Simply put, your metabolism is all of the chemical reactions that helps to
keep your body alive. It also determines how many calories you burn per day.
The faster your metabolism, the more calories you burn.
The speed of your metabolism is influenced by four key factors (1Trusted Source):
Resting metabolic rate (RMR): How many calories you burn while you are resting
or asleep. It is the least amount needed to keep you alive and functioning.
Thermic effect of food (TEF): How many calories you burn through digesting
and absorbing food. TEF is usually 10% of your daily calories burned.
Exercise: How many calories you burn through exercise.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT):
How many calories you burn through non-exercise
activities, such as standing, fidgeting, washing the dishes
and other household chores.
Other things that can affect your metabolism include age,
height, muscle mass and hormonal factors (1Trusted Source).
Unfortunately, research shows that your metabolism slows down with age.
A few reasons for this include less activity, muscle loss and the aging of your
internal components (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
Summary: Your metabolism comprises all of the chemical reactions that help keep your body alive. Resting metabolic rate (RMR), thermic effect of food (TEF), exercise and non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) all determine your metabolic speed.
People Tend to Be Less Active With Age
Your activity levels can significantly affect the speed of your metabolism.
In fact, activity — both exercise and non-exercise activity — makes up roughly 10–30%
of your calories burned daily. For very active people, this number can be as high as 50% (4Trusted Source).
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the calories burned through activity
other than exercise. This includes tasks like standing, washing the dishes and other
household chores.
Unfortunately, older adults are typically less active and burn fewer calories through activity. Research shows that over a quarter of Americans aged 50–65 don’t exercise outside of work. For people over 75, this increases to over a third (5Trusted Source). Research also shows older adults burn roughly 29% fewer calories through NEAT
(6Trusted Source).
Staying active can help prevent this drop in metabolism.
One study of 65 healthy young people (21–35 years) and older people (50–72 years) showed that regular endurance exercise prevents metabolism from slowing down
with age (7Trusted Source).
Summary: Research shows that people become less active with age.
Being less active can significantly slow down your metabolism, as it is
responsible for 10–30% of your daily calories burned.
The average adult loses 3–8% of muscle during each decade after 30 (8Trusted Source).
In fact, research shows that once you reach 80, you have roughly 30% less muscle than when you were 20 (9Trusted Source).
This loss of muscle with age is known as sarcopenia, and can lead to fractures, weakness and early death (10Trusted Source).
Sarcopenia also slows down your metabolism, as having more muscle increases your resting metabolism (11Trusted Source).
A study of 959 people found that people aged 70 had 20 pounds (9 kg)
less muscle mass and 11% slower resting metabolism (RMR) than people aged 40 (12).
Because muscle mass is affected by your activity level, being less active is one reason
why you lose more muscle with age (13Trusted Source).
Other reasons include consuming fewer calories and protein, as well as a decrease
in the production of hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone and growth hormone,
(13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source).
Summary: Muscle mass increases your resting metabolism.
However, people lose muscle with age due to being less active,
changes in diet and a decrease in hormone production.
METABOLIC PROCESSES SLOW DOWN WITH AGE.
How many calories you burn at rest (RMR) is determined
by chemical reactions inside your body.
Two cellular components that drive these reactions are your
sodium-potassium pumps and mitochondria (15Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source).
The sodium-potassium pumps help generate nerve impulses and muscle and heart contractions, while the mitochondria create energy for your cells (17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source, 19Trusted Source).
Research shows that both components lose efficiency with age and thus slow down your metabolism. For instance, one study compared the rate of the sodium-potassium pumps between 27 younger men and 25 older men.
The pumps were 18% slower in older adults,
resulting in burning 101 fewer calories per day (16Trusted Source).
Another study compared changes in the mitochondria between 9 younger adults
(average age of 39) and 40 older adults (average age 69) (20Trusted Source).
Scientists found that older adults had 20% fewer mitochondria.
Additionally, their mitochondria were nearly 50% less efficient at using oxygen to create energy — a process that helps drive your metabolism. That said, compared to both activity and muscle mass, these internal components have a lower effect on the speed of your metabolism.
