We think we know a few things about how our metabolism works, including that people pack on pounds year after year starting in their 20s because their metabolisms slow down and that women have slower metabolisms than men. But a newstudyreveals what we thought we knew isn’t actually the way it works. It’s considered one of the most thorough studies on metabolism in history and uses data collected from 80 researchers around the world for over 40 years, on nearly 65-hundred people ranging in age from eight days to 95 years old.
And one of the biggest discoveries is that there are actually four distinct stages of life, in terms of metabolism:
- Infants up to one year old have the fastest metabolism, age one is when calorie burning is at its peak, about 50% faster than adults.
- From age one to 20, metabolism gradually slows to adult levels by about 3% a year.
- From age 20 to 60, it holds steady
- And after age 60 is when metabolism finally starts to slow down, continuing to a 20% decline by age 95.
Also contrary to popular belief? Researchers found there are no real differences between the metabolic rates of women and men. So that idea that women have slower metabolisms than men and that menopause only makes it harder to control weight by slowing it down more? Not true, according to the new study. Lead study author and evolutionary anthropologistDr. Herman Pontzersays, “We just didn’t see that.” So while people will keep gaining an average of a pound and a half a year in adulthood, they can’t blame it on their slowing metabolisms anymore.
Source:Eat This, Not That