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In this episode, I talk about the changes you can expect in your late 30s, both from an aging perspective and as a result of common events that happen in a woman’s life during this time. I will also address how you might benefit from nutrition and lifestyle improvements at this stage in your life.
Articles and studies mentioned in the podcast:
- Study on men: Aging Is Accompanied by a Blunted Muscle Protein Synthetic Response to Protein Ingestion
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Transcript
In this episode I want to talk about the changes you can expect in your late 30s, both from an aging perspective and as a result of common events that happen in a woman’s life during this time. I will aso address how you might benefit from nutrition and lifestyle improvements at this age, which is my age as well :), so that you support your body as much as possible, avoid undesirable results and make things easier for you later in life: in your 40s, 50s and so on.
When we talk about aging and body changes, the first question on everybody’s lips is “Am I going to gain weight as I age? Is there something I can do about it?”
As relatively recent research shows and, if you read my newsletter, you already know it, age doesn’t slow down our metabolic rate until we are 60.
The metabolic rate is how fast your body is burning calories. Our metabolic rate is constant between 20 and 60 years of age, when adjusted to the fat free mass.
This means that age doesn’t decrease your energy expenditure until you are 60 but there is something else that does: your muscle mass. And this brings me to my first point about a change you should expect in our late 30s: loss of muscle mass and strength. Even if you don’t notice it, after age 30, you begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% of your muscles per decade.
Two things can explain this:
- a natural decline of testosterone, a hormone that stimulates protein synthesis and muscle growth.
- an age-related decrease in muscle protein synthesis which is the process of producing muscle protein from amino acids, literally the process of building muscle.
If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, then being aware of this gradual muscle loss will allow you to put early strategies in place to slow it down, stay in good shape and also avoid weight gain, which can happen as a result of a decreased metabolic rate. Because, again, less muscle mass equals a lower metabolic rate.
What can you do about this?
Nutrition wise, you should be mindful of eating quality proteins. I notice that so many of you have carbohydrate-rich meals, with little protein and few healthy fats.
Do you know what the best sources of protein are?
There is a way to classify foods by their biological value. This measures how close the proportion of amino acids is in relation to what your body needs. In other words, how much of the protein will be used by the body for its requirements.
In order of biological value, here are the protein sources to have in mind:
Number 1: Eggs with a biological value of 100.
Number 2: Meat, fish, poultry, dairy and soy, with biological values between 70 and 100
Number 3: Nuts, seeds, pulses and grains with values below 70.
Since plant sources have a lower biological value, if you have a vegan diet you need to combine pulses and grains in a knowledgeable way in order to fulfill your body’s protein requirements.
Otherwise, a quick thing you can do is have eggs for breakfast or in salads later in the day. Don’t be afraid to eat eggs, they are very nutritious and they do not increase your cholesterol or your risk of cardiovascular disease.
In terms of quantity, an adult woman needs about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight each day, unless she is an athlete, pregnant or breastfeeding, in which case she needs more.
Lifestyle-wise, in order to counteract the age-related muscle loss, you need to move. And what is more effective here is progressive resistance training to help build and maintain your muscles.
Your muscles grow through exercise. Regular cardio, such as running, dancing or swimming, can support muscle growth and function but to a lesser degree than strength training.
Even doing normal chores, gardening, and carrying weights can help. Choosing comfort all the time leads us to living very sedentary lifestyles, with impact on our health, weight and wellbeing.
Changes in body composition, meaning more fat and less muscle, may also drive the increase in insulin resistance with age. With normal aging, the ability of muscle cells to properly respond to circulating insulin is impaired.
Glucose is our cells’ main energy currency and insulin is the hormone that ensures it is taken up and used by cells. Insulin also controls the conversion of excess glucose to fatty acids that can be stored for later use.
When there is resistance to insulin, cells cannot consume the available glucose for energy, they continue to be hungry plus there is a lot of unused glucose that will be converted to fatty acids and stored. For this reason, insulin resistance makes it much more difficult to lose weight.
Diets rich in refined carbohydrates and sedentary lifestyles will increase the risk of developing insulin resistance. If you are in your late 30s, it is a good time to rethink your diet and avoid this. Not to mention that, over time, it leads to pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
Another notable thing happening after age 35 for women is the natural drop in fertility. This means a decrease in egg quantity and quality. 35 years old was considered to be the age when “your fertility falls off a cliff” but statistics now show that 40 might be more accurate.
Moreover, fluctuating levels of estrogen and progesterone, and, especially excess estrogen can happen as early as your late 30s. It is not common to experience perimenopause so early, but it’s wise to already put in a place a diet that supports your body in getting rid of excess estrogen. You will reap the benefits later.
