Muscle Loss Due to Aging: How to Preserve Muscle Mass with Aging

Written by Susan Fox, Health Writer

Highlights:

Sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, is a primary cause of decreased life quality and longevity.
A healthy diet and regular exercise help to reverse age-related muscle loss.
In addition to aging, there are 4 factors that increase muscle loss: low physical activity, inflammation, stress, and inadequate calorie and protein intake.
To help prevent muscle loss, scientists recommend consuming 25-30 grams of protein at each meal. This is where the Almased Phenomenon goes to work for you.
You can lose muscle by doing too much cardio, which will also slow down your metabolism making it more difficult to burn fat.
Read these 5 tips to help build muscle for women over 40.
Muscle wasting leads to poor physical endurance associated with frailty syndrome. Adequate nutrition and targeted exercise remain the gold standard for therapy.
Building bone density by weight training may delay or eliminate the need for bone-building drugs, often prescribed to prevent osteoporosis.
Men and women over the age of 60 must lift weights more often than younger adults to maintain muscle mass and muscle size.
The Almased smoothies are naturally delicious and can be used for weight loss, weight management and as a wellness supplement.

Age-related muscle loss, also known as sarcopenia, commonly affects adults over 50 years of age. This decline of skeletal muscle tissue with age is one of the primary causes of functional decline and loss of independence in older adults leading to decreased quality of life and life expectancy as well.

Can you lose muscle and then gain it back again? It is natural to experience some muscle loss with age, yet there are actions you can take to prevent and even reverse the condition. A healthy diet and regular exercise can reverse sarcopenia, increase the quality of your life and your lifespan.

According to Dr. Matthew Thorpe, MD, Ph.D., in addition to aging, the cause of muscle wasting involves four factors: low physical activity, inflammation, stress, and inadequate calorie and protein intake.

1. Immobility, Including a Sedentary Lifestyle

Disuse of muscle is one of the strongest triggers of sarcopenia, leading to faster muscle loss and increasing weakness. Bed rest or immobilization after an injury or illness leads to rapid loss of muscle. Even two to three weeks of decreased walking or other regular activity is enough to reduce muscle mass and strength.

Periods of decreased activity can become a vicious cycle.

When muscle strength decreases, the result is greater fatigue, and that makes it even more difficult to return to regular activity.

2. Inflammation

After injury or illness, inflammation sends signals to the body to tear down and then rebuild the damaged groups of cells…resulting in muscle loss. One study of patients with long-term inflammation resulting from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed that patients had decreased muscle mass. Another study of 11,249 older adults found that blood levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation, strongly predicted sarcopenia.

3. Severe Stress

Muscle wasting is also more common in other health conditions that increase stress on the body. Those with chronic liver disease, and up to 20% of people with chronic heart failure, experience sarcopenia. In chronic kidney disease, stress on the body and decreased activity lead to muscle loss. Cancer and cancer treatments also place great stress on the body, resulting in sarcopenia.

4. Unbalanced Diet

A diet providing insufficient calories and protein results in weight loss and diminished muscle mass. Regrettably, low-calorie and low-protein diets become more common with aging, due to changes in the sense of taste, problems with the teeth, gums and swallowing, or increased difficulty shopping and cooking.

To help prevent muscle loss, scientists recommend consuming 25–30 grams of protein at each meal.

This is where the Almased Phenomenon can be of significant help. The Almased shake is convenient to keep on hand and easy to use; it is adaptable to a wide variety of tastes using your favorite spices, extracts, fruits, and flavorings. Most importantly, it is jam-packed with 27 grams of high-quality protein. According to Dr.Charles Shively:

“Almased is a health multi-tasker that can improve many health markers in an individual's quality of life.”

Consider the scientifically validated results from eight major European universities demonstrating the healthy metabolic markers impacted, all while improving SATIETY and reducing STRESS:

Increases fat burning while retaining muscle mass
Improves energy
Strengthens the immune system
Supports healthy blood pressure
Improves insulin resistance
Supports improved kidney function
Impacts healthy blood fat levels of HDL, LDL, and triglycerides
Works as a natural anti-rheumatic agent

Almased is made from high-quality soy, probiotic yogurt, enzyme-rich honey and select vitamins and minerals in a unique fermentation process. This exclusive patented process increases the effectiveness of the ingredients.

Most 40-plus women don’t have a trainer or endless hours to work out. Below, experts from WebMD offer their best tips for ‘regular’ women seeking to muscle it up.

Try to work out first thing. Every minute that goes by brings too many variables into play. Things come up, life happens, and soon good intentions are relegated to the "later-to-do-list."
For those who want to be building muscle after 40, female exercisers especially need to put the “work” back in their workout. Some women may count their calories, do a 20-minute routine on the elliptical but never increase intensity.

Combine Cardio and Strength Training, Making Each Workout as Dense as Possible.

