#104: Your Metabolism in Midlife: Why It Slows Down & How to Fix It

You’ve probably heard that your metabolism slows down as you age, and that's why you're gaining weight. But is that actually true? 

In this episode I break down the four key factors that make up your daily calorie burn - aka. your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) - and how to tweak them to work in your favor. 

If you want to eat more without gaining weight, maintain (or boost!) your metabolism, and finally understand what’s really going on with your energy balance, this episode is for you!

Tune in to learn:

• The four key components of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)
• How to speed up your metabolism (yes, it's possible!)
• How to increase how many calories you burn each day without extreme dieting or hours of cardio

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Learn about my favorite walkpad here >>
• Episode #103: How to Get Toned for Summer
• Want to start strength training? Check out my DIY programs >> 

Transcript

#104: Metabolism and TDEE

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, a personal trainer and certified menopause fitness coach. And today we are going to talk about some tips on increasing your metabolism. And I also want to explain kind of what makes up your total calorie expenditure in your days. 
There is so much misinformation around metabolism. And I remember, I remember back when I was a teenager, I was probably. You know, 14, 15 and I heard that if you diet, you will break your metabolism and your body will get used to eating fewer calories and therefore for the rest of your life, you're going to be stuck [00:01:00] having to eat fewer calories.
I don't know if any of you all have heard. That same myth, but I'm here to tell you it's a lie, but it was actually a lie that served me super well growing up because I was so afraid of breaking my metabolism that I actually never dieted. I would eat healthier. I would exercise more, but I have. I've been saved from doing juice cleanses and getting on that diet roller coaster because so strongly in me is the belief that I will break my metabolism.
 Our minds are so powerful. And one of the super scary things that I've learned here in my fifties is that when we're little up until a certain age. Probably in our [00:02:00] twenties. I don't know what the exact line is. I don't think anybody knows, but our brains kind of accept information as fact and store it away.
And then it's there. So if you've noticed that you behave certain ways, it may be that your brain has decided that these things are facts and it is actually really, really useful. To explore what are the beliefs that you hold as facts. Because some of them may be stopping you from doing the things that you want to do.
Like, for example, when I was in grade school, I was the girl who was picked last for all the sports teams. And so, The fact for me back then was that I'm not an athlete, I'm not good at sports. And fortunately, I [00:03:00] had to do sports in school. And in eighth grade, I ended up somehow maturing. I don't know, I became better at sports and ended up becoming an athlete for high school and college.
So now my identity is definitely. As an athlete, but for you, you may have things that you feel very strongly are part of your core identity. I've understood that people who grow up very overweight, their core identity is that they are a fat person and it is really impossible for them to completely change that.
They always live with that kind of identity there. But, you know, working on, Hey, I know that's not me anymore, but they're very, very, very powerful back there. Anyhow, I digress. But I find this stuff fascinating [00:04:00] because there are so many ways where our own minds are being glass ceilings for ourselves. And I suspect with weight loss and fitness, this is very, very true for women.
And if you don't think of yourself as an athlete. Then maybe you don't show up for yourself as an athlete. And I encourage every one of you who starts weight training to think of yourself as a weight trainer. Like you lift weights, say that to yourself. I lift weights. I lift weights and make it part of your identity.
It'll make it easier for you to show up for yourself. Every time in the gym, every week, I don't want to say every day because you shouldn't be training every day, but every week in the gym, but now onto metabolism.
So every day you burn calories [00:05:00] and they have studied kind of how many calories you burn and how you burn them and how they contribute to your overall calorie burn. So that whole picture is your total daily energy. Energy expenditure, T D E E. And that comprises four different parts. So every day, how many calories you burn, how much energy you consume is come is made up of four different things.
One is your Exercise activity thermogenesis. So that's the exercise that you do. So when you go to the gym, or you go out for a run, or you go for a long walk, or whatever, like some purposeful movement that you're doing in your life. That's one piece. The second piece is the thermic effect of food. So you actually burn a significant amount of calories [00:06:00] just by digesting and metabolizing your food.
