Our body is at its top peak in between 25 and 30 years of age. After 30, our body begins to slowly pass into a decline and we generally tend to put on weight a little quicker than before.
Part of the cause for that is, after 30, we begin to lose Muscle to what is referred to as atrophy (muscle shrinkage because of disuse). We additionally start to lose bone density leading very slowly to eventual osteoporosis.
Muscle is energetic tissue and therefore burns calories. While we begin to lose muscle to atrophy, our metabolism begins to decelerate and as a result we start gaining weight. Over 50% of this is due to inactive lifestyle.
Is there anything you can do to help reverse this process? The answer is yes you can.
How to Keep Fit After 40
We’ve all seen it, there are two women standing together, one is around 35 years old while the other is around 50, yet the older woman looks more firm and healthy than the younger woman.
You might ask yourself; how does she do it? The answer is she exercises regularly.
You, at any age can be in superb shape as well, however you have to exercise. You need to make regular exercising a part of your everyday life.
An excellent exercising routine might be one that contains both cardio and resistance Training with some stretching before and after the workout.
Many choose to do cardio and weight training separately, but loads of people find that the best exercise for them is circuit training. Circuit training utilizes all 3 of these varieties of exercise, and this could be very effective and time saving.
People seem to think that cardio training is the best way to lose and maintain weight, but since you burn 75% of the calories at rest, this is not the case.
Aerobic training only burns calories during the exercise, but within few hours after you are finished, you burn no more calories than before.
Weight training on the other hand builds and maintains muscle. Because muscle is active tissue, you burn more calories than before, even at rest. One pound of fat burns around 4 calories per day while one pound of muscle burns around 50 calories per day.
After turning 30 an inactive person will lose half to one pound of muscle every year.
That means that 10 years of muscle loss due to inactivity compares to a metabolism slowing down to approximately 450 calories per day!
If you want to lose fat and gain muscle mass, then you have to include resistance training into your exercise routine. Individuals who include weight training to their exercise routine lose around 44% more fat than those who don’t.
Adding resistance training to your regular workout will also delay many of the effects of aging.
People even in their 80s and 90s have seen as much as a 200% improvement in their strength levels within 3-4 weeks of starting to exercise.
You can definitely stay fit and sleek after 40, but the message is clear, regular exercise with resistance training or weights included is an absolute must if you want to stay in shape.
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