Metabolism Maintenance: 5 Important Benefits of Strength Training After 30

When most of us think about the effects of aging on our health and wellness, we tend to think of older ages — usually the senior years. However, the changes we experience in our 50s and 60s often begin much earlier, typically in our 30s, due to significant shifts in our metabolism.

Metabolism describes the way our body converts food or calories into energy that’s readily available for our cells to use. Once we reach our 30s, our metabolism begins to slow down, making it more challenging to maintain a healthy weight and increasing our risk of chronic health issues.

Joseph Moleski, DO, helps women and men at STL Medical Weight Loss adopt healthy habits that support enhanced metabolism and better overall wellness at every age. Here, learn five important ways strength training can boost your metabolism and improve your health after age 30.

1. Builds muscle

First, the obvious: Most of us know strength training helps build muscle. But what a lot of us don’t know is that muscle is very efficient at burning calories — a lot more efficient than fatty tissue. In fact, muscle tissue burns calories even when we’re at rest.

Unfortunately, as we age, we tend to lose muscle mass while accumulating fat reserves. The result: slower metabolism and additional weight gain. That’s when strength training helps.

During strength training, your body is constantly remodeling muscle tissue, breaking down and rebuilding muscle, and burning loads of calories in the process. As muscle mass increases, your metabolic rate increases, too, no matter what you’re doing, helping you burn calories and lose weight all day long.

2. Improves insulin sensitivity

Strength training improves the way your body reacts to and uses insulin, a hormone that helps balance blood sugar (glucose) levels. Specifically, it makes your body more sensitive to insulin, enabling your body to use glucose more efficiently.

Lower insulin sensitivity is associated with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, two problems that become more common with age. By increasing insulin sensitivity, strength training helps prevent the buildup of fat while improving metabolism and cellular energy.

3. Reduces dangerous belly fat

You can have belly fat at any age, but it tends to become more common as we get older. Also called visceral fat, belly fat plays a role in chronic inflammation, increasing your risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even some types of cancer. 

Strength training helps reduce belly fat by increasing your body’s need for energy. As a result, your body begins breaking down fat stores to meet that demand, decreasing potentially dangerous belly fat and improving overall metabolism at the same time.

4. Regulates hormones

Most of us are aware that our hormones begin to shift as we age, with levels of estrogen and testosterone declining. These hormones play critical roles in metabolism, which is why many of us struggle to maintain a healthy weight as we age.  

By adding strength training to your routine, you can help boost the natural production of these hormones while managing levels of other hormones involved in metabolism, like growth hormones. Strength training also helps manage levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with chronic stress, inflammation, and fat accumulation, particularly around your belly.

5. Increases natural energy levels

Finally, strength training helps improve your mood and natural energy levels by regulating hormone levels and managing fat accumulation and weight. Combined, these factors keep mood swings and depression at bay, so you’re more engaged in staying healthy.

Optimizing your metabolism also helps you manage your weight, making it easier to stay active and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Bottom line: Over time, strength training helps you burn more calories so you can enjoy better physical health and improved emotional wellness, too.

Every bit helps

The media often links strength training with professional bodybuilders with extra-big muscles, but in reality, a modest amount of regular strength training is all you need to enjoy all its benefits. 

Begin with a few sessions each week and gradually increase your tolerance over time — alternate groups of muscles for the biggest benefits and the lowest risk of muscle soreness and fatigue afterward.

If you’re ready to take control of your metabolism, we can help. To learn more, call or book an appointment online with STL Medical Weight Loss at our Chesterfield, Missouri, practice today. Can’t make it to the office? We also offer telehealth services for patients in Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, Florida, Delaware, Arizona, New York, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington State.