It’s inevitable. With progressing age, comes a decreased metabolism. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially given that with increased age comes greater responsibility and ultimately less time to devote to training. This also can result in making poor eating choices, as we can find ourselves so rushed that we fall victim to grabbing the wrong thing to eat due to convenience and lack of preparation on our part. Throw a slower metabolism into the mix, and the end result is unwanted weight gain and a look that is further away from our ideal. So what do you do?

Luckily there is lots you can do. As clichéd as it may be, knowledge IS power, and with advancing age comes greater knowledge (well, for most at least). Becoming more knowledgeable about diet and training can effectively offset and overcome a decreased metabolism. After all, you’re reading this, aren’t you? Good job. Simply acknowledging that your metabolism has slowed down is being aware and conscious of it, and can prompt you to study up and be proactive.

Once I realized that my metabolism had undergone a change, that’s exactly what I did.

My First Visible Metabolic Slowdown

The first marked metabolic slowdown in my basal metabolic rate came for me around 7 years ago at the age of 32. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) refers to the absolute minimum amount of energy needed by your body to sustain itself, and is typically what people use to measure their metabolism. It took awhile to become fully aware of this slowdown, as during the slowdown you’re not totally in tune with what’s going on inside your body. As hormones change with age, so does your metabolism. I began to realize that the diet that was previously working for me to look and perform the way I wanted wasn’t quite cutting it anymore. I didn’t need a total overhaul; I simply began to understand that a few reductions and restrictions needed to be implemented to maintain the look I had been previously enjoying with less reductions and restrictions.

I remember when I first got into lifting in the late 1990’s. Guys who were older and had been training for years would remark how they couldn’t eat some of the things I was eating and that I should enjoy it while I can, ’cause it ain’t gonna last forever. Sadly, they knew what they were talking about. Now it needs to be understood that I wasn’t exactly stuffing my face with pizzas and other forms of crappy foods – I was a studied, avid young bodybuilder after all – but I was in fact taking part in those little extra calories that came in the form of little things, like for example, eating the all croutons on a salad, putting my lean chicken breast on bread instead of just fork-and-knifing it, frequently eating the skin on my chicken, mixing some of my protein shakes with flavored yogurt or extra amounts of fruit or ice cream, nibbling on small bits of my girlfriend’s french fries – stuff like that. Now, I know what many are thinking when they read this: seriously? You’re putting yourself down for the odd crouton or for flavoured yogurt? Well, truth is that for anyone who knows bodybuilding (or any of the other disciplines of ‘physique sculpting’), it’s all about details and fine tuning, so yes, those little extra bits can add up to keeping you falling just short of your body’s goals. Especially if you get in to competitions like I ultimately did. Back then, those little extras here and there just didn’t seem to have such an impact, and didn’t warrant removal. After all, they were small respites of eating pleasures in the vast sea of the low salt, low saturates and low-glycemic foods that typically comprise the majority of a bodybuilder’s ongoing dietary regimen.

Fast forward about 15 years.

Around 2011 I began to notice small changes in definition, the tightness of my midsection, and the overall lean body mass (LBM) of my physique. It could have been a variety of factors – stress, sleeping patterns, poor quality supplements, or other small factors that could have been largely unbeknownst to me, but after careful examination, it seemed to me that I was experiencing a slowdown in my metabolism due to age. It was a kind of sad acceptance, but made it clear to me that I needed to implement changes as I refused to accept sub-par performance and ‘look’. After all, my livelihood depends on it. I couldn’t simply ride my genetics forever. So here’s what I did (and you can do too):

How to Combat A Metabolic Slowdown

Training

1. Increased energy expenditure through exercise:

Simply put, this means adding additional physical activity or intensity to what you already do. If you currently do nothing, then, well, now is certainly the time to get off your ass and start training. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating overtraining. What I’m talking about is for example, instead of using the recumbent bike for cardio, you’ll now start running on a treadmill (a more challenging piece of cardio equipment), or if you already run on the treadmill at a level of 6.5 for 15 minutes, now you will do 6.7 for 20 minutes. This is what I mean by increased intensity, coupled with a little extra duration. I also started tacking on additional movements to certain exercises. Finishing barbell squatting would then continue on with additional air squats, or abdominal crunching on a decline bench would now follow a set of dumbell pressing on the same bench immediately afterwards – stuff like that. This doesn’t necessarily mean training longer, it means doing more in the time you’re there. After all, if most people simply cut down (or eliminated) their bullshit talking and socializing time in between sets, they’d maximize their time immediately and see some great ‘gains’ as a result. Keep in mind though, you can’t out-train a bad diet, and that’s why I also chose to make some changes in what I ate.

Nutrition

2. Implementation of new small caloric restrictions or reductions:

Simply put, this means removing certain foods or reducing the amount of them you eat. Croutons were now untouched on salads with dressings swapped for oil and lemon juice. Protein shakes previously mixed with milk were now mixed with water or almond milk. My usual big go-to bowl of morning oatmeal (which accompanied my spinach egg white omelette) shrunk in size and was now minus the raisins too. Certain small things I’d nibble on in the early evening were halted as well. I also began to opt for more protein sources that had a higher biological value. That means I’d choose protein sources that were more likely to be utilized by my body for positive productive processes. Less with the peanut butter (lower biological value), more with the fish sources (higher biological value). I was shaving off calories here and there whilst replacing certain foods with superior ones.

The end result was a higher performing, better looking physique, despite the apparent ‘metabolic slowdown’.

Conclusion

I know what you’re likely thinking: so you’re saying to counteract my slowing metabolism, I have to train harder and enjoy food less? Not really. A slower metabolism forced me to build a greater understanding of diet and training. It encouraged me not to grow complacent with the same old way of training and eating, but to make even more calculated decisions when cooking or buying food, or when on the gym floor. Anyone can have a healthy diet, but it is only us who strive to be better and stand out from all the rest who choose to eat ‘strategically’. Whether you’re into bodybuilding, physique, figure, bikini, whatever – strategic training and eating is what it’s all about. It’s the added dedication and sacrifice at the dinner table that sets us apart from so many of the other training disciplines. It’s an ongoing science and obsession with playing different variables to achieve a new and improved result. It what keeps things interesting. Becoming more knowledgeable about diet and training can not only offset and overcome a decreased metabolism, but can even take you to new heights in training and your physique. There will be more metabolic slowdowns to come I’m sure, but I’ll be ready for them. Now you can do the same.

Because there is no ‘maintenance phase’. Ever.