As we enter midlife, our health needs evolve, requiring us to be more intentional about nourishing our bodies and approach exercise.

Many midlife women must focus more on two critical components: consistently eating adequate protein and strength training. Adequate protein and strength training are essential for maintaining or improving your physical health and supporting weight management efforts as you age.

The Importance of Protein in Midlife

Protein is crucial in preserving muscle mass, especially as you age. Starting around age 30, women naturally begin to lose muscle mass. This muscle loss accelerates in midlife, leading to decreased strength, mobility, and metabolic rate. With adequate muscle mass, it becomes easier to maintain a healthy weight, stay active, and even have enough energy to perform daily tasks. The loss of muscle mass accelerates after age 50. This decline can lead to sarcopenia - age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and function that results in poor health, risk of injuries, disability, and a diminished quality of life as we age.

While sarcopenia, or the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, is a common aspect of aging, it is not entirely inevitable. While some degree of muscle loss occurs naturally with age, the extent and impact of sarcopenia can be significantly reduced or even prevented with proactive measures. Preventing sarcopenia can have a dramatic effect on the quality of life as you age.

Eating enough protein is one of the most effective ways to combat age-related muscle loss, prevent sarcopenia, and support weight management. Protein provides the building blocks (amino acids) your muscles need to repair and grow, which helps maintain muscle mass and boost metabolism. A higher metabolism means your body burns more calories, even at rest, making it easier to manage your weight. Additionally, protein-rich foods tend to be more satiating, helping you feel fuller for longer and reducing the likelihood of overeating.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is .8 grams per kilogram (1 kg = 2.2 pounds) of body weight. This is the amount of protein healthy adults need daily to prevent deficiencies. However, experts have criticized these recommendations as not optimal for aging adults who may need additional protein to sustain muscle mass and functionality.

Expert consensus groups suggest that the current protein recommendations need to account for research showing that while older people can make as much muscle as younger individuals, they require more protein to achieve the same effect. Many experts now suggest that midlife women may benefit from even higher amounts (1.6 - 2.0 grams per kilogram body weight), especially if you are active or focused on managing your weight. 

Your precise protein goals will vary based on age, activity level, and goals. 

However, aiming for 25-30 grams of protein per meal and 10 grams of protein at each snack is a good rule of thumb and a great way to start building consistency for eating enough protein to fuel your body and age well. High-quality protein sources include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, and plant-based proteins like tofu and tempeh.

Make Eating Adequate Protein a Habit.

Tracking protein intake is an effective way to build a habit because it fosters consistency, awareness, and accountability, all of which are key to long-term success in any health or fitness goal.

1. Consistency: Tracking protein helps you consistently reach your daily intake goals, ensuring you're getting enough to support muscle maintenance, metabolism, and overall health. Over time, this consistent focus on protein helps establish a routine, making it easier to stick with healthy eating habits.

2. Awareness: By tracking your protein intake, you become more aware of the protein content in different foods and meals. This awareness naturally leads to better food choices and a more balanced eating pattern as you prioritize protein-rich options.

3. Accountability: Tracking allows you to see your progress and identify patterns in your eating habits. This accountability can be motivating, encouraging you to stay on track and make adjustments as needed to meet your protein goals.

Tracking protein intake helps you meet your nutritional needs and reinforces healthy habits, supporting your long-term well-being. Try monitoring your protein intake with the 90-Day Protein Journal.

The Role of Strength Training

While protein is vital, strength training is the most effective way to maintain and build muscle, counteract the effects of aging, and improve overall metabolic and functional health. While other forms of exercise can contribute to overall fitness, strength training is unparalleled in building and preserving muscle mass.

Strength, along with appropriate levels of protein, is the key to maximizing weight management. Healthy muscles enhance the rate of protein synthesis, which is crucial for muscle repair and growth. 

Benefits of Strength Training:

Strength training, which can include free weight lifting, resistance band exercises, machines, and bodyweight workouts, stimulates muscle growth and improves bone density, crucial for preventing osteoporosis. The benefits of strength training include:

• Increasing muscle mass helps to build and maintain muscle, which can prevent age-related muscle loss

• Improving bone density by strengthening bones reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

• Boosting metabolism. Strength training increases the calories your body burns at rest, making it a powerful tool for weight management. 

• Enhancing functional fitness makes performing everyday activities easier and reduces the risk of injury.

Critical Components of Strength Training

Strength training is versatile. You can tailor your workouts to meet your health goals, whether you want to increase strength, live independently, prevent falls and injuries, manage weight, or enhance your overall health. 

If you're new to strength training or need to be more consistent with your routine, a few principles can help. 

1. Choose activities you enjoy and can consistently do. 

Resistance Types:

Weights: lifting dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, or using weight machines

Body Weight: Exercises like push-ups, squats, and leg lifts that use your body weight as resistance

Resistance Bands: Elastic bands that provide resistance when stretched

Machines: Gym equipment designed to target specific muscle groups with adjustable weights

Variety of Exercises: 

Strength training can target specific muscle groups or involve compound exercises that engage multiple groups simultaneously. Examples of exercise include:

Upper Body: Bench press, shoulder press, bicep curls, tricep extensions

Lower Body: Squats, lunges, deadlifts, calf raises, leg press, hip thrusts

Core: Planks, sit-ups, bird-dogs, bicycle crunches, medicine ball slams

2.Choose activities you enjoy and can consistently do. 

Work with a personal trainer to help you acclimate to weights and machines and determine the specific number of repetitions and sets you should perform for each exercise based on your current fitness level.

Repetition (Reps) and Sets:

• Repetitions (Reps): the number of times you perform a specific exercise without rest. For example, doing ten squats in a row would be ten reps.  

• Sets are groups of consecutive repetitions. For example, doing ten squats, resting, and then doing another ten squats would be two sets of 10 reps each.

3.  Choose a challenging weight. 

Progressive overload (this one is MOST important) is a fundamental principle of strength training that involves gradually increasing the weight, resistance, or intensity of exercise over time to continue challenging your muscles. This leads to strength gains and muscle growth. In other words, you can progress from body weight to resistance bands to lighter weights or lighter weights (dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, machines) to heavier weights. 

4.  Begin by prioritizing strength training exercises two to three times per week. Remember that rest and recovery are important to achieving your desired gains.

Muscles need time to recover after strength training. Rest days, adequate sleep, and protein intake are essential for muscle repair and growth. It is recommended that a muscle group be rested for 48 hours before being worked on again. 

Combining Protein and Strength Training for Optimal Health and Weight Management

The synergy between adequate protein intake and regular strength training cannot be overstated. Protein intake and strength training create a powerful combination that supports muscle maintenance, enhances physical performance, and aids in weight management as you age. By prioritizing both, you're investing in your future health, ensuring you can continue enjoying the activities you love while maintaining a healthy weight.

Conclusion

It's essential to be proactive about your health as you age. Incorporating adequate protein and strength training into your daily routine is a practical and effective way to stay strong, healthy, and vibrant while managing weight. 

Remember, there is always time to start. Whether you're just beginning your fitness journey or looking to enhance your current routine, focusing on these two areas will help you age gracefully, manage your weight, and live life to the fullest.