‘What the hell is happening to me? Is this the middle-age spread?’

ANYONE OVER A certain age may find themselves wondering why their weight has decided to just spiral as soon as they hit middle age.

The arrival of the 50s, in particular, can cause men and women to despair at the changing shape of their bodies. Curvy, youthful waistlines often disappear, jawlines droop and once svelte profiles are swapped for rounder, softer shapes that deflate the ego and cause midlife to hang like a millstone around those double chins and saggy necks.

Fat can cause long term health issues, depending on where it is. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

A series of physical changes will conspire once you hit the half-century mark, leading to the accumulation of fat, causing waistlines to thicken and buttons to pop. At the same time, muscle loss of 1% per year means your body’s muscle mass can drop by almost a third before you reach 80.

The majority of these changes have nothing to do with your bad habits. It’s all part of nature’s glorious plan.

For much of the past century, it was assumed that many of us become heavier and more apple-shaped as we get closer to 50 because our metabolism slows down.

More recent studies have shown this long-held belief to be a myth. In 2021, a paper published in Science became known as the biggest study of human metabolism ever recorded, which included 6,000 people from infants to nonagenarians, and conclusively showed that metabolism actually stays remarkably stable between the ages of 20 and 60.

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A woman in her early 50s going through the menopause will still burn calories just as efficiently as a college student. Based on metabolism, we have little excuse for age-related weight gain until we hit 60, at which point it does begin to decline with each passing decade.

So, what does all this mean – why do we start gaining weight in our 50s?

From our early 30s onwards, the body loses muscle at the rate of 3 to 8% per decade, which means that with less muscle, a greater percentage of body weight is fat.

Hormonal changes also cause fat to collect in your abdomen, surrounding your organs, where it becomes what is known as visceral fat. For women, the precipitous drop in oestrogen during menopause is a key factor in the generation of a new body shape.

Almost three out of four (70%) of women gain weight during menopause, gaining on average about 1.5 pounds per year through their 50s.

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By the time women are post-menopausal, visceral fat has more than doubled from a range of 5 to 8% to about 15 to 20% of total body fat. If that wasn’t bad enough, not only do we lose muscle, but muscle tone softens and becomes laxer with excess fat carried in the neck, causing predictable........

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