It's surprising to find that in there, but that's the way it is. The third is your non exercise activity. So these are the things where you're not purposefully exercising, but where you are moving around and it is causing you to use calories. So That may be waving your arms while you speak, tapping your foot, um, maybe walking from the car into your office or walking down the stairs to go get a snack, all those things.
It's not like a planned exercise, organized exercise, but it is things that you're doing over the course of the day to move your body. That require energy. And then the fourth thing is your basal metabolic rate. And that is what people call your [00:07:00] metabolism.
These four things are not equal. Okay? So the biggest chunk of your calories gets consumed in your metabolism, your basal metabolic rate, i. e. how much energy your body consumes just if you were sitting on a chair, right? For your heart to beat, for your blood to circulate, for your eyes to blink, this kind of thing that is just keeping you alive.
That uses up 60 to 70 percent of all the calories that you burn in a day. So it is. Big and that's probably why people talk about well, oh my metabolism is slowing down. So I just don't need as many calories We'll talk about that in a minute whether it slows down or not 
the next biggest effect comes from your non exercise activity thermogenesis. So the movement that you do over the course of the day that [00:08:00] isn't like an Activity of exercise, like not you're jogging and whatever, but just moving your arms, tapping your feet and all that, that's 20 to 30 percent of the calories that you spend in a day. So that is really big. And that is important to keep in mind. Also, as we continue this discussion 
now, contrast that to your actual exercise, like you going to the gym or going for a run or going for a walk, doing like planned activity. Which only. Represents 10 to 20 percent of the calories that you burn in a day.
And then, surprisingly enough, your digestion, from eating takes up about 10 percent of the calories . So, eating is about 10%, and your workout is 10 20%. So you see, they're like in the bottom of that list. So very interesting
now let's talk [00:09:00] about each of these in turn and kind of how you can tweak them because ideally. We want to be able to eat as much as possible, not have to watch what we eat and not gain weight, right? I mean, let's be honest. It would be way easier if you never had to think about anything but nutrition. So you could eat more fats and You know, not have to think about portion control or whatever, and you wouldn't gain weight.
And if your daily energy expenditure is higher, then obviously you will be able to eat more, okay, without gaining weight. So how can we increase these? 
So let's start with the one that you would imagine you have the most control over, which is your exercise, right? That you go to the gym, you burn a ton of calories, you are using your sports watch or you're on the treadmill and you're looking at the calories burned and you just do more of that and then you'd be able to [00:10:00] increase your daily energy expenditure. 
Now, first of all, I'm sorry to tell you that all of the measuring devices that you have for how many calories you burn in a workout session are all flawed. They do not tell you the truth, and in fact, they generally overestimate how many calories you've actually burned, and that is a bad thing, because if you think that you have burned 600 calories in a session, and then, oh, that's a delicious donut sitting right there, And hey, I just burned 600 calories so I can go ahead and eat this doughnut and then you eat the doughnut and all of a sudden you are in a calorie surplus and you're trying to watch your weight. That's a bad thing. So, it is important for you to know that those measuring tools are flawed, they are wrong. And the better [00:11:00] shape you're in The worse they are, the more inaccurate they are, because as you get into better and better shape, like you start your jogging, you know, you start jogging or you start going to whatever, whatever class it is that you like to go to.
The first time you go there, it is really hard for your body. And as you go there over time, over and over again, you get into better shape. Which means your body gets more efficient at doing the exercises in that class. It gets more efficient at running. It's spending fewer calories per minute to do that exact same exercise. So, what's the takeaway here? Exercise is not going to be the best way to increase your daily energy expenditure. Exercise is super important. Do not get me wrong. It is very important that you are moving your [00:12:00] body, that you are using your muscles, that you're maintaining your cardiovascular health and increasing it, that you are you know challenging your bones, your tendons, your ligaments, your muscles and your lungs. Okay. Those are all super duper important, but that is not going to be the key to increasing calories, calorie expenditure. 
 So kind of the exception here is in certain life situations, or if you're a serious athlete. So if I think of myself back in college, when I was at Dartmouth and I was playing division one lacrosse. And we had two hours of practice every day. And on top of that, I was doing running, I was doing weight training with our strength coach. I was burning a ton of calories in a day. And so I was able to pretty much eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight. So I [00:13:00] definitely was never in danger of, of, of gaining that freshman 15. Because of being on the lacrosse team, but that ain't the case anymore. So those are like exceptions. There are exceptions where people may use so many calories that they actually need to eat a lot, but I don't think that's you or me today, right? Okay, 