If you can’t afford a personal trainer, consider a group class that focuses on cardio and toning. Just a few lessons can be helpful; or a DVD. Even better is a group of friends with the same goal in mind. The buddy system motivates!
Make a new healthy habit of sneaking in extra workouts throughout the day. Park farther away from work or the grocery store or wherever you go. You can easily fit in an extra 20-minute walk by leaving and returning to your car. Choose stairs over elevators, at least for a few floors. Simple stretching and isometrics while sitting in a chair at your desk or while watching TV.
The 1-minute work-out for the mind: If only for a minute a day, think about the many things that a toned body will bring you. You can wear flattering clothes instead of boring styles meant to ‘hide’ bulges; get into a bikini with confidence. Of course, more significant benefits include improved functioning and strength and maintaining that for years to come.

Building muscle mass means you are not on the road to sarcopenia, which can lead to a lack of functioning in the everyday world. Imagine not being able to carry a bag of groceries or lift your own carry-on into the overhead bin of an airplane.

According to Noel Bairey Merz, MD, medical director of the Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, "You're helping your bones without drugs. Building bone density by weight training may delay or eliminate the need to go on the ''bone-building'' drugs often prescribed to prevent or reverse osteoporosis.⁷

Building muscle after 60 is a must. The older you get, the more you may have to work to maintain your muscles. Researchers report that men and women over the age of 60 must lift weights more often than younger adults to maintain muscle mass and muscle size.

Muscle loss that occurs as we get older is "one of the most pressing challenges of biomedicine in our aging society." And resistance training, such as lifting weights, is the best means of prevention.⁸

It has been known for millennia that muscle and fat wasting leads to poor outcomes including deaths in chronic disease states. It is usually accompanied by physical inactivity, decreased mobility, slow gait, and poor physical endurance which become common features of the frailty syndrome.⁹

Although pharmaceutical agents targeting multiple biological pathways are being developed, adequate nutrition and targeted exercise remain the gold standard for therapy.¹⁰

How fast do you lose muscle as a natural part of aging? According to Dr. W. Storer, director of the exercise physiology and physical function lab at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, after age 30, you begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% per decade. Most men will lose about 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes.

Less muscle means greater weakness and less mobility, both of which may increase your risk of falls and fractures.

Just Because You Lose Muscle Mass Does Not Mean it is Gone Forever.

Dr. Storer states that "Older men can indeed increase muscle mass loss as a consequence of aging. It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.” … “the best means to build muscle mass, no matter your age, is progressive resistance training (PRT) and diet. Protein is the king of muscle food. The body breaks it down into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle. As with PRT, if you are older, you need more.”¹²

A recent study in the journal Nutrients suggests a daily intake of 1 to 1.3 grams (g) of protein per kilogram of body weight for older adults who do resistance training. For example, a 175-pound man would need about 79 g to 103 g a day. If possible, divide your protein equally among your daily meals to maximize muscle protein synthesis. This is a high amount compared with the average diet, but there are many ways to get the extra protein you need.

The Almased Weight Loss Phenomenon offers high-quality protein as it resets your metabolism to help you burn fat and retain lean muscle tissue. The Almased smoothies are genuinely delicious and can be used for weight loss, weight management, and as a wellness supplement.

When consuming these fantastic shakes during fasting, muscle loss need not occur. Losing fat without losing muscle is entirely reasonable if you follow the Almased plan.

According to one of many happy Almased consumers, Vanda Burana says: "Best product, and it works. I have been drinking Almased for 3 years now. I drink it once a day in the morning after I work out… It is so delicious the way it is. I haven’t gained any weight since I lost 12 pounds 2 years ago…”

Support your overall wellness efforts by incorporating Almased into your lifestyle, simply because it works!

Dr. Storer states that "Older men can indeed increase muscle mass loss as a consequence of aging. It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.” … “the best means to build muscle mass, no matter your age, is progressive resistance training (PRT) and diet. Protein is the king of muscle food. The body breaks it down into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle. As with PRT, if you are older, you need more.”¹²

A recent study in the journal Nutrients suggests a daily intake of 1 to 1.3 grams (g) of protein per kilogram of body weight for older adults who do resistance training. For example, a 175-pound man would need about 79 g to 103 g a day. If possible, divide your protein equally among your daily meals to maximize muscle protein synthesis. This is a high amount compared with the average diet, but there are many ways to get the extra protein you need.

The Almased Weight Loss Phenomenon offers high-quality protein as it resets your metabolism to help you burn fat and retain lean muscle tissue. The Almased smoothies are genuinely delicious and can be used for weight loss, weight management, and as a wellness supplement.

When consuming these fantastic shakes during fasting, muscle loss need not occur. Losing fat without losing muscle is entirely reasonable if you follow the Almased plan.

According to one of many happy Almased consumers, Vanda Burana says: "Best product, and it works. I have been drinking Almased for 3 years now. I drink it once a day in the morning after I work out… It is so delicious the way it is. I haven’t gained any weight since I lost 12 pounds 2 years ago…”

Support your overall wellness efforts by incorporating Almased into your lifestyle, simply because it works!

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