Do We Really Gain Weight With Age?
August 9, 2010 by Diana Sabrain
Filed under Fitness, Personal Training, Weight Loss
It is a common perception that once we reach 30 years old, we start gaining weight and nothing we do can reverse the process. How far is this true? Does this happen with everybody?
The fact is our body structure changes million times as we get older. Unlike in our youth, the metabolism levels reduce drastically and we experience all sorts of hormonal problems, which reflect how much weight we will hold later.
However more than any chronological changes that our body undergoes, our own actions affect our hormonal processes which reflect on the weight.
Understand this with the help of an example -
1. When we get older, our bodies become less active, which slows down our metabolism and we tend to work harder to shed off additional weight or to restrain the body from gaining weight.
2. When we age, we become victims of ‘habits’. We lead our lives in a fixed patterns and it is difficult to change them. What happens then is the impossibility of making healthy choices. In other words, if someone asks us to change our eating habits and lead a healthier lifestyle, it will be difficult for us to break the ‘habit’ and merge with a new ‘pattern’.
3. We become complacent with our body changes as we believe that weight gain is inevitable with age.
Before believing all the above blindly, stop a moment and ask yourself – “If this is all true, then why some older people well into their 50s are healthy and active?” Shouldn’t they too suffer the same fate?
The truth of the matter is – our body does undergo chronological changes as we get old but how the state of our body will be depends entirely on the lifestyle choices we make over the years.
You should be dedicated and committed enough not to gain weight.
To prevent this so called ‘inevitability’, what you should do on regular basis is -
- begin with long term fitness routine
- take control of your diet
- be aware of the components of healthy lifestyle
- consult with your doctor to know the methods of staying agile all the time
Ageing should not be a concern. It is just a number and should not mean anything to you.
Begin to follow this advice from now on and in 30 or 40 years from today, you would be among the group of active and fittest, and happy senior citizens on the planet.
To top it all, be a role model to our young!
“Youth is wasted on the young”, as they say. That great body that you had when you were young, was a great free gift from nature. Now I have to work hard for it!