"Sarcopenia"? Do I Need a Penecillin Shot for That?

Between the ages of 50 and 80 a man will lose 30% of his muscle mass if no efforts are made to retain it.  "Sacropenia" is the scientific name for this phenomenon, and it has nothing to do with your private parts. You can safely uncross your legs now.

So, if you lose 30% of your muscle mass, why don't you lose 30% of your body weight? Where does the 30% go?  Well, some people actually do "shrink" as they get older, but most expand in the hips and waist line.  The "Middle Age Spread" is a well known phenomenon that is actually real. So why is that?  Well, the loss of muscle mass creates a series of events that are all bad, but that people don't understand. In fact, what you think may be helping you achieve "active aging" is actually contributing to your expanding waist line. "Resilient Longevity" is a better goal, and is based on retaining your muscle mass.

The manner in which your body processes your macronutrients (protein, fats and carbohydrates) does not change as you get older.  Some of the velocity with which the processes occur is affected, but the processes themselves remain the same. For example, carbohydrates are processed with four outcomes: conversion to glycogen and storage in skeletal muscle, immediate utilization as energy during activity, as a component of other body processes, and storage as adipose fat - which is stored more predominantly in the waist and hips as you age. Since there is a maximum amount of glycogen that can be stored in the muscles, the more muscle mass you have, the more glycogen can be stored. The more active you are, the more carbohydrates are used for energy and other bodily processes.  The result is less carbohydrate converted to adipose fat.

Protein, which repairs muscle damage and promotes lean muscle mass, is processed more slowly as you age, which means that you must both increase protein intake and ingest it more frequently. Without sufficient stimulus and microfiber repair after resistance training, combined with sufficient protein intake, the muscle mass is slowly replaced by collagen. Collagen is what comprises your tendons, the connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. More collagen and less muscle means less flexibility, and, more importantly, less efficient force transfer.  Protein is also a critical nutrient during any programming to modify body composition.  Note that I didn't say "lose weight" or "diet". Have you ever noticed that people on low-carb diets look weird and seem tired. They have not compensated for the loss of calories with an increase in protein consumption and are losing muscle mass. They aren't "losing weight", they are "wasting".

Lots of people think that "cardio" and "fitness" are synonymous terms. They are not.  A 100% cardio "fitness" program fails to retain essential muscle mass and therefore reduces glycogen storage, which increases the storage of adipose tissue. Anaerobic/metabolic conditioning that combines resistance training with full body conditioning will improve cardiovascular health and retain muscle mass. Get of that elliptical machine, treadmill and (God, no) recumbent bike and pick up something and lift it off the ground.  It's the key to "resilient longevity", which just sounds better than "active aging". Active aging is that guy on the billboard photo for the retirement community power walking with pastel weights on the golf cart path. Don't be that guy Be exceptional, not ordinary. 

Stay well, my friends.