Metabolism peaks at age one and tanks after 60, study finds

Health & Diet Health & Diet: In The News
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The metabolism is every drop of chemistry needed to keep the body going.

And the bigger the body - whether that is ripped muscles or too much belly fat - the more energy it will take to run.

So the researchers tweaked their measurements, adjusting for body size, to compare people’s metabolism “pound for pound”.

The study, published in the journal Science, found four phases of metabolic life:

  • birth to age one, when the metabolism shifts from being the same as the mother’s to a lifetime high 50% above that of adults
  • a gentle slowdown until the age of 20, with no spike during all the changes of puberty
  • no change at all between the ages of 20 and 60
  • a permanent decline, with yearly falls that, by 90, leave metabolism 26% lower than in mid-life

So, apparently, middle-aged spread cannot be blamed on a waning metabolism … :disappointed:

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Well…if its not metabolism then what is it? Could it be medication? We might be taking more meds as we get older, so could that be to blame? or do we just get lazier as we get older and not burning it off like we did?

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These are the expert opinions:

Prof Tom Sanders, from King’s College London, said: "Interestingly, they found very little differences in total energy expenditure between early adult life and middle age - a time when most adults in developed countries put on weight.

“These findings would support the view that the obesity epidemic is fuelled by excess food energy intake and not a decline in energy expenditure.”

Dr Soren Brage, from the University of Cambridge, said the total amount of energy used had been “notoriously difficult to measure”.

“We urgently need to turn our attention not only to the global energy crisis defined by the burning of fossil fuels but also the energy crisis that is caused by not burning enough calories in our own bodies.”

I can’t argue with that … :009:

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