Metabolism Rates

Metabolism Rates

Metabolism Rates

It's always nice to get good news about aging. Typically, people don't think there's anything good to say about metabolism and aging, however. In reality there's a lot of good news. Although there's some decrease in metabolism that naturally occurs with aging, most of the slowdown is not due to nature but rather to changes in lifestyle.

An Important Fact About the Human Body and Metabolism

People have evolved bodies that are great at storing fat. This is supposed to be a good thing and came in handy when people had to work hard to find food. When they didn't know where their next meal would come from, their bodies helped out by slowing down metabolism if the person was starving, and readily stored fat, during a feast in preparation for the next famine. In a highly developed country, however, most people do not have to work hard to obtain food. This life-saving skill of efficiently storing fat and slowing metabolism is rarely needed today. Now, instead, it can be a handicap creating high rates of obesity.

How Metabolism Changes as People Age

Until adolescence, boys and girls are fairly comparable in their leanness and are similar in their level of activity. However, something interesting happens around adolescence that starts setting them apart with respect to body fat and metabolism. Girls begin to be less active in their teen years while boys continue to be relatively active through such things as sports and other outdoor activities. Most girls begin to become more interested in things that require little activity. In other words, their lifestyle begins to change to one that is less active. With less activity comes reduced metabolism and more fat storage.