Samantha Taylor
Samantha Taylor Fitness
The word “metabolism” is usually associated with how well we lose weight. However, it is much deeper than that. Your metabolism is a series of chemical reactions in your body that are necessary to maintain life, so we all have a metabolism or we would be dead! Even though it does comprise of reactions in our body that keep us alive, how well we process food and convert that food into either usable energy or stored body fat is what most are interested in.
We have trained over 7,500 women in my personal training business, and many of them have been in their 50’s to 70’s. Usually a frustrated woman says to me in our first meeting, “I feel like my metabolism has slowed down so much and I don’t lose weight like I used to.” In some ways this is true, however in most ways it’s not just age that is the culprit, it’s what we have or have not done to our bodies over the years that causes this problem.
When we age, the two most important factors that can affect our metabolism are: 1) Our bodies become more insulin-resistant as we age, and more so dependent on how we eat. 2) We lose about a pound of muscle every year we don’t do something to stop it (you can stop this loss by working out with weights).
So the first one I mentioned, we become more insulin-resistant. When this happens, our body tends to store more fat. Proof of this is that most women as they age see that they store fat more in their belly. The less our body can process sugar properly and is constantly having to release insulin to bring down the blood sugar because it is constantly spiked with sugar, excess carbs, and gluten, the more our bodies can become insulin-resistant. In many cases, this IS reversible. I have seen it happen over and over.
We had a client who was 74 and was pre-diabetic and her doctor wanted to put her on medication. He let her give our program a shot first and within 8 weeks, she was no longer pre-diabetic! They were both SO excited! Actually, that happened to me 2 years ago, even my blood work came back close to being pre-diabetic and I was so frustrated, for I wasn’t even overweight. I knew it was from all the sugar, excess carbs, and gluten I was eating and sure enough, now it’s perfectly healthy from making some small nutrition modifications.
The second one I mentioned is muscle loss with age, and I say with age because when we are younger we maintain it more naturally. When we age, we have to work at maintaining it or we WILL lose it. The term “Use it or lose it” really applies in this situation because muscle loss is one of the fastest things that will age our bodies. This happens because muscle gives our body shape and helps keep our figure, gives us strength, and helps with balance. You should see some of the women on our website that are in their 70’s. They look and feel amazing!
You do NOT want to lose muscle, and of course ladies, I am not talking about being bulky here, just having tone, lean muscles so you can stay young and fit. And keep in mind that 1 pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day at REST. This is a very good thing for your metabolism.
I encourage you to start a program now so you are ready for the new year. We have some specials for those that start in December. Merry Christmas! Join my free webinar Jan 4th where I will be going over a goal-setting workshop to help you get focused for 2020.
www.SamanthaTaylorFitness.com.