A Trainer Explains Why It’s So Hard to Lose Weight After 30

Fitness author and YouTuber Thomas DeLauer creates health and fat loss content informed by his own experience of losing more than 100 pounds. In a recent video, DeLauer outlines some of the key factors behind the weight gain that can occur in men when they hit their thirties, and the biological reasons why losing weight becomes increasingly difficult as we get older.

There are a number of key factors at play, DeLauer explains. Firstly, your hormones. “You start gaining weight when your testosterone levels decline, which is a very common thing,” he says. Secondly, the body’s insulin resistance changes over time: “Our inability to deal with glucose increases with age,” he says. “It affects our waistline, but it also absolutely affects other metabolic drivers, and our ability to utilize energy and ultimately maintain and build muscle.”

Lifestyle also plays a role. DeLauer cites evidence that as we get older, we generally tend to snack a lot more, and also become generally less active. “The more frequently we are eating, the more frequently we are spiking our insulin and the more frequently we are degrading our sensitivity,” he explains. “More snacking, never giving yourself a chance to actually utilize that fuel,all of a sudden we’re just compounding, compounding, compounding, walking this terrible line down to insulin resistance.”

“Adults are 29 percent less active than younger people,” he continues. “We burn fewer calories through non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). For an active person, that’s 50 percent of the calories you burn in a day… Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is going to be the biggest driver for you burning calories and staying lean.”

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