How to grow older but not fatter: weights, HIIT, walking 10,000 steps a day and eating vegetables among key tips

Slow loss of muscle mass, less spontaneous physical activity, changes in hormones – these are all reason we gain weight as we age

Lifting weights helps lose abdominal fat, while eating lower calorie foods, doing HIIT and sitting less all help keep off the extra pounds

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Keeping weight off as you age requires maintaining physical activity. Here, more than 500 elderly people attend a keep-fit exercise session organised by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:00pm, 28 Oct 2019Updated: 2:00pm, 26 May 2020

One of the most frustrating things about getting older is the pounds piling up as the years pass.

Keeping weight off can be a challenge, even when you aren’t eating more or exercising less. But don’t be discouraged. Ageing may be inevitable, but getting fatter need not be.

Obesity affects about 40 per cent of American adults, including the young and middle aged – an estimated 93.3 million adults, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is a serious public health problem, raising the risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

Worldwide, about 13 per cent of the world’s population aged 18 or older were obese in 2016, according to the World Health Organisation.

Resistance training is one way to maintain muscle mass and reduce abdominal fat. Photo: Alamy

One big reason we gain weight as we get older is because we gradually lose muscle mass – about 1 per cent every year, says Donald Hensrud, associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, in the US state of Minnesota.