This is an interesting question and I’m afraid to disappoint you but the short answer here is, yes. You probably should eat less as you get older. But just as with any other area of life, not everybody is the same. What you eat will depend on your size, necessity and level of activity.
If you lead a sedentary lifestyle you should eat less. That goes for anyone at any age, but more so as you get older.
Let’s Take a Look:
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Loss of Muscle Tone
As we get older we lose muscle tone. It’s a sad fact of life, but unfortunately true. Since muscle tone is linked to longevity of life, it kind of makes sense that the older we get, the less we will have. But there are many ways you can prevent losing muscle tone (and even make up for lost ground).
The best way is doing resistance training. When you’re fit and active and working out, you may need to eat more, rather than less. But a fit and active twenty-year-old will still need more fuel than a fit-and-active sixty-year-old. That’s just a fact of life.
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Your Metabolism Slows Down
Again, it’s not all fun and games as you get older and another of the unfortunate side effects of the passing of time is that your metabolism slows down. This means that if you’re eating the same amount at sixty that you were at twenty, then you’ll probably pile on the pounds. Especially if you’re less active.
At the DVCC, we don’t believe that getting older means you should slow down!
So if you lead an active life, you can combat the effects of a sluggish metabolism.
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You’ll Want to Eat Less
As your metabolism slows down and you start to lose muscle tone, you’ll probably find that you naturally want to eat less. Your body will ask for less calories, because it simply doesn’t need the same amount as before. But again, it depends a lot on what you’re doing and the types of foods you’re eating. You certainly never need to let yourself go hungry.
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The Right Kinds of Food
If you’re eating the right kinds of food - lean protein, chicken, fish, leafy vegetables, healthy carbs like quinoa and sweet potato - your body’s going to regulate your hunger very well. It’s when you eat processed foods, empty carbs and high sugar cakes and biscuits that you get piques of hunger and lethargy. You end up eating more high calorie foods because you never feel entirely satiated.
So eat less. Yes. But don’t make yourself go hungry. Stock up on all the right kinds of foods, lead an active life and your body will tell you what it needs.
