Health > Metabolism: Why It Slows Down With Age & What to Do About It
25th Sep 2020
metabolism
Health

Metabolism: Why It Slows Down With Age & What to Do About It

If you are more than 30 years old, you might have already heard the big news. Metabolism slows down with age!

But do you know what metabolism really means? Do you know why it doesn’t stay as friendly with you in your old days as it was in the younger ones? And are there any ways you can use, to keep it from slowing down?

Well, this article is here to answer all these questions. Stay tuned until the end, and we’ll also tell you how Emoha can help in the process.

What Is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the name given to the collection of all the controlled chemical reactions that happen in the cells inside your body.

These chemical reactions are the ones responsible for the repair of damaged cells and the energy they need to continue the processing every other day.

What kind of processing? Processes like when brain cells use the energy they get for things like memory, giving instructions to the body and creating thoughts. The other cells may use the fuel to follow these instructions given by the brain.

You see, metabolism is the core system of your body.  It is what helps your body run.

Now, there are mainly two metabolism types:

  • Catabolic metabolism (Catabolism): The reactions that involve the breakdown of molecules.
  • Anabolic metabolism (Anabolism): The reactions that involve the synthesis of new molecules.

Both of these processes play a huge role in our bodily functions.

People usually talk about them concerning topics like metabolism for weight loss.

Another term that has recently gotten famous due to this discussion of metabolism and weight loss is metabolic rate. After all, it is this rate that determines how much fat you store in your body.

Confused? Well, keep on reading for more clarity.

What Is Metabolic Rate? What Factors Is It Dependent On?

Metabolic rate is the speed at which metabolism i.e., the chemical reactions occur in your body. Yes, this rate is what determines the number of calories you burn.

Let us explain it better with the key four factors that determine it. These include the following four:

Exercise: How many calories you burn when working out.

RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate): How many calories you burn when resting and doing nothing else.

NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): How many calories you burn when performing activities that aren’t called exercise. For example, reading, standing and doing chores at work or home.

TEF (Thermic Effect of Food): How many calories you burn when breaking down your food i.e., digesting. Or even when the cells absorb the food to store for future purposes or use them for the repair of their damaged parts.

Now all these are affected by your hormones, the muscle mass you have, and your age.

The factor of age is mainly what we are discussing in this article.

In short, with advancing age, your metabolism rate keeps decreasing. This slowing down of metabolism with age is essentially because of less physical activity and ageing organs that can’t work as efficiently as they worked when you were 10 years old.

Let’s study this in detail in the upcoming sections.

Why Does Metabolism Slow Down With Age?

You must know that it is crucial to have a higher metabolic rate so that you keep away from storing a lot of unwanted fat in your body. And also to ensure all required processes are running fine.

But unfortunately, advancing age only makes this challenging. Here’s why.

  • You lose muscle mass with age.

Once you reach an age of around 30, your body stops listening to the growth signals, and you start losing the muscle mass. The condition is known as Sarcopenia.

But muscle is necessary as it increases the resting metabolism in the human body. So, the decrease in muscle mass also means a reduction in the rate at which the needful chemical reactions take place in your body.

This decrease in metabolic rate increases weakness as the required processes aren’t happening, and your cells aren’t getting adequate nourishment.

Plus, the cell-damage repair doesn’t happen as often as it should because there is not enough fuel.

Additionally, reduced muscle mass reduces your ability to work out. The pain and the tiredness take over a person’s will to exercise. And as you know, exercise is also a crucial factor in metabolism, and so it becomes another reason for slow metabolism as you age.

  • There’s Less Physical Activity.

Reduced muscle mass is already one reason that takes away the energy to work out. However, you might have noticed many older adults also do not participate in other activities.

At an old age, you might prefer to get people to do chores for you around the house. Since it’s around retirement years, there’s almost no work at the office too.

So, most people prefer spending their time sitting and watching TV or reading books which does not burn a lot of calories. This means that the Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) also reduces with age. Thus, reducing the overall metabolic rate.

How Can You Manage Your Metabolism in Simple Ways?

Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to make sure your metabolism rate increases or at least stays the same. And these are simple too.

