I lost around four to five stone about a decade ago, with most of that weight coming off in my late thirties and early forties. More recently, I wanted to lose a little bit of weight again. Nowhere near the amount I lost previously, but my weight had crept up a little after quite a stressful period in my life. And I must admit, this time around it did feel harder (yes, I know I am a weight loss coach, so maybe you find it odd to hear that… but I am human still, and believe in keeping it real and honest!).
That got me thinking. If losing weight feels harder now than it did when you were younger, you probably aren’t imagining it.
I hear a similar thing from a lot of the women I coach who are peri or post-menopausal. Many of them tell me they’re suddenly storing much more weight around their middle, despite feeling as though they haven’t really changed their eating or exercise habits very much.
There are genuine changes that happen as we get older which can make gaining weight easier and losing it more difficult. Your body composition can change, you may gradually lose muscle, your energy requirements can fall and, for women, menopause can add another layer to the picture.
But I think there’s an important distinction to make here. Getting older doesn’t suddenly make weight loss impossible, and your metabolism doesn’t simply grind to a halt once you hit 40 or 50. What tends to happen is a combination of relatively small changes that build up over time.
Add changes in lifestyle, work, sleep, family commitments and how much we naturally move during the day, and it becomes much easier to understand why someone’s weight might gradually creep upwards. The good news is that most of these things can be worked with.
Why Do We Gain Weight as We Get Older?
One of the biggest misconceptions around weight gain and ageing is that our metabolism suddenly falls off a cliff at a particular age. It isn’t quite that simple. Our metabolism does change as we get older, but one important reason for this is that we tend to gradually lose muscle. Muscle requires energy to maintain, so if you have less of it, your body generally needs fewer calories.
At the same time, many of us simply become less active. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve stopped exercising. You could still go to the gym three times a week but move considerably less across the rest of the week than you did 20 years ago.
You might have a more sedentary job, drive more often, have less energy due to menopause, spend more time sitting down in the evening or no longer spend your weekends chasing young children around. Those small reductions in everyday movement can make a surprisingly big difference when they’re repeated week after week and year after year.
Your eating habits might not have changed very much at all. The problem is that the amount of energy your body uses may have changed. This is why someone can genuinely say, “I’m not eating any more than I used to”, and still find themselves gradually gaining weight.
Does Menopause Cause Weight Gain?
Menopause deserves its own section because there are additional changes happening for women that aren’t simply part of getting older. The hormonal changes associated with perimenopause and menopause can affect where fat is stored, with more fat tending to accumulate around the middle. Changes in oestrogen can also interact with muscle mass, sleep, mood and energy levels.
There are also indirect effects that I see regularly when working with women around this age. If you’re sleeping badly because of night sweats, feeling exhausted, experiencing changes in mood and generally not feeling like yourself, you’re probably not going to be as enthusiastic about exercising or preparing a healthy meal. Hunger and food choices can also become harder to manage when you’re tired.
So does menopause automatically make you gain weight? No. But it can create a combination of circumstances that make gaining weight easier and losing it harder. That’s an important difference because it means weight gain isn’t inevitable.
What Age Does Weight Gain Usually Start?
There isn’t a particular birthday where your body suddenly decides it’s time to start gaining weight. For many people, however, weight starts gradually creeping upwards during adulthood, often becoming more noticeable through their 30s, 40s and into their 50s or beyond.
Part of the reason is that this is often when lifestyle changes significantly. We might become more established in our careers and spend more time sitting at a desk. We may have children, less spare time and more responsibilities. Exercise that used to happen almost automatically has to be deliberately fitted into a busy week.
Muscle mass can also gradually decline as we get older, particularly if we aren’t doing anything to maintain it, while for women, perimenopause commonly adds another factor during the 40s and 50s.
The important thing is that none of this happens overnight. Weight gain with age is usually the result of relatively small changes accumulating over several years.
Normal Weight Gain With Age (What the Data Actually Shows)
It’s very common for adults to become heavier as they move through early and middle adulthood, but that doesn’t mean there’s a specific amount of weight that everybody is destined to gain. Population studies generally show gradual weight gain rather than people suddenly becoming significantly heavier at a particular age. Across adulthood, even an average increase of around half a kilogram a year can become meaningful when you look at it over 10 or 20 years.
That’s worth putting into perspective. Half a kilogram is just over a pound. You probably wouldn’t notice that difference from one year to the next, but repeated over a decade, you’re potentially looking at around 5kg or 11lb. This is also why age-related weight gain can feel as though it has suddenly appeared. Often it hasn’t. It’s been happening very gradually in the background.
Population averages aren’t targets, though. You don’t have to accept gaining a certain amount of weight every decade simply because other people do.
Why Is It Harder to Lose Weight With Age?
