[00:00:00] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival podcast. My name is Vesna and today we're going to talk about how to prevent and reverse muscle loss over 40. Now, women will often say to me after the age of 35 their body changes, doesn't look the same, things don't work like they used to, but after 40 this accelerates and we find that we have the flabby arms or the belly or the flat butt or just more fat in areas that you haven't had before and you've seen a significant loss in tone and you may find it harder.

[00:00:31] So, you've been exercising and following an exercise routine for a long time and you've You're not getting the gains anymore, right? You're still noticing that you're losing muscle. this is known as sarcopenia. And this begins well, quite early on. So we reach our muscle peak at the age of 25, right?

[00:00:51] And everything's downhill from there, but not so fast, right? But at 35, we really notice that our body is changing. And then, like I said, at 40, it really accelerates. And for women. You know, there is a hormonal component which accelerates this aging process of the muscles. And we, there's a lot that we can do to reverse it or prevent it.

[00:01:10] So they say we lose 8 percent of muscle every decade between the ages of 40 and 70. And from the age of 70 onwards, we lose 15 percent of our muscle every decade. there are things that we can do to prevent this. And so number one, what is causing this?

[00:01:24] Well, first of all, why is it important to retain our muscle? I think this is a bigger conversation some degree, because we look at muscle or we look at sagging arms and sagging, whatever, and more cellulite and more fat in areas, aesthetically, we don't like it. But really there's a much bigger, uh, part to having more muscle, which is muscle is one of our biggest indicators of health and longevity.

[00:01:45] The more muscle that we retain, the healthier we are, the longer that we're going to live, the stronger that we are, the stronger our bone health will be. So it's not just an appearance thing. It really is a marker of where we are in our health and vitality. So what is making us [00:02:00] prone to sarcopenia or this age related muscle loss?

[00:02:04] particularly for women. Okay. So number one, it is aging, aging. We are going to lose muscle. Okay. That is going to happen, but we can put factors in place and routines in place to offset that. Right. Number two is insulin resistance. Okay. Now, unfortunately, as our Hormones change as we get older. We are more prone, naturally, to insulin resistance, which is a real shame.

[00:02:25] But insulin resistance means that our body has a higher level of insulin, so our cells become resistant to insulin, and therefore we're getting these glucose and insulin spikes during the day, and that tends to mean that we will place more fat around the belly, so you'll get that belly fat, that muffin top, and generally more fat everywhere.

[00:02:44] But insulin resistance is linked with sarcopenia and that means that the fat that we store around our body is actually inflammatory fat and it creates more inflammation in the system. So again, it's not just that it doesn't look good. It's impacting our health. inflammation is the heart of every symptom condition in the body.

[00:03:03] So if we can reduce inflammation, we can really improve our health.

[00:03:06] The third thing is hormonal changes. As I said, as we're coming up to perimenopause and menopause, we are going to be more prone and sarcopenia accelerates if we don't adjust our diet and lifestyle. Also, weight gain plays a huge factor again, because of the insulin resistance, a low protein diet. I'm going to get more into this because most women.

[00:03:28] I speak to who feel like their diet is pretty good, actually do not eat enough protein. And the other factor that plays a part is, you know, not having enough physical activity, resistance training or a sedentary lifestyle. So if you're really not moving so much, you are going to be more prone to accelerated sarcopenia.

[00:03:45] So what do we got to do? Number one, we've got to look at the diet. We've got to look at protein because protein and amino acids in the protein. So the building blocks of the protein, um, Build muscle. They're part of the muscle protein synthesis, right? So we need the [00:04:00] animal protein or plant proteins.

[00:04:02] Animal protein does give us a better utilization of protein and amino acids to create the muscles, but obviously, if you are vegetarian or vegan, that's okay. You can get it through plant proteins as well.

[00:04:13] So really what you're looking at in terms of kind of the baseline, depending on your activity level, you're looking at at least one gram of protein per kilo of body weight. So if you weigh 70 kilos, you're going to have to have 70 grams of protein in the day. That doesn't mean that, 150 grams of chicken is going to give you 150 grams of protein, right?

[00:04:31] It's going to give you about 20 to 25 grams of protein. And if you need to have 70 a day, just as a, Baseline, that's if you're not doing any activity, which, you know, if you're showing symptoms of muscle loss, you must be increasing the exercise and resistance training, okay? And in that case, your protein requirements go up to about 1.

[00:04:48] 3, okay? 1. 2, 1. 3. If you're doing really heavy training, um, athletes will go up to 1. 6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight. So what types of protein do we have? We have animal and plant proteins. Okay, animal proteins give us a really good source of amino acids. So the main amino acid that we're finding in the protein is the leucine. Leucine helps to rebuild the muscle and so you can get that in animal protein really easily. So sometimes for people who are on a vegetarian or vegan diet, we may have to supplement with the leucine or branched chain aminos in order to get that amount of Um, Lucene into their diet, right?

[00:05:25] But we're looking at, there's two types of protein. There's animal and there's plant protein. And you need to make sure, based on your activity level, that you're actually having enough protein. Because without the protein, kind of throughout the day, going through this curve of like, gaining muscle, losing muscle, gaining muscle, losing, or kind of our protein requirements are going up and down, right?

[00:05:44] So, if we're doing physical activity, our protein requirements go up, and then our body uses all that protein, and then we're going like this throughout the day, right? So we want to make sure that we're having intervals of protein throughout the day. We're not just having, you know, what I tend to [00:06:00] see is that we will have very little protein for breakfast, very little for lunch, if at all, and then the protein portion at dinner, which is still only about 30 grams of protein.

