I Used to be an Ectomorph; But Now I am Out of Shape!
by Caroline
(New Jersey)
I used to be very skinny, hard to gain weight, and was always very active. But I turned 50 and it's all over! I want to lose at least 15 if not 20 lbs. Help!
I need easy low impact exercises that reduce and tone and a good diet that does not involve any preservatives. What can you suggest?
My Answer
Congrats on turning 50! It's a marvelous age to indulge in things for yourself, at last!
But not so good for your body, huh?
OK, when you grow older, one aspect of your body does not do you justice. The high metabolism you used to enjoy in your teens, 20s and 30s, is slowing down, not just a gradual slowdown but quite a rapid one.
That's why most women puts on weight at this age, especially if they continue on with the same diets. Their bodies begin to store fat and calories that the slow metabolism can't cope with and bang, the weight creeps up fast without even they noticing it.
50 is also the age when most women experience menopause. It's another "downturn" you got to come to term with as production of hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, androgen and the whole lot could go out of whack and create a big upset in your hormonal system.
The reduction of hormone, say, the estrogen, could cause you to gain weight as the lack or the low level of estrogen drives your body to look to other places in your body to source the needed estrogen.
As fat cells can produce estrogen, so your body converts the calories into fat to increase the estrogen. However, fat cells don't burn calories the way muscle cells do, which is why you put on the weight.
So you can see from here that hormones have a direct impact on your metabolism and fat storage. It's kind of hard to control your weight during menopause no matter what you do.....Seems like you're fighting a losing battle......
Not really. I think the right exercise and the right diet can help a lot to alleviate the situation.
The Right Exercise Program
Let's start with the exercise first.
You would need to engage in exercises that help hike up your metabolism and build up your lean muscle mass, the latter is by nature a metabolism-boosting one since it helps you burn off more calories at faster rate.
What are these exercises?
Well, for hiking up metabolism, you go for cardio exercises. These exercises (walking, running, swimming, dancing, biking, hiking, jogging and a whole lot of others) are the most direct and the most powerful ways to hike up your metabolism to higher levels, hence making you that much easier to burn off the excess calories from your overall body.
Cardio exercises are also known as weight bearing exercises that are good for women who are in the menopausal stages of their life as these exercises help to build and strengthen bones to combat bone loss which is usually very rapid during the first few years after menopause. These exercises are a better measure to prevent osteoporosis.
Workout 3-4 times per week for at least 30 minutes per session to work up your heart rate and your metabolic rate. You don't have to workout till you drop dead (like having a grueling exercise routine of 7 days a week, 60-90 minutes per session! That's insanity at work!). Gentle and moderate pace of exercise should always be your mantra.
Then, to have even higher level of metabolism, do some weight training exercise. This exercise not only strengthens your muscle but also helps build precious lean muscle mass which is the channel by which your body burns off more calories.
This is because lean muscle mass burns off calories (and fat) 3 times faster than fat does and it also raises your basal metabolic rate (BMR) where you get to a stage when your body continues to burn off calories while you're at rest or when you're just carrying out your daily routinal activities (like reading, watching TV, sleeping, sweating. singing in the shower, in front of a computer.....).
As you burn off 60-70% of your calories through BMR, imagine if your BMR is high, how much more calories you can torch off this way?
Weight training exercise like Pilates and toning exercise are good ones for you to invest in.
Like cardio exercise, you just need to workout 3-4 times per week for say 20-30 minutes per session. It goes a long, long way to build those precious lean muscle mass.
The Right Diet
You're for food that's preservative-free. While it's a good practice, it's kind of difficult in this age and time when every food is somehow processed and almost all of them are laced with preservatives of all kinds. Your reason for preservative-free foods would be for health or it would be because you're sensitive (or allergic) to them......
Granted that, you can still go for a relatively healthy diet by eating wholesome, natural foods such as:
1. Fruits and vegetables. Eat them in their fresh and raw states.
2. Beans, sprouts, nuts, legumes, again eat them in their fresh and raw states
3. Whole grain bread, pasta, pizza and noodles; brown rice; sweet potatoes; potatoes; yams and all root vegetables
4. Fresh cuts of lean meats (chicken, lamb, beef, fish)
5. Fresh eggs and reasonable amount of dairy products
One other thing that's a must in your healthy diet is to cut down your fat intake. If you can consciously cut down fat in all the foods you eat, you would have won half the battle against the bulges.
You don't have to cut out all the fat; you still need a certain amount of fat to sustain good health. Go by this smart way of reducing fat and you'll find that it's not a struggle for you at all to deal with fat.....
