How to Prevent Weight Gain as We Age

Why is it that once we get to the age of 30 orhappening?
40 we seem to gain weight a lot faster than anyBuild muscle.
other time in our life? Even people who haveEasy right? Do some form of heavy strength
been skinny their whole lives, begin to pack ontraining at least once a week, training each muscle
the pounds once they reach this age. Why isfairly intensely is all that is required to reverse this.
that? There is an explanation for this, and theIt will help you replace the muscle you had lost,
good news is it can be reversed.speed up your metabolism and lose those
This weight gain is due largely to the naturalunwanted pounds that have snuck onto your
slowing down of the metabolism as we age. Thisbody.
is how people seem to gain weight even whenIf you don't really like strength training, or the
they haven't really changed their eating habits.gym I don't blame you. Here are three groups of
Their metabolism has slowed down over time,exercises that train the entire body. If you train
and they can no longer burn off all of the energyintensely enough, you would only have to do this
they are consuming. This creates a calorie surplus,workout once a week.
which in turn results in weight gain.Just select one exercise from each category
The speed of our metabolism is directly related tobelow to do your workout.
our muscle mass. The more muscle we have, thePUSH: Bench Press, Dumbell Press, Parallel Bar
faster our metabolism will be. Think of how easilyDips, Push Ups
a V8 burns through fuel, as opposed to a scooter.PULL: Chin ups, Recline Chin Ups, Lat Pulldown,
The same basic principle applies. The larger theBent Over Row, Seated Row
engine, the more energy it burns, even whileLEGS: Squats, Deadlifts, One Leg Squats, Split
sitting at the lights. (I got confused now, I don'tsquats, Leg Press
know if I'm talking about cars or people! I think(Google these exercises if you don't know how to
you get what I'm saying)do them.)
The reason our metabolism slows down as weIf you don't like the gym here is an example
age is simply due to us losing muscle. After theworkout you could do at home or the park once
age of 20, we begin to lose approximately aa week.
pound of muscle mass a year. Even people whoParallel Bar Dips
regularly exercise lose approximately ½Chin Ups
pound of muscle mass a year.One leg Squats
Every extra pound of muscle we add, burns anJust do as many reps as you can non stop. Only
extra 50 calories a day. So, if you were to losedo this once. This is more than enough. To build
15 pounds of muscle mass over 20 years, thatmuscle and get stronger, simply try to beat your
could mean you are burning 750 calories less aresults each time you do it. However, if you can
day.do 20 reps straight of an exercise, its time to
The general knowledge is that a pound of fatmake it harder. Try doing one arm, add weight, a
equals 3500 calories. So taking the example fromtougher variation of the exercise, anything. Just
above, if this person were to eat the same asbe creative and enjoy your workouts.
they always did, they could now be eating 750Before I finish, you might have already put 2 and
calories more than they need a day. This could2 together, but strength training then is one of
equate to approximately 1 ½ pounds of fatthe best ways to prevent this weight gain from
gained a week.happening in the first place. It will help maintain
Now these are really vague numbers, but I justyour muscle mass, or even add a few pounds as
want to show you how and why this weight gainwe age so that we can stay lean, strong and
is so easy.vibrant. This will enable us to enjoy more of life as
So then, how do we prevent this fromwe age, not being bound by certain limitations.