It’s actually complicated.
I spoke with a PhD physical therapist about this (his undergrad work was in exercise physiology), and at about 40, all other things being equal, you’re going to start losing muscle mass. By “all other things being equal”, I mean that even if your diet is identical, you exercise at the same intensity, and through some previously unknown magic (e.g., drugs) you have identical hormonal levels to your 18yo self, you’re still going to end up losing muscle mass and strength when you get somewhere in your 40s. He explained the basic outlines of the mechanism, but I simply don’t have the science background to understand it, or to explain it.
That loss of muscle mass means that you’re simply not going to be burning through calories. Muscle burns more calories per kilogram than fat does.
So, that’s part of it; there’s just a certain level of decline that’s going to happen with age, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.
But the other part is that activity levels do tend to sharply decrease for men (and women) outside of their 20s, while what they consume does not. Once you start having kids and/or other responsibilities, it’s hard to find time to maintain the same level of physical activity that you might have previously had.
I read an interview about a year ago about the topic of starting healthy until old age. The main points were:
- You start to lose muscle mass at 30 years and for the average person you lose about 1% per year. In the article, they said that this would mean 50% of muscle lost when you hit 80 so it must’ve been on average (otherwise you’d lose about 40% total).
- If you need to make a choice between endurance and strength exercise because of whatever constraints, you should go with strength. Ideally, you do both. But strength is ultimately more important as it keeps your metabolism working long term and also prevents accidents. After all, it’s what keeps you skeleton in place.
I know that people above 30 are still able to gain muscle mass–all other things being equal–but my speculation is that it slows down. That is, that rate of improvement compared to someone in their 20s will be slower, and it will be even slower in your 40s, etc., until you reach a point where you can no longer gain enough strength to offset your losses from age.
I also suspect that the use of illegal anabolic/androgenic steroids could counteract that, but at the cost of other, significant health risks (heart disease, stroke, liver damage, etc.).
Hi, sorry for responding to a week old post,
This is called “Sarcopenia”, or, the age-related loss of muscle mass.
The good news is that it can be nearly entirely mitigated by strength training. To be clear, you can’t be an 80 year old with the same strength as a 30 year old powerlifter, but you can as an 80 year old maintain the strength of an average 30 year old. It’s been demonstrated very consistently, even if you only start training in your 70s
In my case, children soak up time and when I do get out for a walk I have to keep pace with a young child instead of marching up a mountain, I’m no longer working on my feet all day, and I spend my free time sitting down and eating chips because the day is exhausting instead of taking acid and going to a rave.
beer
guys that don’t drink a lot of beer are by far much better off than men who do and have the same physical activity. probably just my own observation and not scientific but it does have something to it.
Calories in vs calories out is true at any age.
In the 30s, life is starting to stack up. Career, kids, etc. These things easily dominate your schedule and can keep you from eating well, or hitting the gym or sleeping as much as is needed.
Also, years of beer can catch up to you and there’s so many calories in that.
Also get your blood work checked. If your hormones aren’t where they need to be, it may be harder to build and maintain muscle. Muscle burns more calories at rest than anything else so slipping muscle quantity can result in a snowball effect of weight gain and unhealthiness.
Beer.
The hidden issue is general aches and pain. That noise an old guy makes when he stands up, means he doesn’t get up, and doesn’t move around as much. But it’s real easy to sit down with a pint and a burger.
I’ve been above average fit with an above average activity level most of my life. Since 42, I’ve had less time walking around without aches and pains than with.
I may be an outlier, but lots of people I know that were sporty 10 years ago aren’t sporty anymore, and it’s not because of not wanting to
