Weight Management Over 55: What the Science Actually Says
By James Hilton, founder of Jim's Gym
If your body gets you up the stairs, round the shops and through a decent walk, it's worth more than whatever the bathroom scales said this morning.
Weight management over 55 is less about how much you weigh and more about what that weight is made of. Muscle and fat can swap places without the number moving at all. So the useful question is how to keep the muscle, and the research on that is encouraging.
I'm a trainer and not a dietitian, so I'll stay on my side of the fence. Where food comes into it, I'll hand you to Ian Thomas, our Registered Dietitian.
What the scales can't tell you
Scales give you one number. They can't tell muscle from fat, or a big lunch from a week of good training.
Muscle is the bit doing the work. It gets you out of a chair, carries the shopping and catches you when you trip on the kerb. Lose weight by losing muscle and the number looks better while everything else gets harder.
So when I say weight management, I mean keeping the useful stuff.
Your metabolism has been steadier than its reputation
A 2021 paper in Science by Herman Pontzer and a large international team [1] measured daily energy use in 6,421 people from 29 countries, aged from eight days to 95 years. Once they allowed for body size and how much muscle people carried, energy use held steady from about 20 to 60. After 60 it eased down by roughly 0.7 per cent a year.
That's a slow drift and not a cliff edge. The fair warning: this was an observational study comparing different people at different ages, not following the same people through life. It tells you what's typical. It doesn't tell you what any one change will do for you.
What it does point at is muscle. A lot of what gets blamed on a slowing metabolism in midlife looks more like a change in how much muscle there is to feed.
What happens to muscle when weight comes off
The most useful trial I've read on this is from Beavers and colleagues in the journal Obesity in 2017 [2]. They followed 249 adults with an average age of 67 for 18 months. Everyone followed a weight-loss diet. One group did nothing else, one added aerobic exercise and one added resistance training.
The diet-only group lost 5.7 kg. The aerobic group lost 8.5 kg and the resistance group 8.7 kg. The difference was in what they lost. The resistance group dropped the most fat, 7.8 kg, and the least muscle, 0.8 kg. The aerobic group lost twice as much muscle, 1.6 kg.
Two things to be straight about. Everyone in that trial was living with obesity, so if that isn't you, your numbers would look different. And every group lost some muscle. Strength training didn't stop it. It kept the loss smallest.
Lifting on its own shifts fat too, modestly
A 2022 review in Sports Medicine by Wewege and colleagues [3] pooled 58 studies of resistance training in healthy adults. With no diet attached, it brought body fat percentage down by 1.46 points and fat mass down by about half a kilo.
Half a kilo. I'm not putting that on a billboard. Those studies covered adults of all ages and not only people over 55. But it does show that lifting moves things in the right direction while it builds the muscle you want to keep.
Protein, and who to ask about it
A group of specialists called the PROT-AGE Study Group published recommendations in 2013 [4]. For people over 65, they advised an average of 1.0 to 1.2 g of protein per kilo of body weight a day, and at least 1.2 g for those who exercise. For someone weighing 70 kg, that's 70 to 84 g a day.
That's expert opinion drawn from the evidence and not a trial, and it's written for over-65s. They also flag that people with severe kidney disease may need less, so if you have a kidney condition, speak to your GP before changing anything.
For your own plate, that's one for Ian, who runs the monthly nutrition sessions in the Healthy Habits Club.
For women: what menopause does and doesn't change
A 2019 study in JCI Insight by Greendale and colleagues [5] followed 1,246 women in the United States through menopause with body scans. During the few years around the final period, fat mass rose by 1.7 per cent a year while lean mass fell by 0.2 per cent a year. After that, both levelled off.
It's an observational study of American women, so treat it as a pattern and not a prediction. The levelling off is the bit I'd hold on to. And it shows again how composition can shift while the scales say next to nothing.
So what do you do with all that
Three things, and none of them is a diet.
Do some strength work twice a week. The UK's activity guidance says the same.
