Diet & Fitness 

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Metabolism and your age

Are you finding it harder and harder to lose weight? Author of The No-gym Workout, personal fitness trainer Lucy Wyndham Read, explains how you can help yourself through every stage of your life

The reason you may find it harder to lose weight as you get older is down to changes in your basal metabolic rate (bmr). This drops by two per cent for every decade of your life. Also, you lose 3.2kg (7lbs) of lean body mass with every decade, which is replaced by fat. Therefore, as you get older you need to changed what you do to stay fit, slim and toned - you need to do more exercise to turn back the clock.

Metabolism by the decade

• In your twenties
• In your thirties
• In your forties
• In your fifties
• In your sixties and beyond

In your twenties
In your early twenties you naturally have more lean muscle and less fat, so your metabolic rate will be high. By your mid-twenties, if you're not exercising regularly - concentrated exercise, such as power walking, cycling or aerobics, say three times a week - muscle mass starts to decline. The muscle fibres deactivate, which slows down the basal metabolic rate, and the body's fat stores increase. However, staying in shape in your twenties can be easier than in your thirties or forties as you're more likely to have an active life with time available to spend on yourself.

In your thirties
The thirties can be a time of plateau in terms of body shape and self-attitude, as we become absorbed with children, home, career development - or all three. You may feel extraordinarily busy, but don't seem to be able to shape up as you naturally lose lean muscle and gain fat.

Extra weight tends to head for the hips on women, and we often try to run it all off or we focus purely on exercise that gets our bottoms moving in the hope of shifting weight. What's really needed, however, is toning exercises - not only because toning helps you to control your shape, but crucially because toning also helps to protect against osteoporosis. Begin (or continue) a programme in your thirties, and your body will be radically stronger by the time you reach your fifties.

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