so the second thing that we can talk about is the thermic effect of food and how can we Increase that a little bit now. It's not the biggest Contributor to our daily calorie expenditure, but I will tell you that when you start eating more protein That number goes up because our bodies require more or our bodies use more energy to digest protein So if right now you are eating very low amount of your calories in protein, and then you increase that percentage, you may notice that you're [00:14:00] able to eat a little bit more.
And the beauty with protein is also that you do feel more satiated with the protein in your diet. I remember for me, this has been super clear. I used to, you know, I'd eat things, right? I would eat. I mean, I've never been somebody who like goes all day without eating. But I would eat, you know, 10 grams of protein a meal maybe.
And I would always feel a little bit hungry, you know, like I could have a little bit more. I'm kind of missing something. I want a little bit more. And when I started to really focus on the protein and getting in the 30 to 40 grams of protein each meal. They were just more satiating. I was like, okay, now I've eaten, you know?
 So I would definitely recommend trying that, but that's not going to make a humongous, humongous difference in your total, energy expenditure every day, but in the next two things, now here we get to the ones [00:15:00] that matter more.
So let's look next at our non exercise activity. This is one of my very, very favorite ones. So it is that not scheduled exercise stuff. And that's why I am so passionate about step count. Not because you actually need to do steps, because you could at the, you could wave your arms instead of doing steps, you could tap your foot, you can wash dishes, vacuum, fold laundry, these are all things that I do as work breaks every day.
So, all of these things where you're just moving your body more, they help you burn more calories. The step count is one that I love to use because it's so easy, right? All of us who have a sports watch or a phone can kind of track our step count. And if you increase that over time, you [00:16:00] are just going to be burning more calories every day, and it's going to make it easier for you to maintain your weight, manage your weight, and even lose weight.
And this is something particularly if you are right now in a calorie deficit at the beginning of the year. Pay attention to your step count, your non exercise activity. This is the thing that your body cheats, or it tries to balance out the fact that it's not getting enough calories in by not using as many calories.
And it's one of its biggest ways of doing this is by Making you not move. I remember myself when I was in a calorie deficit, I was like a bump on a log. I would come to my desk. I would sit in my chair and I was so immobile. If there had been motion detectors keeping the lights on in my head. office room, the lights would have turned off many, many, many times a day.
And when I was recording my podcasts, I wasn't talking with my [00:17:00] hands. You know, it was, I was minimal movement and that was my body doing that to conserve energy. So it is a big deal. If you can walk around more You know, go get a coffee from downstairs instead of the same floor that you're on, uh, when you're on the phone, pace back and forth.
Maybe while you're watching TV, you can march in place, anything where you can move your body more, increase this non exercise activity, park a little bit farther, all these things that you hear, take the steps instead of the elevator. All those habits that you can increase your step count during the day without having to take a walk.
I'm not talking about the walk because that then goes to the exercise part, right? We're now talking about non exercise activity and increasing that. That is going to make a big difference. 
All right, and then the [00:18:00] final one, which is your basal metabolic rate. And this is the biggie because there is such a myth out there that, Oh, I'm getting older.
Of course, my metabolism is slowing down. Well, it's not. It really is not. They did a big study of people of all ages, measuring their basal metabolic rate. And what they found was that from about age 20, because, you know, little kids are their own thing, to about age 60, so for 40 years of your life, your basal metabolic rate was pretty consistent for people.
If And this is a big if, if their muscle mass stayed the same, okay? So what does that mean? It means that if you've noticed that your metabolism has slowed down, [00:19:00] it's because you've lost muscle. And if you do things to preserve your muscle, then your metabolism will stop slowing down.
And if you can gain muscle Then you can actually speed up your metabolism.
So, I do mention many, many times the importance of women having muscle. So this is not even like your health benefit. Okay. It's a health benefit in the sense that you won't gain as much weight. If you've got a higher metabolism, then you don't need to struggle so much with managing your food intake to manage your weight.
