Let's face it: Once we reach a certain age, many of us are ready to just sit back and let the weight pile up in our bodies. There are countless weight loss programs out there, but how can you get going when you don't have the energy? If you want to speed up metabolism, you've got to understand how your body works. One way to get started is to go to any online BMI calculator and find out where you stand.
The truth is, decreased metabolism is just a part of growing older. When we reach the age of about 40, our metabolism tends to shift away from its proper functions, and drifting away towards near-uselessness. It's a problem that many people, particularly women, face on a daily basis.
In fact, our metabolic rate slows down by an average of 5% for every ten years past the dreaded 40. (It turns out that 40 is more than just the age you don't want to reach ' it's also the body mass index, or BMI, at which you're considered obese.) If your body is burning 1200 calories a day while in a resting state when you're 40 years old, then when you get to fifty that number drops to 1140 calories a day. It's also no coincidence that at the age of 40, our lives tend to get a lot more hectic and active than they ever were before. We often don't have the luxury at this stage of the game to start a comprehensive weight loss program. And when you check the BMI calculator ' and the bathroom scale ' you end up seeing the numbers climbing higher and higher.
Another reason why our metabolic rate tends to slow to a crawl after 40 is because we start to lose our muscle. We hate to say it, but it's know that women will lose muscle mass twice as fast as men ' which means women will tend to gain more weight faster. Losing muscle mass means you're burning fewer calories. We all know that muscle helps us burn calories, even while our bodies are at rest. So when our BMI goes through the roof and we lose muscle, our ability to burn calories drops considerably. These are just a few reasons why it's important to speed up metabolism and keep it boosted after the age of 40. Fortunately, there are many natural supplements designed to increase metabolism.