When looking to lose weight, most of us just focus on lowering the number on the scale, without thinking about the risks that losing weight can have on our muscles and bones. Recently, I was a coinvestigator on a study on sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle tissue with age, titled “Sarcopenia: When Weight Loss is Counterproductive” with colleagues including HarryPreuss, M.D. M.A.C.N.,C.N.S, at the Department of Physiology,Georgetown University Medical Center. The idea that weight loss in an otherwise healthy person could be counterproductive seems hard to believe, but as you will discover, the wrong kind of weight loss can wreak havoc on both your muscle tissue and your bones.
Skeletal muscle mass and strength generally peak between 20 and 35 years of age. From then on, 3 to 8 percent of muscle mass may be lost per decade, a loss rate that has previously been reported to accelerate after the age of 60. We have long known that with each passing decade we tend to lose 5 pounds of muscle mass and 10 pounds of body fat. My own research has shown that dieting can speed up this loss.
As we age, we develop an increased risk for osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteopenia can be defined as the thinning of bone mass, most common in postmenopausal women due to lack of estrogen. This decrease in bone mass is not usually considered severe, but it is considered a very serious risk factor for the development of osteoporosis. Health experts are well aware that osteopenia and osteoporosis are consequences of the age-related decline in bone density, but few are cognizant of the deleterious effects of sarcopenia.
But there is no need to throw in the towel and give up on all weight loss programs to avoid the risks of bone loss. In Forever Young, I reveal “the metabolic miracle,” an efficient way to say good-bye to body fat while minimizing the risks of weight loss and how to prevent/reverse the trend of muscle and bone density loss. Learn more about the Metabolic Miracle in Forever Young, or for the specific diet plan, click here.
Have you tried the Metabolic Miracle Diet Plan yet?