But like, hey, it's not only super healthy to have more muscle on you from a glucose management point of view, from a being able to stop yourself from falling as an older person point of view, being able to get off the floor, manage an everyday life, all kinds of [00:20:00] great reasons why muscle is so valuable.
But here you go. It increases your metabolism. If you can hold on to your muscle your whole life, your metabolism does not slow down. Okay, not quite your whole life, because they did notice a bit of a difference after age 60. So something happens there after age 60. But I would still maintain that if you can continue to weight train And there's no reason why you wouldn't be able to past age 60, then you are going to be able to at least minimize the amount that your metabolic rate goes down.
Plus all the other benefits like being able to manage in life, which is pretty important. And by the way, 60 is not old. My boyfriend's 61. He's been lifting weights, gosh, probably for like 30 years and his body fat percentage is quite low. His muscle mass [00:21:00] is quite high and he's 61. And I mean the last guy that I dated.
And I hate to say it so fluently, but the last guy that I dated was like 15 years younger, 17 years younger. And Oh my God, there's like a huge difference. The younger guy didn't work out at all. He had a ton of visceral fat, even though he was one of these. Like thin guys, naturally, but he was gaining that, you know, that football that you get under your belly or basketball, whatever you want to call it.
And, and yeah, so anyway, 61, not old. I am looking forward to thriving in my 60s and 70s. All right.
So to summarize, there are the four parts that make up your total daily energy expenditure. And in all four of them, you can do things, to increase [00:22:00] your daily energy expenditure.
The first is You could exercise more. Now you get diminishing returns as you do longer and longer bouts of exercise as you get in better shape. So there's kind of a limit to that. But yes, I think that probably most of us are not at our limit. And as we get older and the kids move out, we have a little bit more time for ourselves. We can probably add it. More exercise to our lives, not going overboard. Of course, you know, remember recovery days recovery days are important. Then there's the thermic effect of food, and there, we can increase the amount of calories spent there by focusing on eating more protein. And that is a great thing, because when you eat more protein, you Have an easier time building muscle, and it helps to maintain the muscle that you already have. So, see these things all [00:23:00] beautifully, beautifully work together. The third thing is your non exercise activity. So just wiggle more. Get in more steps in your day.
And this is not walks, I want to remind you. It is Standing up in the middle of your workday, it is parking a little bit further, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, these kinds of things just to add a little bit more movement into your day. Take a five minute break from work every hour and go do something that you're wiggling.
Don't go sit, okay? And then the biggie, which is the basal metabolic rate. That is your metabolism. And there, you can increase your metabolism by increasing the muscle on your body. So if you feel like your metabolism has slowed down in midlife, it is because your percentage of muscle on your body has decreased.[00:24:00] 
Your actual muscle on your body has decreased, and most likely you've put on some fat, so your body composition has really gone down. into a worse direction. So you can turn that around. You can turn that around, even in your 60s and your 70s and your 80s by starting to weight train. 
And I mean, really one of the beautiful, beautiful, beautiful things about weight training is that it is always at your Level, no matter how weak you are when you're starting or how strong you are when you're starting, you can always choose the weights that are appropriate for you and then you start working on becoming a stronger you. So in that sense, it is safer than joining a class where they maybe push you to do too much, right? Because weight training is specifically designed for you. 
[00:25:00] Okay, so I hope that cleared up a little bit of the mystery of your metabolism and that, and also made you feel a little bit like, hey, I have control over this thing because I have to say that after I started weight training and put more muscle on my body and started really paying attention to my step count, I got myself a walk pad, link in the show notes, um, so that I would get in my steps while I was working, it has made a huge difference in how much I have to be careful of what I eat.
It's like my body is just. It's able to take on more calories without just gaining weight. Yes. I put on some pounds in the last three months, but as I described in the last episode, I have had a hell of a stressful time, so it's been quite, quite exceptional. But last year, [00:26:00] I did not have a stressful holiday season, and I did have a lot of eating out and drinking and having fun, and I did not put on weight, so the stress is a bad thing.
Maybe I'll need to do another podcast episode on stress coming up because that is something which makes a big difference for us in midlife. But anyway, enough for today and I will leave you with those thoughts and hope that you are all getting yourself stronger either at home or at the gym with a good solid weight training program.
Until next week, I wish you happy training.