Muscle Mass, Protein + Healthy Aging as a Woman

Published on 16 December 2024 at 11:55

While many of us know about heart health, and the benefits of steady state cardio on healthy aging, not many of us realize that progressive building the strength of our other muscles is also right up there in importance. My husband and I are pretty passionate about this topic, as most individuals we meet aren't properly exercising (or eating) to meet their health or fitness goals (instead going based off of generic advice). One person might hit the gym for far too many hours and days, not understanding that muscles are built during rest. While another might be doing an immense amount of cardio, thinking it'll help them lose weight (when the real issue is metabolic).

This article has more to do with optimizing fitness and diet towards the goal of longevity - especially for women. More studies are confirming that using your muscles (versus "losing" them) prevents many age-related issues, and increases your overall longevity. And this doesn't mean busting your butt to become a bodybuilder or powerlifter - it just means challenging yourself to make a very general upward trend in your strength and capabilities.

Metabolism + Insulin Resistance

Muscles use the sugar glucose as a form of energy, storing it as glycogen in muscle cells. Because of this, increased muscle mass results in increased insulin action. This makes the body more efficient at utilizing glucose, even when your glucose levels might be low.

(Fun Fact: All carbohydrates are converted into glucose during digestion. Excess glucose gets stored in muscles first, before the body starts turning it into fat.)

This function gives you a cushion when it comes to how your body processes sugar. More insulin action = less dietary sensitivity to sugar. This prevents insulin resistance, which is important as we grow older and our metabolisms gradually get slower.

Eating protein increases your metabolism for several hours as your food digests. It also helps us build new muscle, while preventing your body from burning pre-existing muscle (catabolism).

Eating enough protein is essential in building dense, healthy muscle. Protein may increase your metabolism in the short term, but increased muscle mass also increases your basal metabolic rate. This just means that your muscle mass is positively correlated with how many calories you burn at rest (muscles burn calories at rest). Burning calories in this context is a "symptom" of an efficient metabolism.

So, both eating protein and maintaining muscle mass cause changes that occur at the metabolic level. This should register as being extremely important, because we are aging creatures whose bodies slow down over time.

And being a woman, this is combined with the different stages of menopause.

Protein is digested the slowest when eaten with complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. This decreased digestion not only balances blood sugar levels, but also helps keep us satiated for longer.

Quick Note:

Depending on the resource, I've found that individuals are being recommended less than what is actually needed to prevent catabolism and in fact maintain healthy muscle mass.

One good rule of thumb is to eat about .8g/lb body weight, or .8g/cm height (if your BMI is above average). Here we use BMI as a marker, and not as an indicator of health. For example, my husband is technically "obese" according to his BMI, because he has dense muscles that make him heavier for his height. Because of this, he eats according to the "centimeter" rule.

Bone + Joint Health

One of the natural side effects of menopause is a loss in bone density; one of the many effects of decreased estrogen. Low bone density makes the bones more prone to breaking or fracturing, also causing pain through conditions like arthritis.

Strength training helps support your body against the effects of osteoporosis in three ways:

1. Increased bone density - Resistance training makes bones denser and helps your body replace old bone with new bone.

2. Increased bone/joint cushioning - More muscle mass means your bones and joints are encased in additional protection against falls.

3. Preventing falls - Working out improves your coordination and balance, and is correlated with falling less (or being able to deflect a fall better) as you age.

Remember - Your body counts as weight, too. So all of us have the ability to "resistance train" to some capacity - even if it means we're just improving our push-up over time. The most important aspect of this is progressive overload, in which you continually challenge your body to a reasonable degree, and therefore improve over time.

Reproductive Health

Both protein consumption and regular exercise work together to support the menstrual cycle. Hormonal balance and overall body functionality play a huge role in how we age, and experience menopause.

Protein

The amino acids that compose proteins are used by our bodies to make and balance hormones. Not enough protein results in irregularities in your cycle, or symptoms that otherwise could be reduced. Protein also helps your body repair tissues that are shed during your period, and also enhances your body's ability to absorb and utilize iron.

Protein intake is also tied to cortisol production, meaning that adequate protein consumption is associated with reduced cortisol when faced with acute stress (ex. stressful things that "come up"). This helps when dealing with PMS and the regulation of mood.

One cool fact is that our bodies use more protein between ovulation and menses (the period), so we actually need more protein during that time to support our hormones.

Exercise

Regular exercise also contributes to mood regulation, as it releases both endorphins and serotonin. Much like protein consumption, resistance training also helps to reduce some of the negative physical symptoms associated with menstrual cycle, while also helping to regulate it.

Remaining active - even if that means lowering intensity and doing something like yoga during certain parts of your cycle - increases blood flow, releases those feel-good neurotransmitters, and generally reduces cramps (though they might not be gone forever!).

One way I like to think of it is within the realm of Ayurveda: Women naturally contain a lot of tamas ("darkness", "intertia") - which sounds terrible! But functionally, it means that we do a great job of gathering resources and cultivating spaces for creation to take place (think of gravity pulling matter together to form the earth).

The problem is that if we are too stagnant in our energies (emotional, mental, physical), we are also more likely to do things like gain weight, get sick, and let things that need to be processed, fester. It's like the energetic version of hoarding. And when we hold onto things for too long, eventually they explode 🤷🏻‍♀️ (explosive bouts of rajasic energy, typically emotional when it comes to PMS/PMDD).

Gentle movement encourages sattva during specific times of your cycle. Even just walking when you feel hormonally fatigued helps! The great thing about movement is that it gives us a physical way to move energy through our bodies, which results in our bodies functioning more efficiently.

Women are active in their own way. Strength training will look different between men and women, and also between women. Generally, resistance training might be harder during times when your body is asking for more rest. During these times, you don't push harder - you keep moving, but in a way that still honors your feminine inclination towards inertia (in a way that is still restful). I could write a whole blog on this concept! But the science also checks out 😂.

Hydrogen Therapy as a Preventative + Treatment

Hydrogen therapy - which simply means adding extra hydrogen gas into your system in some way - is pretty magical. Hydrogen acts as an antioxidant, but doesn't work in the typical way (through electron donation). Instead, it reacts with hydroxyl free radicals and turns them into water.

These free radicals are responsible for chronic inflammation and cell damage that occurs in response to environmental toxins and stress (having a hand in every disease there is).

For women, hydrogen therapy is great at preventing excess free radicals from gathering, while pursuing the lifestyle shifts that we are personally responsible for in order to keep healthy.

So many different things these days disrupt our hormones, to where most women living in first world countries could eat organic all they want (I still do, and grow some food as well) - while still not receiving enough antioxidants to combat even just pollution. Soil now just generally contains leached pesticides, and we aren't going to be able to fully balance out our free radical levels by eating fruits and veggies alone.

For me, hydrogen tech is almost like a modern day solution to a modern day, human-caused issue. Pollution, plastics, chemicals, fragrance...the list goes on. Molecular hydrogen is literally just hydrogen gas, which exits our body through our breath if not all of it is utilized. And seeing as hydrogen water has already shown to help balance insulin levels, support healthy metabolism, and even prevent osteoporosis - it's definitely something that I value investing in (and spreading the word about!) for both myself and my family.