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6 Ways to Slow Down Normal Muscle Loss with Aging

By Ethan Boldt

October 10, 2024

Muscle. It serves so many functions, besides just helping us look fit.

More muscle tissue means your body burns more calories at rest. Stronger muscles help improve your balance, which can help you navigate everyday life and also aid your sport performance. Strength training can even make your bones stronger.

In other words, you want to maintain your muscle or even learn how to further build your muscle. But when we get into our 30s and 40s, especially if we don’t address it, muscle loss can begin. This is a normal process of normal aging.

While this is a natural process and even expected, there are ways to help ward off normal muscle loss as you get older. Let’s learn how below.

As always, you should consult your healthcare professional prior to beginning any new dietary or lifestyle regimen.

What is muscle loss? Inevitable as we age?

According to the Office on Women’s Health, the body naturally begins to lose 3 to 5 percent of muscle mass per decade, starting as early as age 30. The rate of muscle decline can accelerate around age 60, unless the individual addresses it with strengthening exercises and nutrition.

In general, lean muscle mass makes up around 50 percent of total body weight in young adults but will decrease with age. By age 80 years old, muscle body weight may make up only 25 percent of total weight, for example.

Of course, any loss of muscle mass is of concern since there’s a strong relationship between muscle mass and strength. According to the Stanford Center on Longevity article, as one ages, the decline in muscle strength is more dramatic — it can be 2 to 5 times greater than the decline in muscle mass.

This can mean a decrease in quality of life, including more difficulty doing everyday things (such as getting up and out of a chair, carrying groceries, gardening, etc.)

How to slow down normal age-related muscle loss

In order to help avoid normal age-related muscle loss and help maintain (and even increase in some cases) your muscle mass, here are six important steps to take.

1. Exercise

Being sedentary is a major cause of muscle loss, as lack of movement means muscle fibers gradually thin and weaken over time.

Instead, it’s fundamental to exercise, including both cardiovascular exercise and strength training. In fact, studies indicate that exercise not only can improve strength and maintain muscle mass (or even increase muscle mass for some), it also can boost aerobic capacity (good for heart health) and muscle mitochondrial enzyme activity.

When it comes to addressing normal muscle loss, resistance exercise is the best remedy. In fact, research has shown that a program of progressive resistance training can begin to make a difference in as little as two weeks.

For example, in studies resistance exercise has been shown to even improve muscle strength in very elderly adults. In fact, a study of 85-year-old weightlifters showed they possessed similar power and muscle mass as 65-year-olds who didn’t engage in regular training.

A minimum of three days of resistance training is recommended to slow down normal, age-related muscle loss or even build muscle, in addition to regular aerobic exercise.

For aerobic exercise options, movements like walking, including on hills, or cycling — outside or on indoor exercise machines — are excellent for bone health and can build muscle in your lower body.

Balance training, such as yoga, can also assist in preventing muscle loss and improve overall strength, flexibility and balance.

2. Increase intake of protein

Protein should make up 20 to 30 percent of one’s diet, but as one ages, often the protein intake declines. For women and women over the age of 70, protein intake tends to fall even more — perhaps not coincidentally, so does muscle mass.

While it’s ideally individualized based on age, sex, activity level, and health status, protein intake for healthy adults should be between 1.2 and 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. To convert your body weight from pounds to kilograms, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2.

Why is protein important for the muscles? It facilitates muscle growth and repair, as well as preservation of lean mass during weight loss. In fact, studies show that a higher intake of protein leads to greater muscle mass plus a lower risk of developing frailty in older adults.

Rather than get all of your protein at one meal, it’s best to spread your protein intake throughout the day, so you end up with good amounts of protein at each meal and even snack time. Check out our list of high-protein breakfasts for instance.

Protein is especially important to eat after exercise, since physical activity like strength training creates little micro tears in muscle fibers so that they can repair and grow back stronger. Protein can help repair those muscles.

Meanwhile, look to certain high-protein foods to add to your shopping list. Items like eggs, grass-fed beef, free-range turkey and chicken, wild-caught salmon and sardines, yogurt and kefir, and plant-based proteins like tempeh and legumes.

Of course, one of the most convenient ways to increase your protein intake is to supplement your diet with protein powder. There are now many types available, tailored to those who prefer animal-derived or plant-derived sources. Ancient Nutrition, for example, offers collagen protein, bone broth protein, whey protein and plant protein.

Whey protein benefits align very well with muscle gain goals. Numerous studies indicate that whey protein can promote gains in lean muscle mass, especially when paired with strength training. Whey also stimulates more muscle synthesis than casein or soy protein products.

3. Consider Multi Collagen Advanced Muscle

Looking for a supplement for a muscle boost*? From 10 food-based sources and featuring 10 types of collagen, Multi Collagen Advanced Muscle Capsules use select ingredients to boost lean body mass. This supplement features a proprietary muscle building blend that includes East Indian globe thistle and mango bark extract.

Muscles need collagen and protein after exercise for recovery and growth, which is why collagen protein aids muscle recovery and helps reduce stiffness. The 10 types of collagen supply amino acids — including proline, glycine and arginine — that support healthy connective tissues in the joints and ligaments.

*In addition to a healthy diet and lifestyle, including regular muscle-building exercise.

4. Hormone balance

Hormonal factors can significantly affect muscle mass. For women in particular, hormonal changes that begin during perimenopause can have a direct effect on muscle loss. Normal menopause is linked to reduced concentrations of a hormone called estradiol in middle-aged and older women.

Women (of all ages) should get regular exercise, including a mix of resistance training and endurance exercises, to stay at a healthy weight and support their overall health. It’s especially helpful for women to continue exercising before, during and after menopause transition since it can help promote muscle, heart health, bone health and hormonal health.

5. Eat a healthy diet that supports a healthy response to inflammation

Maintaining a healthy response to inflammation is tied to muscle health. It’s important to reduce one’s intake of ultra-processed foods — such as most packaged foods, simple starch foods and high-sugar desserts — and closer to a whole food, Mediterranean style of eating.

Increase one’s intake of fish, probiotic foods, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil, whole grains, and herbs and spices.

If you're a woman in her 40s, consider following or at least adopting some ideas from a perimenopause diet.

6. Reduce alcohol intake

Drinking too much alcohol over time can weaken the muscles. In fact, people who consume too much alcohol tend to have low muscle mass and strength, according to research.

Most alcoholic beverages aren’t just empty calories, but they can also remove critical nutrients from your body.

Not drinking alcohol creates immediate and long-term health benefits. It helps your body to normally repair itself, including improved muscle recovery. It leads to better overall health outcomes, such as supporting liver and heart function.