Weight loss is definitely possible no matter how old you are.
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Metabolic slowdown is a real thing. It's due to your muscle mass
declining—by up to eight percent each decade after age 30 and up to 10
percent after the big 5-0. "You lose about a half pound of lean muscle
every year in your twenties, thirties, and forties, and once you hit
your fifties, you lose roughly a pound a year," says Wayne Westcott,
Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at Quincy College in Boston. Although
researchers aren't exactly sure how this happens, the leading theory is
that your body starts breaking down muscle at a faster rate than it can
build it back up again. Muscle is metabolically active, so your metabolism slows as it declines.
So what do you think might reverse the trend? That's right, more muscle!
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Research shows that lifting weights
twice a week for 25 minutes will get you the additional brawn to keep
your metabolism humming. One study done by Westcott of more than 1,600
people between the ages of 21 and 80 showed a muscle gain of around 3.1
pounds after 10 weeks of resistance training twice a week. "That's the
equivalent of reversing about six years of aging," says Westcott. The
subjects did one set of 12 different exercises, using a high enough
weight that they fatigued after eight to 12 reps. Best part is, it
didn't matter whether they were 25 or 75, there were similar results
across all age groups. We're sold!
