People gain weight in middle age, is it because of a decrease in basal metabolism? Don't be misled

Unless you are born with a body that cannot gain weight, people will generally go through several inevitable points of weight gain in their lives. The first is after graduation, the second is after marriage, and the third is when people reach middle age.

Why are there these three points of weight gain? Gaining weight after graduation is due to changes in life patterns. After entering society, we are thrown into intense work, and our previous regular life and exercise habits are forgotten. Gaining weight after marriage has a lot to do with mood. The beginning of married life will make people feel happy and relaxed, which makes us relax in the management of our body shape. So why do people gain weight in middle age? The view we have always accepted is that with the increase of age, the basal metabolic rate of the human body begins to decline, energy consumption decreases, and gaining weight is a natural thing. But in fact, we have been misled. This reason sounds logical, but the key question is where does the reason of "decreased basal metabolic rate" come from?

In fact, before this, no research institution or research team had conducted a systematic study on the relationship between age and basal metabolism, nor were there any relevant statistical data, so "with increasing age, the basal metabolic rate decreases" has always been taken for granted.

Now we finally have accurate data. An international collaborative research project conducted a systematic study on age and basal metabolism. As many as 6,600 volunteers participated in the study. The final results showed that in infancy, the basal metabolism of human beings is the highest, and then it will slowly decline. At the age of 20, the basal metabolism will reach stability, and there will be basically no changes until the age of 60. After the age of 60, the basal metabolism will further decline. This research result was published in the form of a paper in the main journal of the top scientific journal "Science". Before further exploring this issue, let's first clarify what basal metabolism is.

Human life activities can be divided into two parts, one is energy intake and the other is energy consumption. If the energy intake is greater than the energy consumption, people will become fat, otherwise they will become thin.

The energy consumed by a person in a day can be divided into two parts, one is basal metabolism and the other is physical activity. The so-called basal metabolism refers to the minimum energy required for a person to maintain life activities when he is awake, quiet and fasting. To put it simply, it is the consumption that must be carried out to ensure that we do not die. The energy consumed is used to maintain our breathing, heartbeat, body temperature and other basic activities of the body's organs. For ordinary people, basal metabolism is the most important part of a day's energy consumption, and the specific amount consumed can be calculated by a formula: basal metabolic calorie consumption = body weight x 24 hours. Take myself as an example, I weigh 85 kilograms, multiplied by 24 hours is equal to 2040 calories.

An adult male consumes about 3,000 calories a day, and my basal metabolism is 2,040 calories, which means that basal metabolism accounts for nearly 70% of the total energy consumption in a day, and the other 30% is consumed by our physical activities.

Studies have shown that the basal metabolism of people aged 20-60 is stable and there is no difference, so people gain weight in middle age not because of a decline in basal metabolism. Since the basal metabolism remains unchanged, there are only two reasons for gaining weight, one is excessive intake, and the other is too little physical activity. So when you feel sad about your increasingly greasy figure again, don't use basal metabolism to comfort yourself, this is entirely your own fault. Think about what your diet structure was like before, and think about how long you haven't exercised. When you were 20 years old, you could walk to a dormitory dinner two or three kilometers away. Now you have to drive to a supermarket seven or eight hundred meters away. How can you not be greasy and gain weight? So, how can you avoid gaining weight in middle age? In addition to the well-known "control your mouth and move your legs", there is another important point, that is, to improve basal metabolism.

Basal metabolism accounts for the bulk of the body's daily energy consumption, so improving basal metabolism is very important for body management. So how do you improve basal metabolism?

Research has found that the higher the lean body mass, the higher the basal metabolism. The so-called lean body mass refers to fat-free body mass. In layman's terms, the higher the muscle content, the higher the basal metabolism, and the more energy you consume per unit time when lying still. Every kilogram of fat can consume 4 calories per day, while every kilogram of muscle can consume 12 calories per day, which is three times that of fat. Therefore, proper strength training has long-term significance for body management.

In addition, it is very important to manage your diet, but never diet. Because our body has a self-protection mechanism, dieting will significantly reduce the basal metabolism, so the basal metabolism of dieters is much lower than that of ordinary people. As long as you indulge a little and eat a full meal, you will immediately gain two pounds. In the long run, it is not only not conducive to weight loss, but will cause harm to the body.

For more information, please follow the official account: sunmonarch