So here is our secret weapon for clients to fight fat and win the fight…muscle. Females and in general people 40+ tend not to gravitate to building muscle and strength when trying to get in shape. This may be the fitness industries biggest screw up to date in that dieting and ramping up activity levels is temporary only.

Here is the easiest analogy:

When you are young and growing your body is full of hormones and you have the strength and energy of youth. Basically you are an 8 cylinder sports car, fast and you use a lot of fuel. As growth levels off so do your hormones and in our ‘society of ease and comfort’ you naturally slow down…become less physical. The average person downgrades to a 6 cylinder body/engine and a bit of fat shows up as a bit of muscle disappears.

This is where the real trouble starts for modern folk. As a 6 cylinder you use less strength burn less fuel and here is the important part:

“When you lack muscle you decrease the ability to maintain the muscle you still have. This is a primary cause of Sarcopenia”

As with putting on unwanted fat you suddenly notice in your 40’s that you have only 4 cylinder power and wonder when exactly this happened.

Strength and Fitness

Sarcopenia

This is why even if you diet the weight comes back on, the small engine just won’t use much fuel and unless you stay as a chronic dieter you gain it back. Worse yet even if you get super active your smaller muscles just don’t burn much fuel and even if you are a chronic exerciser you can’t keep the weight off.

Add to this that dieting and excessive exercising burns muscle and it is a nasty trap so many get stuck in. The bottom line is less strength actually encourages less muscle > encourages slower metabolism > encourages more fat.

We will explain in our next blog why your bodies physiology is set up this way and how it works but suffice to say it is a huge reason why Sarcopenia is directly linked with poor health even if the connection isn’t immediately obvious.

Lesson #1. Stop starving, start strengthening!

Be well, be strong,

Don’t forget to follow: http://www.canadiansarcopeniafoundation.com/

Andrew and Tierney

-WeFit