metabolism

paddyc

folks

Having a conversation with lads in work.. they reckon they seen a documentary that staes that metabolism doesnt slow down...maybe by .1 % every 10 years...

... so the reason we get fatter as we get older is cos we eat more and dont do as much exercise....


.. what are your thougths on this and can anyone yeh or nay it thanks folks


paddy

ali.c

Yeah the metabolism does slow down as we get older, at least part of this is due to the decline in % of lean body mass AFAIK in both men and women. Also during the teen years alot of energy consumed goes into growing and developing the body when we stop growing presumably this extra energy is not needed. Decling test levels in men may have something to do with loss of lean body mass. I am not sure on how this is linked to activity levels but presumably the more active you are the more lean body mass you have and the more incentive your body has to keep it. I am sure someone around here has a more scientific answer though.........

PeakOutput

i reckon that if do not do anything other than sit on the couch from 20 until your 40 then over those 20 years your metabolism will not change

if however when your 22 you realise the way you are going and start excersising and putting on muscle then you are using more energy and therefore can eat more so your metabolism has increased but it is due to outside factors. if at 25 you stop excersising then your metabolism will decrease back to what it was at 20.

I don' t think your metabolism will increase all by itself but external factors like excersise will make a difference.

I am just surmising though dont know for a fact.

Roper

Depends I think,
For example, if you were a scrawny thaiboxer, you'd probably notice a few pounds on you more than most people would

In all seriousness, I'm 29 and I don't think my metabolism has slowed at all. I still eat like I used to, maybe even more but because my exercising has stayed the same it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

So I'm with the TV programme- as we get older we stop playing footie on the green, start drinking more, start eating things like fine cheeses and a bottle of wine on a Tuesday suddenly doesn't seem like a big deal.

mack1

If your metabolism can increase and decrease according to your eating habits (ie. 6 meals/day versus say 2) then I woulda thought it very likely that it could ramp down over 20 yrs with age

lizzyvera

I don't understand metabolism at all! Someone help- here is my understanding.

Your metabolism is the energy your body uses up during the day. Exercise increases it. If you starve, your body cuts back on certain functions like heat to preserve energy so you metabolism slows down. If you lose muscle your metabolism slows because it takes energy to maintain muscle.

Why does your metabolism stay slow when you resume normal eating? Surely it would make sense for your body to run optimally as soon as it can?

ali.c

lizzyvera wrote:

Why does your metabolism stay slow when you resume normal eating? Surely it would make sense for your body to run optimally as soon as it can?

Just because you are no longer starving doesnt mean that your body *knows* that for want of a better word. In fact a return from starvation to normal eating would prompt your body to store more fat in preparation for the next famine. Extreme low cal intakes are also associated with a drop in muscle mass, which if you dont give your body a reason to rebuild it it wont waste the energy.
The way that i understand it, its not that the body is not running optimally, but it is responding to stimilus based on your diet and your lifestlye, which can be changed.

cowzerp

paddyc wrote:

folks

Having a conversation with lads in work.. they reckon they seen a documentary that staes that metabolism doesnt slow down...maybe by .1 % every 10 years...

... so the reason we get fatter as we get older is cos we eat more and dont do as much exercise....


.. what are your thougths on this and can anyone yeh or nay it thanks folks


paddy

Paddy it can slow down but not as much as people think, the other thing is if you where active once then stopped the activitys, then your metabolism will probably drop a bit and the extra calories that are not been burned has to go somewhere also-but if you keep up the activitys and diet then your metabolism should stay at a healthy level unless there is a medical reason for it slowing-this is also rare and over hyped--people do get fatter because they eat more than there body is burning,

rubadub

When you are a baby your metabolism is relatively low compared to a grown man. But you might well need more cals per kg, since the body is actively growing.

A growing teenage boy needs more calories than a man. Unforunately many people are ignorant of this, in my house, and my mates too, that father got the largest meal at dinner, and the teenage boys got less. Should have been the other way around, that fathers were all fat and the boys normal or skinny. Then the mothers wonder why they are off eating junk food when they have been fed inadequately all day and their body is screaming for more calories.

As time goes on if people are sedentary the muscle mass will reduce. So a 13 stone 20year old lad will have more muscle than a 60 year old 13 stone man. There for the 60 year old man is carrying a higher ration of fat to muscle than the 20 year old man of the same weight. Muscle needs more calories just to sustain it, so even though they are the same weight- the guy with more muscle needs more calories. Also the muscle is more dense than fat, it takes up less space, so 2 people of the same weight can take up different volumes, so the guy with less muscle will appear even bigger, even though they are the same weight.

t-ha

I've heard the same thing & seen enough examples of people who've kept up their healthy lifestyles and the body to go with it well into older age.

I think if you can keep yourself active and maintain your muscle mass you can keep your metabolic requirements high. Of course some people have arthritis etc. to contend with also as they age.

CerebralCortex

Arthritis I think can be related to a lack of adequate muscular support and bone density well thats what my chiropractor lead me to believe.

Zzippy

CerebralCortex wrote:

Arthritis I think can be related to a lack of adequate muscular support and bone density well thats what my chiropractor lead me to believe.

Maybe, but also related to how much physical contact sport people play in younger years. My dad is crippled with back and knee trouble now, and he was always pretty well-built (not fat) and fit for his age, played a lot of sport when he was young. Now he can hardly walk 100 yards without serious pain. A doc told me that most hockey players need hip replacements later in life. I was playing hurling for 20 years and he was telling me about hockey players - hockey ffs! Its hardly even a contact sport :eek: Just said "what the **** am I going to need then, a new body?!"

CerebralCortex

Does he smoke by any chance? Just curious.

Khannie

Roper wrote:

if you were a scrawny thaiboxer, you'd probably notice a few pounds on you more than most people would

Paddy's not that scrawny.

Short version: I have no clue

Longer version:

My own personal experience is this: Until I was 22 I was 8.5 stone :eek: (I was holy sh*t skinny) I just can't ever see myself being that weight again, nor do I understand how I maintained it for around 10 years eating and drinking as I pleased and doing **** all exercise (except a lot of walking). At 65KG (around 10KG heavier) now and I look very lean by comparison to the average joe.

As you get out of your teens, you tend to do less physical work (you get a car so you walk less. Play less footy. etc. etc.) sure, but I still think the metabolism slows somewhat. I'm guessing it's a bit of both.