The Link Between Age and Difficulty Losing Weight

Aging affects every cell, tissue, and organ in your body. This is why you have more aches and pains and need to wear reading glasses around the time you reach middle age. There’s also a link between age and weight loss. 

You may find it a lot harder to lose weight now than when you were younger. Your difficulty managing your weight has many causes.

At Celebrity Medi Spa in Allen, Texas, our medical experts are all about helping you look and feel young again. We understand weight struggles and have solutions to help you reach your weight goals. 

Here, we explain why it’s harder to lose weight when you get older. 

Changes in body composition

Your body composition includes your muscle mass and fat mass. Around age 30, things start to change and your body loses muscle mass and gains fat mass. If you don't engage in any exercise outside of your normal routine, you can lose up to 5% of your muscle mass every 10 years.

This shift in body composition affects your metabolism, or the number of calories your body needs to maintain normal function. When you lose muscle mass, your metabolism slows down, so you need to eat fewer calories to maintain the same weight.

If you’ve been eating the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner for years and suddenly start gaining weight, it may be due to this shift in body composition that slows down your metabolism. 

Hormonal imbalances

In addition to changes in body composition, hormone production also changes — namely, the sex hormones testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. 

Though these hormones play a major role in your reproductive health, they also influence your body composition and metabolism. You may find it more difficult to lose weight as you get older because of a decline in sex hormone production.

Hormone-related health conditions like hypothyroidism — when your thyroid is underactive and doesn’t produce enough hormones — also causes hormone imbalances that affect weight and your ability to lose weight. Thyroid hormones dictate your metabolism and a decrease in production slows down your metabolism, causing weight gain and difficulty losing.

Stress hormones also affect weight by increasing fat mass and appetite. 

What you can do

Yes, your body changes as you get older, but weight gain isn’t an inevitable part of the aging process. 

Most adults lose muscle mass and experience a slowdown in metabolism as they get older because they simply don’t get enough activity. Adding physical activity to your routine, including strength training, can help prevent or slow down muscle loss and the decrease in your metabolism. 

If hormones are making it harder for you to lose weight, you might benefit from hormone therapy. Our medical experts customize hormone therapy to match your specific hormonal needs, restoring balance, boosting energy, and improving weight management. 

We also offer a comprehensive weight-loss program that includes diet and lifestyle counseling, medications, and dietary supplements, as well as hormone therapy. 

The link between age and difficulty losing weight is breakable when you have the right tools. We can help you reach your weight goals. Schedule an appointment by contacting our office at 469-294-2243 today.