This information came from a site called verywell and it helped me understand my weight and why it's in the condition it is today. Go to the link above and find even more helpful information on weight gain after 40.
The big question is, why do we start gaining weight after 40? There are a multitude of reasons, some of the genetic, some of it the natural course of things and some that are due to lifestyle choices.
The four most important contributors to weight gain include:
Hormones: One of the main culprits for weight gain is, of course, our hormones, which start to change right around the mid-30s and into the 40s. This change in hormones, less estrogen for women and less testosterone for men, causes the fat in our bodies fat to shift to the middle of the body while abandoning other areas of the body you could care less about. That's one reason you may get a little fluffier around the middle while other parts of you actually get smaller.
(Oh Yes! I can relate to this. My middle section sometimes looks like I’m pregnant and at age of 68, I can’t see that being the problem.)
Heredity: Scientists have found the specific genes that determine how many fat cells we have and where they're stored. This is something we can't really change and, if you look at your parents and relatives, you'll see those areas where your family may tend to store excess fat.
(This one is apparently not my problem. In my mind I pictures my relatives and most of them weren’t that overweight.)
Lower Metabolism: There are a couple of things that happen to your metabolism after the age of 40. First, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) decreases and, second, you expend less total energy (TEE) during exercise. Some experts suggest metabolism can decrease by about 5% for every decade after 40, which means you need about 60-100 fewer calories every 10 years. If you sit more, eat more, exercise less and deal with more stress throughout that decade, you'll probably need even fewer calories than that. Add that to the fact that you burn fewer calories during exercise and you've got yourself an equation for weight gain.
(I was afraid that bad word ‘Exercise’ would start popping up! Well, I’m going to work on that at a good pace without, hopefully, stressing out my muscles too much.)
Loss of muscle: Like our metabolisms, we also start to lose muscle when we hit our 40s, experiencing a steady decline each decade. Part of this, scientists believe, is that the motor units that make up our muscles decline as we age and that those motor units don't always fire with the same regularity. However, the important takeaway here is this: The biggest factor in losing muscle is the lack of physical activity, which makes exercise a crucial component when it comes to preventing muscle loss.
(That word again! Guess there is no way of getting around the fact that we all need to exercise no matter our age. And if you’re still young, start now so your body will become accustomed to it and won’t fight back like it seems to do when you get older.)
