Study Suggests Why Weight Loss Becomes More Diffcult With Age

The difficulty of losing weight for older adults is often attributed to decreased metabolism. New research from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet suggests there might be another factor at work. The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Analyzing the fat cells of 54 men and women over a period of 13 years, scientists discovered that lipid turnover in fat tissue decreased for all subjects. This was true whether they gained or lost weight during the study period.

Failure to compensate for decreasing lipid turnover by reducing caloric consumption resulted in an average 20% weight gain. But there’s good news for active adults: Prior research suggests getting more exercise can help speed up lipid turnover in fat tissue.