A new study challenges assumptions about energy expenditure by people, including the idea that metabolism slows at middle age.
A game-changing paper was published recently in Science that changes our understanding of how metabolism works. Using data from nearly 6,500 people, ranging in age from 8 days to 95 years, researchers discovered that there are four distinct periods of life, as far as metabolism goes. They also found that there are no real differences between the metabolic rates of men and women after controlling for other factors.
The findings from the research are likely to reshape the science of human physiology. Central to their findings was that metabolism differs for all people across four distinct stages of life.
- There’s infancy, up until age 1, when calorie burning is at its peak, accelerating until it is 50 percent above the adult rate.
- Then, from age 1 to about age 20, metabolism gradually slows by about 3 percent a year.
- From age 20 to 60, it holds steady.
- And, after age 60, it declines by about 0.7 percent a year.
Once the researchers controlled for body size and the amount of muscle people have, they also found no differences between men and women.
Read more at The New York Times.