[00:06:08] So it's really, really deficient. And so what we want to do, we spread it to, you know, 20 to 40 grams in, you know, breakfast and lunch and dinner and then snacks throughout the day, right? So you can have up to. Well, studies have shown now it's over 40 grams in one sitting in order to utilize all of that protein to build the muscle.

[00:06:26] So that means say if you ate 250 grams of chicken, you got 40 grams of protein in that, your body would able to use that protein, those amino acids in that chicken to rebuild your muscle.

[00:06:39] The other thing that we want to do, so number one, protein is important. The type of protein, the amount of protein that we're having based on our activity level. The other thing that we want to look at is carbohydrates. We want to make sure that you're not having the carbohydrates that's going to create or exacerbate insulin resistance.

[00:06:55] So we want to start to bring insulin sensitivity back. So the way that I talk about insulin is that insulin is a normal hormone. It moves our glucose from our bloodstream. into our cells for energy, right? But if we've had high stress or high processed diet, processed carbohydrates or sugars, we are going to have a lot of insulin all the time in the system.

[00:07:17] So our cells become resistant to a normal amount of insulin. So where it once took a lot of insulin, A completely arbitrary number I'm saying, two mils of insulin to move the glucose from the bloodstream into your cells. When you're insulin resistant, it might take 10 mils. And the more insulin that's in the system, the more our body stops burning fat and starts storing it around our waist, around our organs, right?

[00:07:40] Increases cholesterol, inflammation in the body. So carbohydrates cut out processed foods, right? Cut out processed carbohydrates and sugars, the obvious sugars, right? That's the first thing that you can do. to reduce the insulin resistance, improve that kind of sugar profile to make sure that [00:08:00] you're not losing muscle through the diet because of that response.

[00:08:02] Because the other thing to note is that when you have insulin resistance and sarcopenia, like you really see the shift in the muscle, right? You're really noticing that actually everything's really soft the structure is really lost. It's really lost its tone. And that is because you're basically losing muscle, replacing it with body fat and your whole body starts to change or your body shape starts to change.

[00:08:25] Okay, so diet was one, protein, carbohydrates. The second thing that we need to look at is resistance training. So we need to be increasing the resistance on our body. So whatever you do that's either using your body weight, you can do Pilates with some weights on there as well, or weight training. Okay. So weight training after a certain age, I think weight training is the best because I, for myself did a type of Pilates for many, many years, which was amazing for me.

[00:08:51] And then I got to a point where it just wasn't anymore. Okay. I really needed to lift. weights and need to do heavier resistance, which has been a game changer for me. So look at resistance training two to three times a week. Three times a week is ideal. You'll really notice a change in your body at the three times a week, but two times a week will help to rebuild some muscle and offset some The loss of muscle and the So whether you do something online, you build yourself a little home gym, my recommendation would be to get a personal trainer, even if it's like a small group training or a one on one training, to really guide you to prevent injuries and do the right exercises for you to rebuild the muscle in areas that you want.

[00:09:30] The third thing that I want to mention is that when we have sarcopenia, it correlates with osteoporosis. So, it's not just a case of losing muscle, we're also losing bone. And a lot of that comes down to, yes, it comes down to diet as well and protein and nutrition and calcium from your diet. And also vitamin D.

[00:09:50] So, we have a lot of people with vitamin D deficiency and so vitamin D, obviously people are supplementing with vitamin D. But vitamin D deficiency [00:10:00] really means a sun exposure deficiency. It doesn't mean that you have to go pop a tablet or a capsule, right? It really means that your body is deficient in sunlight.

[00:10:09] And we have so many other things that the sun gives us more than just vitamin D. And so it's really important that we get outside and get some sun on our skin. And in wintertime it's going to be harder, so it's going to be face, hands, maybe forearms. And you know, 15 minutes each day in the wintertime, a few minutes in the summertime, right?

[00:10:28] And not in the peak day, but bone health and sarcopenia correlate and we want to make sure that we're getting enough calcium and vitamin D to support bone health as well. And this could be, yes, as you're getting older to make sure you don't have any fractures or injuries, but also for athletes so that they don't get injuries during their training and their sports.

[00:10:48] And the fourth thing to look at is your sleep, right? Sleep affects your circadian rhythm or sleep deprivation affects your circadian rhythm, right? So your body clock, which then impacts how your body is building muscle, right? And so they found that even in the acute stages, even losing two nights of sleep, Will actually have an impact on your muscle and how your body builds muscle. So actually, um, you'll be in a negative. So Making sure where you can getting to sleep on time, getting to bed by 9 30, 10 PM is my kind of rule. But if you're a shift worker or you've had chronic insomnia, then really having looking at addressing the underlining reasons of why you're not getting proper sleep, because it is, like I said, breaking down muscle.

[00:11:30] It increases our cortisol, reduces testosterone. All these things tend to break down muscle. So again, we're in a deficit and we're If you can address your poor sleep, whether it be poor quality or unable to fall asleep quickly enough, or waking up in the middle of the night, they should be addressed in order for you to have proper muscle and bone health.

[00:11:50] Okay, I hope this was helpful. So just to summarize, sarcopenia, muscle, age related muscle loss accelerates into our 40s. We can prevent and reverse [00:12:00] it through making sure that you have enough protein in your diet, good source of protein. Cutting down the processed carbohydrates and the sugar. Adding in resistance training three times a week ideally, but two times a week if that's all you can do.

[00:12:12] And getting out in the sunlight for your vitamin D, for your calcium, for your bone, because sarcopenia correlates with osteoporosis. And getting enough sleep. So those are the factors that are important to make sure That things don't jiggle as much as you get older, but also to maintain muscle health for health and longevity in the future and for strength and for tone and to keep you strong and feeling amazing.

[00:12:35] Let me know in the comments below which one of these you are going to implement first. 

Website: vesnahrsto.com

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