At What Age Does Weight Loss Significantly Slow

As I age (60's), it seems my metabolism has slowed significantly, is there anything I can do to slow the weight gain?

PLEASE ask about FAT, not WEIGHT!At OUR age (I am older) longevity is not affected much by body fat but can be significantly reduced by loss of muscle volume and strength.Most adults lose muscle every year. There is a level at which one is unlikely to survive another year. Look up “sarcopenia”.That problem is best fought by resistance training, NOT aerobics.Mitigating Sarcopenia In The Elderly: Resistance Training Is A Powerful PotionExercise does not burn additional calories. Humans have an energy budget. Whatever they burn during intentional exercise is conserved when NOT exercising. There is NO net calorie benefit.It is actually worse than that because exercise is NOT guaranteed to burn fat. It first burns stored glycogen and then burns muscle. Fat does not burn for some time and there is commonly a net muscle loss.Fat gain or loss is entirely controlled by diet. The content of the diet is more important than the total calories.When insulin levels rise in response to starch and sugar, they decrease concentration and function of LPL in the muscle. This has one direct consequence: your muscles literally can’t burn any of the fat floating around in your system. They’re forced to depend on carbs.A group of scientists even published a review of the metabolic downside of carbs at breakfast time in the British Journal of Nutrition. One thing they observed, with people eating a breakfast full of carbs, is that muscles have a hard time burning fat for the rest of the day. The culprit? LPL is turned off in muscle tissue with insulin around—and it skyrockets in fat cells.Greatly reduced carbohydrate intake WILL reduce metabolism BUT after a time one is burning ONLY fat. A faster metabolism that burns more muscle than fat does not sound like a good bargain.Organisms with slower metabolism also age slower. Combining fat burning with slower ageing is a better bargain.

Does our metabolism slow down a lot as we age to cause significant weight gain or is that a myth?

It is not a myth. Metabolism slows down for both men and women. Here is a quote“Basal metabolic rate, which accounts for about 50 to 70 percent of Total energy expenditure (TEE), is thought to decrease about one to two percent per decade. That is, after a person reaches 20 years old, daily energy expenditure decreases about 150 calories per decade. The decline is probably due to decreased muscle mass (which is highly metabolically-active) and increased fat mass (which is relatively metabolically-inactive).Some studies have also found that, even when controlling for fat-free mass, basal metabolic rate is five percent lower in older compared with younger adults. It is not clear why, but some researchers speculate that it may be due to an unavoidable loss of very metabolically-active organ tissue, or a decreased metabolic rate within muscle tissues. Decline seems to be most rapid after 40 years old in men and 50 years old in women.However, for many people, but not all, metabolism increases again in 70s, especially when people become very frail.The y-axis shows the resting metabolic rate for senior women.

Does everyone have loose skin after weight loss?

Many factors are involved in this — most importantly, how much weight you’ve lost.Skin stretches as we gain weight, to accommodate the extra fat that lies beneath. If the weight gain was considerable, no matter what your genetics, there’s going to be loose skin, because it has only so much ability to retract. Skin’s elasticity is more about how it stretches, and less about how it retracts.Additionally, it doesn’t really matter how fast or slow you lose your weight since either way, the supporting tissue beneath it, which was your fat, is no longer there to provide structure. If the weight loss was slow (recommended) there is some slight chance there will be shrinkage commensurate with your weight loss. Consider this — you stretch out a plastic bag — and depending on its own makeup, it never really goes back to the original dimensions, but might go back a little, depending on how much you pulled it. Skin is the same.Stretch marks happen, not as you lose the weight, but as it is beingS T R E T C H E D during the weight GAIN process. There may or may not be stretch marks — I have none — despite having gained then lost 75 pounds at one point (and kept it off). Again, it’s a predisposition (genetics) that will allow your skin to go back, somewhat, but it will never be that taut again.On the bright side, loose skin is a sign that you took care of an underlying situation, so put a positive spin on it, and congratulate yourself for your total weight loss.