Belly fat is associated with a slower metabolism after age 60

1

As people reach middle age, their body fat-to-weight ratio tends to increase. This weight shift usually occurs around the midsection, increasing the risk of further complications.

Although in retrospect we might accept these changes as an inevitable fact of aging, a new study has found that metabolic rate, which determines how many calories the body burns, may not decrease until a person reaches 60.

A team of researchers led by the Univ. Duke University in North Carolina, analyzed a person's metabolic rate throughout their life.

The team analyzed the calories burned by more than 6,600 people between the ages of one week and 95 years in 29 countries. They found that a newborn uses the same amount of energy as an adult, taking into account differences in body mass and size.

The researchers noted that this “gas-guzzling” rate continues until the child reaches the age of two, but then slows to about three percent per year, gradually decreasing into adulthood.

The metabolic rate stabilizes only in early adulthood, before about age 20.

Herman Ponzer, co-author of the study and associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, said:

“Something happens inside the child's cells to make them more active, and we don't yet know what these processes are.” that metabolism remained stable between the ages of 20 and 60.

The researchers noted that these findings shed new light on previous studies that linked slowing metabolism to weight gain in middle age.

< p>The study was the result of the work of an international group of scientists, including Professor John Speakman from the University of Aberdeen.