We want to kick off this blog post with an important message: You’re not imagining it — weight loss can be more difficult once you reach your 50s and beyond. If your body has undergone some unwelcomes changes and your efforts to reverse these changes are falling far short, you’re not alone, and there are solutions.
At Lafferty Family Care, Dr. Scott Lafferty and our team understand the effects aging can have on your body and why certain endeavors can become more difficult, such as losing weight.
Here, we explore some of the hurdles of losing weight after 50 and, more importantly, what we can do to help you surmount them.
One of the biggest culprits behind weight gain in your 50s and the inability to shed the pounds easily is loss of muscle. Muscle uses more energy and keeps your resting metabolism rate higher, which helps you to burn more fat.
Age-related muscle loss is medically known as sarcopenia, and it’s a perfectly natural side effect of aging — starting in your 30s, you lose about 3% to 5% of your muscle mass with each decade.
When women pass through menopause, usually in their late 40s or early 50s, their levels of estrogen and progesterone drop precipitously. This loss causes changes in fat distribution — meaning more fat around the abdomen. This abdominal fat can be tougher to tackle if you’re trying to lose weight as it’s associated with insulin resistance, which hinders weight loss.
Men also experience a drop in their testosterone levels over time, but not as sudden as it is in women. Starting in their 30s, men lose about 1% of testosterone each year, and this slow loss can begin to add up when you reach your 50s. Since testosterone affects your muscle mass and energy levels, the deficit can lead to weight gain and the loss of muscle can make it more difficult to lose weight.
Let’s face it, the wear and tear on your body over the years can start to become evident in your 50s, often in the form of arthritis or other conditions that slow us down.
If you’re less active because of damage in your body, it can make losing weight much more challenging.
If you’re in your 50s and you want to lose weight, there are several ways we can help through our comprehensive weight-loss services. While each approach is tailored to your unique needs, our services include:
We also offer the innovative SculpSure® fat reduction system, which isn’t a weight-loss tool, but a technology that can target stubborn pockets of fat.
To figure out which approach is best for your weight-loss efforts, no matter your age, please contact our office in Bentonville, Arkansas, to schedule a consultation.
