Is ageing changing our body shape?

Everyone’s body changes as they age. This is an inevitable process that we must go through. Those changes can be either positive or negative, depending on your outlook in life, the effort you put into your exercise and eating habits.

We do tend to lose muscle mass and our bones lose their mineral content.

After the age of 30, body fat may steadily increase. The likelihood of developing a belly increases. This is very dangerous, considering the fat in our mid section covers all major organs. This then filters through in diseases common with ageing, such as diabetes & heart disease. The excess fat stores on our bodies can make it difficult to move around, and lack of exercise can leave us out of shape and lacking balance. Therefore, falls and trips are more likely to occur, leading to more stability issues.

The main reason why body composition changes, is due to most peoples lack of movement on a regular basis. Most people are chained to their desks, working constantly, traveling whilst seated, and become exhausted from family and social commitments. When you have a family and household to run, as well as working full time, has a huge impact on your energy levels. The real issue here is that a lot of people are leading a sedentary lifestyle, 7 days per week. Another issue is that people are not eating as well as they can be, opting for quick and easy take away meals that are nutritionally poor. Over time, these choices add up to fat gain, and decrease in health and lifespan.

As stated above, ageing is a natural part of the human progress, but we do have a choice we can make today, to help us attain a future that’s healthy, lean and increase our longevity. The question really is, are people willing to make those lifestyle and habit choices in order to gain optimal health?

The answer will depend on your values and what you hold important in your life. For me, health, vitality, looking and feeling my best are a top priority. I believe that your health is your wealth, and without it, you wont life a long and impactful life.

If we want to defy the signs of ageing, then we need to start an intelligent plan that will work in conjunction with our lifestyle, so that we can stick to it over long periods of time.

4 strategies that define the signs of ageing

1. Exercise daily – be active every day in some way. This can be low impact exercise, yoga, walking of Pilates. set your intention to put moving around regularly on your to do list. That means, walk to work, walk to speak with a fellow colleague – don’t use the phone. Move around as much as you can. Sitting down for long periods is bad for your health, and decreases life span.
2. Train with weights – Weighs will help you lose body fat and strengthen your bone density. It will also increase your balance and mobility, leading to less falls and fractures. It also increases your muscle mass, making your metabolism work a lot better, especially when at rest.
3. Eat healthy – Healthy eating should be your main goal. Eating vegetables & high grade sources of protein need to be part of every meal you consume. Eat keeping in mind that you are increasing your health, wellbeing and lifespan.
4. Stress less and sleep more – As challenging as these are, it’s really important you try hard to control your stress levels and sleep as much as you can. When these are in balance, you will feel better, have more energy and make positive food and lifestyle choices. Stress and lack of sleep increase our cravings for junk foods so we can get an instant hit of energy. No one is perfect, but we can aim to do our best and realise that when it happens, it’s important to keep making the best choices for our health.

I do hope this answers your question somewhat.

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