  • Consume metabolism boosting foods.

There are lots of metabolism booster foods, which you can add to your diet if increasing your metabolic rate is your aim.

One of these is food with monounsaturated fats. Now, don’t confuse these to be the fats that make you fat. They don’t. These are the healthy kinds of fats which, when eaten, release a fat-burning hormone called Glucagon in your body.

The effects of this hormone help your metabolism increase for the next few hours after you eat your meal.

No wonder, you should be eating foods with monounsaturated fats. Some sources are olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fish.

Here’s a little quick recipe. Soak some chia seeds in coconut milk all night. Add some nuts and fruits to top it in the morning. And eat it.

That’s it! It will be a wholesome nutrient-rich and metabolism boosting meal to cherish with your breakfast.

Additionally, you can consume green tea or oolong tea to boost your metabolism. These are great too.

Drink enough water.

Drinking water certainly helps with digestion and works for the skin as well.

Guess what? It is superb for boosting metabolism too.

Research suggests, the better you hydrate yourself, the more your body increases the expenditure of energy. The results mean that it encourages more chemical reactions taking place in the body. Thus, increasing metabolism.

Sleep properly.

The more unhealthy food you consume, the more chemical reactions and energy will be required by the body to get rid of bad stuff.

Sleep deprivation makes it worse. That’s because people who do not sleep properly usually are more cranky throughout the day. They have less willpower and are also hungrier.

Sleeping well ensures you are happier and have more willpower to resist unhealthy junk food when it comes your way.

Get rid of the stress.

The stress hormone, cortisol, whenever released leads to the release of insulin in the bloodstream. Now, insulin is the fat-storage hormone. When it is out there, it will take the sugar it finds and will store it as fat in the body.

With most energy stored as fat, there will be less energy to spend on repairing cell damage and on the other chemical reactions that have to take place in the body.

And that becomes another reason for slower metabolic rate. That’s why it is essential to keep your stress at bay if you don’t want to experience your metabolism slow down with age.

For this, make sure you add activities like meditation or yoga to your days. Or you can do something as pleasurable as joining us on MOH TV.

This way, you will also get to meet some people of your age, just like you who are trying to boost their metabolism without letting advancing age become a hindrance.

Add movement to your days.

There’s not much to explain about this point. You already know that one of the essential factors of metabolism is exercise.

So, you can go for a walk every morning. Maybe get a dog to walk or take your spouse along. Having someone at your side is also great for relieving stress.

Or you could try some resistance training. It will help you build muscle that is crucial for metabolism.

Whether or not that’s possible, you can always do some stretches and try yoga poses to add some movement to your days.

Cut the sugar.

While you might already have diabetes (plus points if you don’t or if you manage it successfully), another reason to cut off the sugar is your slowing metabolism.

Sugar, when released in the body, requires the release of insulin to digest it. Now, as you might remember, insulin is a fat-storage hormone. It will store up the energy you have and will not leave much for metabolic processes. Thus, reducing your metabolism.

That’s why you got to cut down on the sugar. And even the artificial sugar. You can try jaggery or stevia instead if you really cannot do without it.

Do not drink alcohol.

Alcohol is generally bad for your health. So, it won’t be surprising to know that it harms your metabolism too.

Here’s what you need to know. The metabolism of alcohol produces highly-reactive oxygen molecules. Now, these are extremely dangerous as they can damage your DNA and proteins.

Plus, specific reactions involving them can result in carcinogenic compounds, which means you can eventually develop cancer.

More diseases mean more weakness and thus, less ability to perform chemical reactions your cells need. Hence, it is essential to stay away from alcohol and not waste your body’s energy into the metabolism of alcohol.

Summing Up

Metabolism is collectively all the chemical reactions that happen in your cells to keep them up and running. It controls the way your body works and thus helps you be healthier.

We also told you about the two main reasons why metabolism slows down with age and how you can manage that with actionable steps.

However, you might want someone to be accountable for in order to make sure you take these simple steps without stressing yourself out. Emoha and the various services our different plans bring along will help with that.

Still, have any questions? Comment them down below or call us at 1800-123-44-5555 and we’ll be happy to help you out.