Summary: Cellular components like the mitochondria and sodium-potassium pumps become less efficient with age. However, the effect on metabolism is still less than muscle loss and activity.
How Much Does Metabolism Slow Down With Age?
The speed of your metabolism is affected by your activity levels, muscle mass
and several other factors. As a result, metabolic speed varies from person to person.
For instance, one study compared the RMR of three groups of people: those aged 20–34, 60–74 and over 90. Compared to the youngest group, people aged 60–74 burned roughly 122 fewer calories, while people over 90 burned around 422 fewer calories.
However, after accounting for differences in gender, muscle and fat, scientists found that the people aged 60–74 burned only 24 fewer calories, while those over 90 burned 53 fewer calories on average daily.
This shows that maintaining muscle is incredibly important as you age (21Trusted Source).
Another study followed 516 older adults (aged 60 plus) for twelve years to see how much their metabolism fell per decade. After accounting for muscle and fat differences, per decade, women burned 20 fewer calories at rest, while men burned 70 fewer calories.
Interestingly, both men and women were also less active and burned 115 fewer calories through activity per decade. This shows that staying active as you age is crucial to maintaining metabolism (3Trusted Source).
Nevertheless, one study found no difference in RMR between women of all ages.
However, the oldest group of people in the study lived very long (over 95 years),
and it is thought their higher metabolisms are the reason why (22Trusted Source).
In short, research seems to show that being less active and losing muscle has the
greatest negative effect on your metabolism.
Summary: Research shows that losing muscle and being less active are the biggest reasons why your metabolism slows down with age. Compared to these two factors, everything else only has a minor effect.
How Can You Prevent Your Metabolism Slowing Down with Age?
Although the metabolism typically slows down with age, there are many things you
can due to fight this. Here are six ways you can combat the effects of aging on your
metabolism. 6 Mistakes That Slow Down Your Metabolism (healthline.com)
1. Try Resistance Training
Resistance training, or weight lifting, is great for preventing a slowing metabolism.
It offers the benefits of exercise while preserving muscle mass — two factors that
affect the speed of your metabolism.
One study with 13 healthy men aged 50–65 found that 16 weeks of resistance
training three times weekly increased their RMR by 7.7% (23Trusted Source).
Another study with 15 people aged 61–77 found that half a year of resistance
training three times weekly increased RMR by 6.8% (24Trusted Source).
2. Try High-Intensity Interval Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) can help prevent a slowing metabolism.
It is a training technique that alternates between intense anaerobic exercise
with short periods of rest. HIIT also continues to burn calories long after you
finish exercising. This is called the “afterburn effect.”
It occurs because your muscles need to use more energy
to recover after exercise (25Trusted Source, 26Trusted Source).
In fact, research has shown that HIIT can burn up to 190 calories over
14 hours after exercising (26Trusted Source).
Research also shows that HIIT can help your body build and preserve
muscle mass with age (27Trusted Source).
3. Get Plenty of Sleep
Research shows a lack of sleep can slow down your metabolism.
Fortunately, a good night’s rest can reverse this effect (28Trusted Source).
One study found 4 hours of sleep reduced metabolism by 2.6% compared to 10 hours of sleep. Fortunately, a night of long sleep (12 hours) helped restore metabolism (29Trusted Source). It also seems that poor sleep may increase muscle loss.
Since muscle influences your RMR, losing muscle can slow down your metabolism (30Trusted Source). If you struggle to fall asleep, try unplugging from technology
at least one hour before bed. Alternatively, try a sleep supplement. Melatonin 3 mg.
Melatonin’s benefits extend beyond sleep regulation for cattle (msn.com)
Mayo Clinic Q and A: 5 ways to get better sleep (msn.com)
4. Eat More Protein-Rich Foods
Eating more protein-rich foods can help fight a slowing metabolism.
That’s because your body burns more calories while consuming, digesting and absorbing protein-rich foods. This is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF). Protein-rich foods have a higher TEF than carb- and fat-rich foods (31Trusted Source).
