Women, metabolism & menopause: Why do I struggle to lose weight the older I get?

What is your metabolism exactly?

Metabolism refers to the chemical reactions in the body’s cell that change food/nutrients to energy. Our body needs energy to perform general tasks such as breathing, moving, digesting food, circulating blood and repairing damages.

Specific proteins in our body control the chemical reactions of the metabolism.

Metabolism is also often used to refer to basal metabolic rate, meaning the amount of calories we burn at rest. The higher the metabolic rate, the more calories we burn at rest.

Many factors can influence your metabolic rate such as your age, diet, body composition, gender, body size, physical health and medications.

What controls metabolism?

Several hormones help control the metabolic rate. 

Thyroxine secreted by the thyroid gland will determine how slow or fast the chemical reactions of the metabolism take place in the body.

The pancreas secretes hormones that help determine the main metabolic activity happening in the body at any time.

Metabolism is a very complicated chemical process and requires balance that is often misunderstood.

Metabolism in females:

As women age, their metabolism slows down and the body needs fewer calories.

Weight control might seem harder because it is harder. With age, controlling weight will need a change in tactics every now and then to maintain a healthy body weight.

Our bodies burn calories in different ways:

• Resting metabolism 

• Food digestion

• Physical activity

The resting metabolism provides the energy we need to pump blood, breath, control body temperature and other activities. Resting metabolism is also the state in which we burn the most calories each day and is what often slows down as we age.

Why does the metabolic rate slow down for women?

Studies show that the metabolic rate in females starts to slow down by 2-3% every decade starting in your 20’s. It becomes noticeable between the ages of 40-60.

However, both men and women experience metabolic rate decreases, women will be more affected by it due to already having a slower metabolism.

Natural changes that causes a slow down in metabolic rate:

Less muscle and more fat. 

Women naturally lose lean body mass (muscle) as they age. Less muscle will decrease metabolic rate. Muscle uses a lot more energy at rest than fat, thus high muscle mass will lead to increased metabolism.

Body and lifestyle changes. 

While a human body is still growing (teens and children) the body produces high amounts of growth hormone which burns a lot of calories as well as physical activity is still high. 

With age we do not produce that much growth hormone anymore and our physical activity decreases and thus less calories are burnt.

Menopause. 

During menopause women will experience a decrease in estrogen levels. A decrease in estrogen will lead to a decrease in muscle mass, which will lead to a slower metabolic rate.

Menopause leads to hormonal signals to the body to redistribute weight. Before menopause extra body fat will spread evenly through the body, after menopause most extra body fat will be redistributed to the waist. 

How to improve metabolism:

Technically we can not speed up our metabolism by exercising more, eating certain foods or taking supplements. However certain activities can slightly increase our metabolism, it is most likely negligible and short-lived and won’t have such a big impact on your waistline.

However, there are certain things we can do to improve our body’s general health that will marginally improve your metabolism.

Building more muscle mass

Building more muscle mass and reducing body fat will essentially affect your metabolic rate positively. At any given weight, having more muscle and less fat, will lead to a higher metabolic rate.

Challenge your muscles and set aside 20 minutes, twice a week for muscle building workouts such as weight training. 

Eating a lot of protein is also beneficial and will help build muscle.

Get enough sleep

A lack of sleep is linked to major increases in the chance of obesity.

A lack of sleep has been shown to influence the level of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and leptin, a hormone that controls the feeling of “fullness”.

People who are sleep deprived will often feel more hungry, unsatisfied and have difficulty losing weight.

Follow a strategic diet

As women age, their bodies need less calories. This does not mean you have to eat less food, but it will help to think more strategically about food and calorie intake.

Eat foods such as vegetables and fruit, which are lower in calories and reduce foods that have a high amount of calories.

Eat enough calories- don’t starve yourself

This might seem contradictory, but eating too little amount of calories can often lead to a decrease in metabolic rate.

Studies show that when we consume less calories, the body senses the decrease in food and lowers the rate at which it burns calories.

This effect is usually caused by crash diets that we often follow to quickly lose a few kilos. Indicating that traditional diets to lose weight quickly, that revolves around lowering your calorie intake, will lead to a lower metabolic rate.

The bottomline…

Trying to “speed up” your metabolic rate becomes a catch-22 situation, because increasing your physical activity will lead to fuel being burned quicker which will cause the urge to consume more food and nutrients to supply the need. Emphasising the importance of a healthy balanced diet.

Most diets, starvation or fasting rituals that we often use to lose weight in the long run will lead to a decrease in metabolic rate that will cause a struggle to lose weight as well.

With age in females, follows a natural decrease in estrogen which essentially will lead to struggles to gain muscle mass, lose weight and improve metabolism.

The situation seems dire…

But the best advice for women struggling with a slow metabolism, weight loss or muscle gains, is to improve physical activity, increase muscle and strength training, improve sleep, and have a conscious balanced diet. And most importantly avoid crash diets where there are periods of starvation or very low intake of calories.

If you suspect that your weight loss or metabolism problems may be caused by other health concerns such as a thyroid defect, seek medical help from your doctor.

Keep moving.