Keeping Your Metabolism Burning as You Age

Weight gain is often associated with aging and one of the reasons for this is that your metabolism simply slows down as you get older. Each decade that you age, you burn fewer and fewer calories for your normal daily activities so it's no wonder that by the time people get to age 50 or 60 they have packed on quite a few extra pounds. But, you don't have to just accept this as inevitable there are things you can do to keep your metabolism burning faster as you get older.

One of the reasons that your metabolism slows down is that your cells themselves actually slow down. Another reason is called sarcopenia, or muscle wasting. As you get older, your muscles tend to atrophy. This is partly your body getting older but also a lot of it has to do with the fact that you may be leading a more sedentary lifestylethan when you were younger. Since muscles take more energy to power, the less muscle your body has, the slower your metabolism, and the easier it is for you to gain weight.

One of the big things, which will have many other health benefits for you in addition to keeping you slim and allowing you to still enjoy some of your favorite foods,is toexercise.Not only does exercise burn calories but it also helps keep your cells active and helps to increase their rate of metabolic activity.

Of course, you want to be sure to eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats. Eating smaller portions but more meals throughout the day will help to keep your metabolism burning evenly throughout the day and you will find that you'll actually be able to eat a little bit more than if you packed all those calories into only two meals.

Getting older doesn't mean that you have to resign yourself to being overweight, you just have to work a little bit harder at staying slim - but anything worth having is worth working hard for.

Women Over 40 Health