In fact, studies have shown that consuming 25–30% of your calories from protein can boost your metabolism by up to 80–100 calories per day, compared to lower protein diets (32Trusted Source).
Protein is also essential to fight sarcopenia. Thus, a protein-rich diet can fight an aging metabolism by preserving muscle (33Trusted Source).
A simple way to eat more protein daily is to have a source of protein at every meal.
5. Make Sure You Eat Enough Food
A low-calorie diet can slow down your metabolism by
switching your body into “starvation mode” (34Trusted Source).
While dieting has its benefits when you’re younger, maintaining
muscle mass is more important with age (35Trusted Source).
Older adults also tend to have a lower appetite, which may decrease
calorie intake and slow metabolism (36Trusted Source).
If you struggle to eat enough calories, try eating smaller portions more frequently.
It is also great to have high-calorie snacks like cheese and nuts handy.
6. Drink Green Tea
Green tea can increase your metabolism by 4–5% (37Trusted Source).
This is because green tea contains caffeine and plant compounds,
which have been shown to increase your resting metabolism (38Trusted Source).
A study in 10 healthy men found that drinking green tea three times daily increased
their metabolism by 4% over 24 hours (39Trusted Source).
Summary: Although your metabolism slows down with age, there are many ways to combat this. This includes resistance training, high-intensity training, getting plenty of rest, eating enough protein and calories and drinking green tea.
Q. How can metabolism be increased?
Dr. Howard E. LeWine M.D. Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing · 40 years of experience ·
USAMetabolism is the combination of all the chemical processes needed to sustain life.
The minimum amount of energy needed to carry out these basic processes while
fasting and at rest is your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Total energy expenditure (TEE) is a combination of BMR,
plus energy used for physical activities and energy used to digest food.
You can’t make any significant changes to your BMR.
But you can increase your TEE by getting more aerobic exercise and doing
strength training as well as staying physically active throughout the day.
Dr. Sanju SaranganDoctor of Medicine (MBBS) · 2 years of experience ·
IndiaDoes sugar slow down your metabolism?
1. Reduce beverage or soda consumption and increase intake of water.
2. Exercise and high-intensity interval training commonly called HIIT helps
to increase your metabolic rate by burning more fat than normal exercises.
3. Eat plenty of protein in your diet as it induces a feeling of fullness and
prevents overeating.
4. Drinking green tea and coffee regularly helps boost metabolism.
5. Doing more exercise and burning more calories are the way to go.
6. Proper sleep plays a vital role as well.
Dr. Himanshu J. VatsDoctor of Medicine (MBBS) · 1.5 years of experience ·
IndiaThe Worst Foods & Drinks for Your Metabolism (eatthis.com)
5 ways to boost metabolism
1. Exercise more.
Add interval training to your cardio routine and burn more calories in less time.
2. Weight train.
Add muscle mass to your body and you can burn more calories at rest.
3. Don’t skip meals, especially breakfast. 4. Eat fat-burning foods.
5. Get a good night’s sleep every night.
Related Questions
Q. Why do older people have slow metabolism?
Dr. Marcella Abunahman PereiraSpecialization in Clinical Cardiology · 12 years of experience ·
BrazilWith aging, there is a reduction in lean mass, a reduction in hormone production and an increase in fat tissue. This affects the burning of energy, and it slows down metabolism.
Disclaimer: Medical advice varies across regions. Advice from professionals outside your region should be used at your own discretion. Or you should contact a local health professional. The Newest Immigrants Will Change American Spanish.
How many different Spanish dialects are there?
The Bottom Line
Research shows that your metabolism tends to slow down with age.
Being less active, losing muscle mass and the aging of your internal
components all contribute to a sluggish metabolism.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to fight aging by slowing down your metabolism.
This includes weightlifting, high-intensity interval training, eating enough calories and protein, getting plenty of sleep and drinking green tea.
Try adding a few of these strategies into your daily routine
to help keep your metabolism fast and even give it a boost.
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