day. Which is not much but so much over time. Basically two bananas. How easy is it to eat two bananas worth of extra calories in today’s world? VERY EASY.
Because its not that simple. Never was. Calories are energy, but how you process that energy and all the other factors play a huge role too. Older women have different hormones. Their metabolism slows down. Also stress can cause the body to hang on in fear of starvation. If you dont diet properly the body will do this too because it doesnt know when it will eat next. Movement. What you eat. How often. How you sleep. How often you exercise. How stressed you are. Your hormones. Any existing conditions. Genetics. Any potential conditions to consider. Are you experiencing any deficiencies? How is your thyroid? Your adrenal glands? Are you diabetic? My point is, losing weight was never as simple as cals in cals out. Thats just diet culture. Its a complicated thing. IT makes sense for it to be hard to lose weight. For most of history it was a bad thing to do so. The body usually never had to. Unless there was something bad of course.
Calories out is affected by many factors, including basal metabolic rate (what you burn at rest) and physical activity.
Physical activity is pretty straightforward. People do tend to move less with age, for many reasons including injuries, changing work responsibilities, family responsibilities, less physical hobbies, etc. This usually starts in the twenties and thirties and worsens over time.
Basal metabolic rate also changes with age (for both men and women- it’s not just a menopause thing). Thyroid function tends to slow down a bit, which causes the body to burn fewer calories at rest. Decreases in estrogen and testosterone lead to decreased muscle mass. Since muscle burns calories at rest, this results in fewer calories burned even without changing exercise habits. The effect usually is small, and there isn’t a big change in metabolic rate right around menopause.
The degree to which menopause causes weight gain tends to be overestimated. The most rapid weight gain in women happens after their mid-20s, with slower but steady weight gain through late middle age. There isn’t usually a huge jump in weight at menopause, but statistically that is often when the years of steady weight gain adds up enough to cause problems. Once too much fat has accumulated in the body, insulin resistance and other metabolic derangements develop, which can in turn lead to more weight gain and difficulty losing weight. Menopause sometimes coincides with these changes, but usually isn’t the main reason for them.
The most obvious weight related effect menopause has is the abrupt drop in estrogen, which causes fat to redistribute from breasts/hips/thighs to the waist. I see many post menopausal women who have not actually gained much weight since menopause, but feel like they have because their clothing doesn’t fit anymore. It feels like the 40lb they gained over 20 years showed up at once. Other than giving a person artificial estrogen, there is no way to go back to that premenopausal shape, even with weight loss (though healthy weight loss is still important!). This can be very frustrating, even to women who aren’t overweight, but it is a natural part of aging.
Tl;dr: menopause isn’t usually the main reason for large amounts of weight gain, but it can make weight gain more obvious and uncomfortable. The best time to focus on making healthy food and exercise choices is probably in the mid-twenties, because that’s when weight gain tends to start. It’s harder to lose weight than it is to avoid gaining it in the first place.
Source: am a family doc who gets asked about this a few times a week.
Menopause changes the metabolism. Calories that used to get spent on the menstrual cycle don’t anymore, and hormonal shifts can cause hunger regulation to change as well. Menopausal women are also older and therefore tend to lead less physically active lives and struggle to significantly change their habits.
All this means that women who eat the same as they used to suddenly start to gain weight, and they have a hard time making the changes to stop/reverse it.
Because when you’re postmenopausal, the hormone changes result in your body needing less calories to operate than before, so unless you change your diet you will likely gain a little weight or have trouble losing it.
Your body is composed of an ecosystem of many different critters, all of whom are eating different stuff, and pooping different stuff. ‘calories in’ is only calories if something in your gut eats it. Same for calories out. The idea that we are a single organism that consumes and burns calories is just wrong. So no two people will get the same calories from the same meal, or burn the same calories working out.
Metabolism slows down as we age, making it more difficult to burn calories. This is compounded by a decrease in physical activity and muscle mass. Post-menopausal women also experience hormonal changes that can contribute to weight gain. It’s not just about calories in/calories out anymore.
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