Get moving in a way that has you breathing harder. We're not expecting a marathon, but getting 30 minutes a day in 10 minute blocks is a great start.
And measure something other than weight. How many times you can stand up and sit down in a row. Whether the stairs feel different. That's what the Fitness MOT is for.
Jane said it better than I can: "Fabulous and fun way to exercise. Jim makes his cardio and strength workouts fun and easy to follow. Great that if you can't do them live they are recorded."
If your weight is changing and you can't explain why, or you're on medication that affects it, book in with your GP. Exercise sits alongside that conversation.
Your next step
Start with the free Fitness MOT. Five exercises at home, no scoring and no pass mark, and no scales anywhere near it. Retake it every four to six weeks.
Then join Jim's Gym for £12.99 a month. That's 15+ live classes a week, 1,000+ on-demand videos and the Healthy Habits Club, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, no contracts and no joining fees. Or join for the year and get 2 months on me.
It's never too late.
Our affordable monthly membership is great for those just starting out or who may need to take a break for a big adventure! The yearly option gives you two months' FREE membership and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Quick questions, straight answers
Does your metabolism slow down after 50?
Metabolism holds steadier than most people expect. A 2021 study in Science of 6,421 people found that energy use, adjusted for body size and muscle, stayed stable from about age 20 to 60, then declined by roughly 0.7 per cent a year. It was an observational study comparing different people at different ages.
Is it harder to lose weight after 55?
Losing weight after 55 is possible, and what you lose matters more than how much. In an 18-month trial of 249 adults with obesity, average age 67, those who added resistance training to a diet lost the most fat and the least muscle. Everyone in that trial was living with obesity.
What is the best exercise for weight management over 55?
Strength training twice a week, alongside activity that gets you breathing harder, is the combination best supported for weight management over 55. A 2017 trial found resistance training during weight loss kept muscle loss smallest, and a 2022 review of 58 studies found it modestly reduced body fat on its own.
How much protein do you need over 65?
The PROT-AGE Study Group, an expert panel, recommends an average of 1.0 to 1.2 g of protein per kilo of body weight a day for people over 65, and at least 1.2 g for those who exercise. People with severe kidney disease may need less and should ask their GP first.
Does menopause cause weight gain?
Menopause changes body composition more than body weight. A 2019 study of 1,246 women in the United States found that fat mass rose by 1.7 per cent a year and lean mass fell slightly during the years around the final period, and that both levelled off afterwards. It was an observational study.
References
[1] Pontzer H, et al. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science. 2021;373:808-812. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5017
[2] Beavers KM, Ambrosius WT, Rejeski WJ, Burdette JH, Walkup MP, Sheedy JL, Nesbit BA, Gaukstern JE, Nicklas BJ, Marsh AP. Effect of Exercise Type During Intentional Weight Loss on Body Composition in Older Adults with Obesity. Obesity. 2017;25(11):1823-1829. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21977
[3] Wewege MA, Desai I, Honey C, Coorie B, Jones MD, Clifford BK, Leake HB, Hagstrom AD. The Effect of Resistance Training in Healthy Adults on Body Fat Percentage, Fat Mass and Visceral Fat: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. 2022;52(2):287-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01562-2
[4] Bauer J, Biolo G, Cederholm T, Cesari M, Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Morley JE, Phillips S, Sieber C, Stehle P, Teta D, Visvanathan R, Volpi E, Boirie Y. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2013;14(8):542-559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2013.05.021
[5] Greendale GA, Sternfeld B, Huang M, Han W, Karvonen-Gutierrez C, Ruppert K, Cauley JA, Finkelstein JS, Jiang SF, Karlamangla AS. Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition. JCI Insight. 2019;4(5):e124865. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.124865
James Hilton is the founder of Jim's Gym, an online fitness community for adults over 55, based in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He set it up for people who want to keep doing the things they love, with classes, community and a fair bit of laughing along the way.