Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

Hiking near San Diego

What do you think keeps you from staying young, as you get older?    Besides the too obvious answer of “age”……!   

Stop and think a little.  The answer I am heading toward may surprise you – in a word muscle tissue (OK that’s two words).  And it is the lack of muscle tissue that makes the aging process more pronounced.  Less muscle means lower metabolism since muscle tissue requires energy and calories to maintain itself, while fat needs much less.   More muscle means a leaner look since muscle takes up less space than fat.

Adults who don’t do strength training lose on average a half pound of lean muscle a year starting at age 25.  This process is called ‘Sarcopenia” – basically more fat taking up the space where muscle was.  Not only are you losing muscle with age, your metabolism slows, so the food that would have maintained muscle is now stored as fat.   So there goes that youthful figure, the vitality, and the strength to do what needs to be done.

Muscle weighs more than fat, so consider this simple math equation:  a woman of 50 who doesn’t do any strength training, weighs say 20 pounds more than she did at 20 and looks heavier than she should.  She has in fact lost about 15 pounds of muscle in the previous 30 years (1/2 pound a year); meaning she has actually gained 35 pounds of fat over this time.   To gain her youthful figure back she would need to lose the excess fat and at the same time put on 15 pounds of muscle.

It is much easier to do this when one is younger so don’t put off weight training one more day.

As for the fear some women have of “putting on too much muscle and bulking up”  –  all I can say is we should be so lucky!!  Seriously, muscle is not that easy to acquire and this fear is irrational.  And if you do gain muscle and lose some fat you will look leaner not bulkier!!   If you remember that muscle weighs more than fat, then you can understand the statement that a fit 120 lb woman will wear a smaller dress/pant size that an out of shape 120 lb woman.  Friends are surprised that I weigh more than they do yet wear a smaller clothing size.

See you at the weight stack!

Leave your comments or email your questions to info@sixpackatsixty.com

Acknowledgement:  This information was part of an advertisement for slow-motion training at Perfect Workout.