#176: Why Muscle Loss After 50 Is So Dangerous & How to Fix It

So I recently had my Liftoff Challenge, and there I asked the hundreds of women that joined why they wanna start strength training, and overwhelmingly, the answer was because they're losing muscle and they're feeling weaker, and that is exactly what is in store for you if you continue to age naturally.

Sarcopenia, right? That is the loss of muscle as we age, and it's a totally natural thing that happens.

We lose 3 to 8% of our muscle mass each decade, starting at about age 30, and after age 60, that rate actually speeds up.

And that in itself is scary, but guess what's even scarier? Is that we lose strength two to three times faster than we lose muscle.

Just think about that.

We are not only losing muscle, we're getting weaker.

And what happens when we get weaker? We are less able to cope in life.

We have decades ahead, so we need to be stopping the slide.

And if you're one of the huge number of women who have spent their lives in a dieting rollercoaster, you know, gaining weight slowly, then going on a crash diet, losing those 10 pounds, gaining the 10 pounds, losing the 10 pounds, then your situation is actually probably worse because each time you diet, if you're not actively strength training properly, and that's different than working out with weights, up to 30% of the weight that you lose is muscle.

And if you are close to normal weight, so you're just losing that last five or 10 pounds, then that number is even higher.

Up to 35% of the weight that you lose is actually muscle, not fat at all.

And the thing is that when you gain the weight back, you're not gaining muscle back.

[laughs] You're gaining back primarily fat.

So every diet cycle leaves you with less muscle and more fat than you had before.

Repeat that five or six times over 20 years and you can see the problem.

So if you think about these two factors going on, that you are losing muscle as you age, and if you've been on a diet rollercoaster, you've lost even more muscle over that time than you would have naturally otherwise.

And women describe this to me as things feel harder.

Life feels harder.

The groceries are heavier.

Getting up off the floor is harder.

When was the last time you tried getting up off the floor? Can you still do it? Getting up off the sofa is harder.

Putting your luggage in the overhead compartment, you have to really think about, "Am I gonna be able to manage this suitcase?" when you go on a trip.

And then looking ahead into the future, "How am I gonna play with my grandkids? Am I actually gonna be able to take care of them, lift them, get on the floor with them?" This is what getting weaker looks like.