So, is it actually harder to lose weight as you get older? For many people, yes, it can be, but probably not for the reasons you’ve been led to believe. The biggest issue isn’t usually that your metabolism has suddenly become incredibly slow. Instead, several smaller things can combine.
You may have less muscle than you used to, meaning your body requires slightly less energy. You may move less throughout the day without even realising it. Hormonal changes can influence body composition and fat distribution, particularly around menopause. Poor sleep can make appetite and food choices harder to manage.
You may also simply have a smaller margin to work with. If your body now needs fewer calories than it did when you were 25, the amount you can eat while still creating a calorie deficit may be lower. That can make losing weight feel slower and require a little more attention to what you’re eating.
There’s another side to this, though. Older adults often have something younger adults don’t: experience. You probably understand yourself better. You may be less interested in extreme diets and more willing to make changes you can actually live with. And if you approach weight loss intelligently, particularly by combining nutrition with strength training and regular movement, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t make significant progress.
How to Lose Weight as You Get Older
The fundamentals of weight loss don’t suddenly change because you’ve reached your 40s, 50s, 60s or beyond. You still need to create an energy deficit over time.
What may need to change is how you go about creating it.
I generally prefer to focus on a handful of things rather than trying to completely overhaul someone’s life at once:
- Prioritise protein. Protein helps with fullness and, importantly as we get older, helps support and maintain muscle.
- Strength train. Maintaining muscle becomes increasingly important with age. You don’t need to become a bodybuilder, but some form of progressive resistance training is incredibly useful.
- Keep moving outside your workouts. Walking and general everyday activity matter. Three gym sessions don’t completely compensate for spending almost every other waking hour sitting down.
- Build meals around nutritious foods. Protein, vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and other minimally processed foods generally make managing calories and hunger considerably easier.
- Don’t ignore sleep. You don’t need perfect sleep to lose weight, but being permanently exhausted can make managing hunger, motivation and activity much harder.
- Be realistic about the speed of weight loss. You don’t need to lose several pounds every week for a diet to be working.
Most importantly, don’t respond to slower weight loss by immediately making everything more extreme.
I’ve coached plenty of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond who have successfully lost significant amounts of weight. The answer is rarely to eat as little as possible and exercise every day.
It’s usually about finding the handful of things that are currently getting in the way, changing them and then being consistent for long enough to see the results.
Your approach at 55 might need to look different from the diet you followed at 25. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It might actually be a much better one.
FAQs
Why Is It Harder to Lose Weight as You Age?
Losing weight can become harder as you age because your body composition, energy requirements and activity levels can change. We also tend to lose muscle as we get older, particularly if we don’t strength train, and this can reduce the amount of energy our bodies use. That doesn’t mean you can’t lose weight as you get older. It may simply mean that the approach that worked when you were younger needs adjusting.
Is It Harder to Lose Weight When You’re Older?
It can be, although ageing itself isn’t the only reason. Lower activity levels, reduced muscle mass, changes in sleep, lifestyle and, for women, menopause can all contribute. The basic principle of weight loss remains the same. You need to consistently use more energy than you consume, but how you achieve that may need to change as you get older.
What Age Is It Harder to Lose Weight?
There isn’t one specific age when weight loss suddenly becomes difficult. Changes in activity and muscle mass can happen gradually throughout adulthood, while women may notice additional changes during perimenopause and menopause, commonly during their 40s and 50s. Rather than focusing on a particular age, it’s more useful to look at what’s actually changed in your body and lifestyle.
What Age Do Women Start Gaining Weight?
Women can gain weight at any age, but gradual weight gain is common throughout adulthood and may become more noticeable during the 40s and 50s. This often coincides with perimenopause and menopause, but hormonal changes aren’t the only explanation. Activity, muscle mass, sleep, stress and eating habits can all contribute.
Why Do You Gain Weight as You Get Older?
People often gain weight as they get older because they gradually become less active, lose muscle and require slightly less energy than they did when they were younger. The difference can be surprisingly small from year to year, but a small calorie surplus repeated consistently over many years can eventually result in noticeable weight gain.
How Can an Older Person Lose Weight?
The best approach is usually one that combines a manageable calorie deficit with enough protein, regular movement and strength training to help maintain muscle. You don’t need an extreme diet simply because you’re older. In fact, maintaining muscle and eating a nutritious, balanced diet become increasingly important as you age. The aim shouldn’t just be to make the number on the scales smaller. It’s to lose excess body fat while keeping yourself strong, active and able to maintain the results afterwards.
Weight Loss Coaching With SimoN Graham
I lost most of my own weight in my late thirties and early forties, losing around four to five stone, so I know what it’s like to go through the process rather than just talk about it. I’ve also worked with weight loss coaching clients of all ages, from people in their twenties right through to their seventies.
If you’re interested in weight loss coaching and would like some support finding an approach that works for your age, lifestyle and circumstances, you can find out more about my online weight loss coaching and book a free initial chat with me.
