The Older You Are, The More You Gotta Move To Lose!

When I was 34 years old I lost 30 pounds without exercise. I followed the Weight Watchers program (materials purchsed on Ebay because I was a broke single mother of four) and occasionally took short walks during my lunch at work. That was it. I lost at the rate of 1-2 pounds a week, just like I was supposed to. Back then it wasn't all that hard.

Fast forward: Now I'm 10 years older and if I were to do that now, my weight would not budge. Not a bit. I think this is typical for most of as as we get older (and for many people in general): If we don't move, we won't lose.

I know they say that diet is 70-80% of the weight loss battle, and to a degree I agree with that. Why? Because when I eat whatever I want while exercising I GAIN weight. But if I eat what I am supposed to and don't exercise, I stay the same or lose very, very slowly. That tells me the diet is more powerful in keeping fat at bay than exercise. But if I, and most other people in mid-life and older, don't exercise we are going to have trouble shedding serious pounds.

Barring a medical condition, the only time I have seen people drop serious weight over the age of about 40 without exercising is when they have tremendous amounts of weight to lose. At first, these folks can just follow a sensible eating plan and weight will come off at a fairly predictable pace. But I've noted that usually when people get to within about 60-70 pounds of their goal weight their loss will either slow down significantly or come to a standstill without exercise.

At this point, something has to change. After close examination of diet (Are they TRULY following the program? Getting enough protein? Too many calories? Too few calories? Eating often enough?), the next thing to look at is the dreaded E word: Exercise.

But here is the beautiful thing: If you have been sedentary, you don't have to spend hours in the gym every day. You can just go for a 20 minute walk. The important thing is that you go higher than your current exercise level most days of the week. Often this little bump in activity is enough to get the metabolism going and the scale moving downward again.

As time goes on, you may hit another plateau. Then it's time to re-examine your diet and exercise levels again. Assuming your eating plan is on target, it's time to bump up the exercise a little more. I know this stinks, but it's just what has to be done to lose weight as we get older.

One thing you need to keep in mind if you are new to exercise, or if it has been a long time (several months) since you have exercised, is that you do NOT want to start off all gang-busters. If you do this, one of two things will more than likely happen: You will either burn out or get hurt. Bodies need time to adjust. At first an easy walk will be enough. When you feel ready (make sure you know the difference between "not ready" and "lazy"), either pick up your speed or increase your time. When you get to where you can walk an hour (if you have that much time), it's time to pick up the pace. There is really not a lot of point in spending more than an hour doing cardio exercise, unless you are a distance athlete.

When you get to where you feel mentally ready, you can also start to add some weight lifting. But I've blogged about that before. The point of today's blog is that if you want to lose weight when you are middle aged and older (and some younger folks with slower metabolisms) you will probably have to exercise past your current activity level to see the scale move. This is a fact a lot of people don't want to face, but if you truly want to climb out from underneath your excess fat, you are going to have to get going!

Exercise is the key that unlocks the nutrition door so that your healthy eating plan can do it's job and move the excess fat off of your body. Just give in, accept it, and start moving. :)

Weights vs. Aerobics

As time has gone on, I've come to understand that weight bearing exercise is more important than aerobic exercise.

Let me say it another way: If I have to make a choice between lifting weights and doing aerobic activity, I'll choose the weight lifting. Every time.


I didn't always feel this way. I used to think the opposite was true. I believed the heart was the most important muscle in the body (still do), and that the best way to condition it was through aerobic activity.This is the part that has.

Here are some reasons why:

- Weight lifting shapes your body like aerobics can't. Ever seen a body that is aerobically fit but not muscularly fit? It's missing shape and, in the case of women, usually curve. You can actually CHANGE the overall line of your body by adding muscle. All aerobics does to your body shape, at best, is make is a smaller, less-fat version of itself. I've never been able to add pleasing lines to my body with aerobic activity the way I have been able to with weight lifting. Through weight lifting I've been able to build my naturally-very-slight-shoulders up and tighten my abs, which has helped to give me a more hour-glassed shape and therefore make my hips look more balanced.

Because of this, muscle tone makes men look more masculine and women look more feminine.

- Muscle burns more calories at rest, so when you have more muscle on your body your resting metabolism (how many calories you burn just to keep your body alive) rises. Additionally, the calorie burn from the actual weight-lifting exercises themselves can continue for up to 24 hours. On the other hand, aerobic activity burns calories while you are doing it, but that calorie-burning effect stops very quickly after the activity stops. So it's a better calorie-burning-investment over all to build muscle.

In a nutshell, weight bearing activities are more effective at helping you shed fat than aerobic activity.

-Weight bearing activities are more practical because they make you stronger for doing daily activities. You can't gain strength to lift heavy grocery bags or help someone build a fence with aerobic activity. I'm willing to bet that no one is going to ask you to run away from something any time soon. But help them lift a TV? That just might happen!

- Weight lifting makes bones stronger, therefore enabling you to be less prone to injury as you age. This is especially important for women, who tend to lose bone density much more rapidly than men, but is still a significant benefit for both sexes. In case you are wondering how this happens, the muscles are attached to ligaments that are attached to the bones. When the ligaments tug on the bone, the body reacts by making the bone stronger to be able to withstand the pulling. The more and heavier you lift, the more dense the bone becomes, therefore the less prone you are to bone breakage.

Pretty cool, huh?

- If you are really working out hard doing weight-bearing activity, it can very well become aerobic. Ever seen someone who is weight lifting huffing and puffing? That's because they are using oxygen! And the word "aerobic" means "With oxygen". 'Nuff said.

I could go on, but the thing I want people to take home here is that if given a choice, lifting weights is more important to your healthy functioning over the long-haul than aerobic activity. Do I want you to stop aerobic activity? NO! It's still important, but weight lifting needs to be at the top of your priority list.

If you're not sure if you have time to do both weight lifting and aerobic activity on the same day, do your lifting first. Then with whatever time you have left, do aerobic activity.

Likewise, if you don't enjoy weight lifting as much, do it first, so that it's over and done with and you don't have time to talk yourself out of it.

Next blog I'll talk about why women shouldn't be afraid to lift heavy. But in the meantime just trust me: The more muscle, the better!