My main recommendations in this respect are:
- have a diet rich in fiber, B-vitamins, polyphenols and sulfur
- avoid xenoestrogens
Xenoestrogens are chemicals that mimic the natural function of estrogen and interfere with hormonal metabolism. They are found in cosmetics, plastics, pesticides, industrial pollutants and even food. You can reduce your exposure to them by avoiding heating up plastic containers and eating food from them, using clean, ecological household products, clean cosmetics and eating organic food.
You can help your liver to function properly and make sure excess estrogen is eliminated through the consumption of:
- foods high in B vitamins, such as whole grains, green leafy vegetables and other vegetables and fruits
- polyphenols from brassica vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale,..)
- and sulfur from onions, garlic, meat and eggs.
If you are in your late 30s, chances are you have a highly active life and maybe a demanding, stressful job. At this time in your life, stress can be quite high. It is also possible that you don’t prioritize rest and sleep. These things can negatively affect your wellbeing, reproductive and hormonal health and your capacity to lose weight and maintain it.
Managing stress, ensuring you get enough rest and physical activity are key habits to put in place at this age.
You might also have had a pregnancy or more and, unless your nutrition was optimal during this time, you might need to replenish your body with nutrients and help it recover.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding are very demanding for our bodies. Nature made it, thankfully, that the baby’s needs, in terms of nutrients, are put first. So there are higher chances to become nutrient deficient during these times. If you had blood work done and some of your vitamins or minerals were within limits but towards the lower one, you should strive to get them up with nourishing food, specifically foods that are high in the nutrients that you are low in.
Pregnancies can also leave excess weight that some of you struggle to lose. This is achievable through a nutrient-dense, wholesome diet and lifestyle interventions on stress, movement and rest.
Weight loss diets that restrict calories can lead to cycles of yoyo dieting and seriously impact your ability to stabilize your weight in the long run.
Also, in relation to weight gain, leptin is a hormone that regulates energy reserves and directs the central nervous system to adjust food intake and energy expenditure accordingly. In other words, it regulates appetite and signals satiety. să-ta-ie-ti
A study on 150 men and 320 women showed that in adult humans of different body weight, serum leptin gradually declines during aging. Leptin reduction is higher in women than in men.
Lack of proper sleep also messes up with this hormone. Its levels decrease, while ghrelin – the hunger hormone – increases.
In order to counteract the potential effects of having a larger appetite, I recommend you learn to prepare nutrient-dense meals and avoid those that bring a lot of empty calories, but not enough nourishment. In addition, proteins and fats delay gastric emptying, thus ensuring you will not feel hungry too soon or overeat.
Finally, one thing that most of us notice in our late 30s is decreased skin elasticity and skin loosening.
You might have heard of collagen – it is a very popular and lucrative nutricosmetic that helps in this area. Some studies have shown that taking hydrolyzed collagen for 90 days is effective in skin aging. But we must be cautious with these studies as most of them are commissioned by the industry itself so there is conflict of interest. The entity that pays for the study has a potential benefit from getting a positive result.
Collagen is actually the most abundant protein in our body and serves as the main building block for our skin but also our bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Our body gradually makes less collagen as we age but its production drops even more due to sun exposure, smoking, lack of sleep and lack of exercise.
Instead of or in addition to supplements, I like to advise eating foods that support collagen production.
Collagen is made of the amino acids: glycine, proline and hydroxyproline which are found in the following high protein foods: fish, poultry, meat, eggs, legumes and soy. In addition to amino acids, collagen also requires zinc and vitamin C. You can find zinc in shellfish, legumes, meat, nuts and seeds and whole grains. And vitamin C in bell peppers, berries, leafy greens and citrus fruits.
Collagen can be found in meat cuts that contain connective tissue, in fish skin and in bone broth.
Lifestyle changes that can help with collagen production are: limiting time in direct sunlight, sleeping and reducing stress as chronically elevated cortisol decreases collagen production.
There are a lot of things you can do to support your health through your late 30s and I hope I leave you with some actionable ways to adjust your diet and lifestyle starting now:
- Consume enough protein from quality sources
- Incorporate physical activity into your routine, especially strength training to counteract the gradual loss of muscle
- Reduce refined carbohydrates and avoid eating them by themselves
- Always have healthy fats and proteins with your meals and learn to prepare recipes and choose ingredients that are nutrient dense.
- Include foods high in B vitamins, sulfur, green leafy vegetables and brassica vegetables for the bioactive and micronutrient content that support the liver and contribute to hormonal balance
- Finally, incorporate foods that support collagen production for skin and bone health
