Aging Women & Weight

Wednesday March 24th The Press Enterprise printed an article titled, “Women face big need for workout.” This article was informative but came as no surprise to me. The article stated that aging women who want to maintain a healthy weight need to exercise (at a moderate pace) for at least an hour a day. This excluded women who were dieting. On the other hand, women who were overweight who didn’t diet need to exercise more than an hour a day. This was a 13 year study based on 34,079 nondieting middle-aged women. The article went on to say that women who took part in the study who were at a healthy weight, BMI (less than 25) and gained little or no weight were the women who exercised an hour a day at a moderate pace. In addition, only 13% of the women in this study meet that profile. The women who were overweight in the study that did not adjust their caloric intake and exercised for an hour a day were still gaining weight.

As we age our metabolism begins to slow. Some people notice a big change when they get to be in there 30’s. You can curtail the weight gain by exercising and adjusting your caloric intake. Part of the reason for metabolism slowing has to do with mitochondria slowing in cells (nutrients turned to energy) and muscle wasting. Exercise helps to increase mitochondria that inturn increase your metabolism. When you increase lean muscle mass, it requires more energy, thus speeding up your metabolism. When muscles are not used regularly, they atrophy and muscle wasting occurs and you gain weight.

Cardiovascular exercise helps burn calories during and after exercise (for a certain amount of time). Strength training builds lean muscle, burns calories and keeps burning throughout the day. Just remember that muscle requires more energy, resulting in a faster metabolism.

In closing, getting older is not doom and gloom. It’s a process of wisdom, knowledge and maturing. It’s also a time that brings on new challenges involuntarily and voluntarily. For example, you don’t have to be 21 to run the LA Marathon. In fact I know, clients, friends and colleagues, who are in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s who will tell you that they are in better shape now than when they were in their 20’s. I’m proud to say that aging has made me wiser resulting in me taking better care of myself and my overall fitness is better now than when I was 21.

If you want to check out the full details of women aging and exercise, the study can be found in the Journal of American Medical Association.