Q: Why do I seem to gain weight as I get older?
As you age, you lose muscle mass, and muscle is a much more effective user of sugar than any other part of you. As you approach menopause, some of your hormones peter out and that can impact muscle growth. The new hormone environment in our body tends to send fat to the area around your internal organs, which helps explain why the waistline expands. All this is happening at an age when most of us begin to exercise less. In preparation for the onset of menopause women should exercise more and eat smaller, frequent portions.
The easiest way to control weight is to avoid gaining too much weight in the first place. When you put on a lot of weight, you start adding new fat cells, which, once acquired, never go away. You can empty them, but they hang around just waiting to be filled up again and that happens a lot more quickly and easily than a cell that has to build itself from scratch.
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You are very right about the “new hormone environment.” Most people don’t realize the imp[act of that. I also find, and this is anecdotal, that people are most likely to keep in shape as adults with less effort, if they were active as children. I suspect your physical condition as your body develops actually governs your development and sets the tone for the rest of your life.