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
As we age, our metabolism slows down and we lose muscle mass, which makes it harder to burn calories. Hormonal changes in postmenopausal women can also contribute to weight gain.
weight loss is as simple as consistently eating less calories than you use.
But how many calories that is and how easy it is to eat less than that is determined by your size, genetics, and hormones which are effected by age, body composition, activity levels, mental health, medications, and a bunch of other stuff.
As you get older, less active, less muscular, take more meds, and especially with major hormonal shift of menopause, the amount of calories you need decreases. But people keep eating the same way they’ve always eaten and start gaining.
You can gain a lot of weight before realizing it because our brains don’t accurately judge our own bodies. Like when you watch a kid grow up every day, you notice but it doesn’t seem as dramatic as it does to someone who only sees them once a year. You don’t notice half a pound week to week, especially when dealing with the symptoms of menopause, but 2 years later you’ve gained 40+ lbs.
Because the “simple” calories out depends on your body. Whether older or younger, individual people have different metabolisms and are also varyingly susceptible to external factors. The hormonal affect of aging can affect nutrient digestion, muscle mass, resting body activity, and a bunch of other things. Even for younger people, there is entire subsets where losing weight is harder because their systems are different and the “calories in” that work for other people with their dimensions may not be lower than their functional “calories out” for their unique body.
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