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Myth #9: As you get older, you're destined to become overweight.
With age comes knowledge and, sometimes, weight.
The first clue as to why some of us struggle to effectively manage our health and weight as we get older may be revealed if we take a moment to remember our childhood. For most of us, in our preteen years, we were bursting at the seams with energy and cramming every waking minute with as much life as humanly possible.
Rising with the early birds and last to bed at night, we would often challenge our parents' rule that we should get a decent night's sleep. As adults with the weight of the world on our shoulders, we remain in our beds for as long as we possibly can, thinking of all the reasons to stay in bed, rather than getting up to meet the new day. The snooze button has become our new best friend, and our worst enemy is the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table.
With not a care in the world and so many things to do, we used to let our lives revolve around creativity, dreams and wishes of what might be possible. This becomes quite the opposite when we get older. We succumb to the stresses involved in working or in raising children, eat food for comfort rather than necessity, and basically just try to survive.
For those of you that went to school more than two decades ago, you would have (1) eaten far less of processed food and (2) eaten at set times, during your scheduled breaks. We ate what we could get in the breaks we were given and didn't have the option to raid the fridge or the nearest vending machine to satisfy random food cravings. With our choices reduced, discipline was easier.
With no car and no driver's license, we were forced to use our feet as our transportation. We burned more calories and got far more fresh air than the average adult.
Socializing when we were kids could be playing with a Frisbee on the beach or playing physically active games outside. These days, socializing is commonly done in a restaurant or bar with a few beers and calorie-dense food.
You can easily see why many people make the assumption that as they get older, weight gain is inevitable. It is probable yet preventable. The first step to rewinding the body is to act like a child. Move more, eat less processed foods, be disciplined as to when you eat, and enjoy life. Your energy levels will go up and you will feel alive again.
Yes it is true that as we get past the age of 40 years, our bodies start to decrease growth hormone production by around 0.5 - 1% per year of age. All we need to do is to move 0.5-1% more or eat a little better.
The second clue as to why we sometimes struggle to lose weight may lie with our ancestors. If we look at the lifestyle and eating habits of our prehistoric ancestors, we may better understand the constant battle we now face against our pre-programmed genetics.
For millennia, human beings have been hunters and gatherers by nature. A man's role was predominantly to impregnate a woman, thus creating children, then to provide shelter and food.
When a man puts on weight, the first place fat tissue gathers is around the abdomen. Unfortunately, this is also the last place the fat comes off too.
When we think of the prehistoric human, we might conjure up images of Spartan-like men with six-pack abs and bulging biceps. This, however, would probably not been the case. The reason is preprogrammed genetics.
Our bodies evolved in a design geared toward ensuring procreation and the continuation of human existence. Since the role of a male Homo sapiens was to make sure he and his dependents were fed and since food often came in the form of dangerous wild animals, the male anatomy developed some safety features. Fat gathers around the stomach region to protect vital organs and increase the chances of survival if attacked. These days, we're fortunate that don't need to hunt for our dinner.
In the case of women, whose predominant purpose once was to bear and raise children, fat tissue naturally tends gather around the hips to protect their childbearing organs. Again, for a woman, this is the first place where excess calories are stored and the last place it will come off.
Fat tissue is also one of the best forms of insulation, another reason why fat gathers around our vital organs. You will find that races of people that live in warmer climates find it far easier to keep fat off, as the body does not require it for insulation. People that live in colder climates struggle more to shift the weight as the body instinctively needs it to stay insulated.
Although we now live in a more controlled and much safer environment, these safety features are, unfortunately, already programmed into our genetics. All you need to do is look around and see the areas in which men and women generally will store their body fat.
As you can see, we are not actually designed to have six-pack abs, and you now understand why so few of us have chiselled abs. It is actually highly unnatural, hence the difficulties men and woman have with shifting fat from those protective regions.
The healthy range of body fat for men to maintain is between 12 to 18 percent. For the abdomen muscles to be noticed, the outer layers of fat need to be reduced to around 6-8 percent body fat. To go against nature, you need to understand the body so you’ll know how to trick it into letting go of fat stores.
Despite the fact that we constantly battle our pre-programmed genetics, if we plan our eating habits and make exercise a part of our day, we can win the fight against fat. Fortunately these days, fresh vegetables, butchered meats and dairy are so readily available that we can pretty much consume quality foods whenever we wish.