This ONE Thing Will Transform How You Age
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Welcome to a special episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, where we're diving into a topic we've never explored before: Aging.
In this episode, we'll shatter common myths about aging and reveal the key to defying age-related stereotypes: building and maintaining muscle mass. From debunking misconceptions to exploring the profound impact of muscle on aging, we'll uncover five powerful ways muscle serves as your secret weapon for anti-aging. Join us as we explore the transformative power of muscle and discover how you can look, feel, and live your best at any age.
What I discuss:
Muscle gives your body a metabolic boost….
Improved Insulin Sensitivity…
Stronger Bones and Joints…
Increased mobility…
Reduced Inflammation…
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey there, beautiful human you're listening to Embrace Your Real With Me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I get you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go. [00:00:28]
[00:00:28] Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Podcast. Today is a special episode because we're actually going to be chatting about a topic I don't believe I've talked about on the podcast before, which is kind of crazy because we're four years into this. But today's topic is all about aging. Now, if you're young, if you're in your 20s, maybe you're not worried about this topic yet. And I totally understand. But I truly believe that now is the perfect time to really set yourself up for aging. Well. Now, if you're in your 30s, like me, or you're in your 40s, 50s and beyond, I know that this topic is going to be something that you're extremely interested in, so listen up. But here's the question that we're ultimately going to ask is how do we age gracefully? For example, how do we look like we're in our 30s when we're actually in our 40s? Or how do we look like we're in our 40s when we're actually in our 50s? Or most importantly, how do we feel like we did when we were our younger self? Because here's the thing having to slow down as you age, I truly believe is a myth. And you know what else is a myth? Not being able to build the body that you want as you get older and that you just have to resort to, well, I'm just going to gain weight because my metabolism is slowing down, which is one of the biggest myths that we're going to be talking about. [00:01:38][70.1]
[00:01:38] Really, none of these things have to happen if you are focusing on or maintaining muscle mass. And so that's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. The one thing that I truly believe will help you transform as you age. Before we dive in, though, I want to share this review comes from progress, not perfection, which I love that username as she gave a five star review and said, great podcast, I either go all out or not enough and this is really help me to know what I should work on and build up more workouts during the week. Thanks so much Julie for the podcast. I'm so grateful that this podcast is helping you. As always, this goal of the podcast is to either encourage you, empower you, or educate you in some way, shape or form. So thank you so much for tuning into the podcast, and thank you for leaving a rating and review. Okay, so before I kind of share the five ways that muscle helps with anti-aging, I first want to dive into some myths that I know we have likely all heard before, and maybe we've heard them, and we've believed them for years and years and years. And I just want to be that person, that voice of truth that is telling you, hey, you might have heard this from the media, you might have heard this from magazines, but it is ultimately a myth. Now, many people believe as they age, their physical abilities decline and they become less capable of performing or doing things that they once could. But here's the shocking thing. Research has actually shown that much of the decline that people attribute to aging is actually due to inactivity and a loss of muscle mass, not aging itself. [00:03:06][88.1]
[00:03:07] Which is crazy. And that's why I want to repeat this again. So much of research has shown that the decline that many people attribute to aging is actually due to inactivity and loss of muscle mass, not aging itself. So you can, you know, defy the stereotype of slowing down with age if you really prioritize regular resistance training. And this is what is going to help you to maintain the muscle mass and preserve mobility, which is also key, especially as we age. Another common belief is that it's more difficult to achieve the body that we want as you get older. Again, this is just a myth. Take a consistent and structured approach to exercise and nutrition, a.k.a. learning how to properly feel your body through utilizing the 12 macro counting and women of any age can really change their body composition. And yes, that's even including you if you think that you can't, just because you've heard of these things, you're likely just not taking the most effective approach. Because I have seen in my experience, from working with tens of thousands of women over the last decade, that even women in their 60s and 70s, they can change their body composition through resistance training and through properly fueling their body alone. It's not your body, it's not your metabolism. It's really your approach and your consistency. And when you're able to take the right approach, anything can happen. The last myth that I kind of want to mention that is a common myth, is that it's normal to gain weight as you age. Now, weight gain is often associated with aging due to its factors, such as people thinking, I have a slower metabolism now, or I have hormonal changes. But much of this weight gain can actually be again attributed to this loss of muscle mass. [00:04:50][102.6]
[00:04:50] Because it's as you age, you will naturally lose muscle mass. But if you're that's only if you're not working on building and maintaining it and staying consistent with that right. Muscle is metabolically an active tissue, meaning that it burns more calories at rest compared to fat. So by prioritizing resistance training, you can actually boost your metabolism and avoid that age related weight gain. And of course, nutrition plays a key role in this, as all you genuinely need to do is have the proper nutrition in place to help you build and maintain the muscle alongside resistance training. Okay, so now that we've kind of busted these in. Portland, miss. I kind of want to explain why more muscle mass is the secret anti-aging weapon in really transforming your body at any age. So number one, muscle actually gives your body a metabolic boost, right? First of all, like I said, muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning that it burns more calories at rest compared to fat. So unlike fat tissue, which is relatively inactive, meaning that it doesn't burn many calories at rest, muscle is metabolically active, meaning that it will burn calories even when you're at rest, so this is referred to as your resting metabolic rate. You might have heard to it or have seen it before. It's RMR, but basically every pound of muscle burns roughly 6 to 10 calories per day, compared to 2 to 3 calories for your fat. So let's say, for example, you have 60 pounds of muscle. This means that your muscle itself is going to burn up to 600 calories a day just at rest. And even if you were to lay around on the couch all day, this is how much your muscle alone would be burning. [00:06:30][99.6]
[00:06:30] Therefore, building muscle mass through consistent resistance training actually increases your RMR. And then this actually translates to an increased daily calorie burn. So even when you're not active, you are burning at rest. Now imagine that having a built in calorie burning furnace constantly working to help you to maintain a healthy weight and optimize your metabolic function. Which again, just goes back to the more you learn about science and the way that God has designed our bodies, it's amazing. Even as we age, it's incredible to see how God's intimate and so delicately design is working for us, so long as we know how to properly fuel it and we're staying consistent. But here's what you need to know about aging our RMR, our resting metabolic rate does naturally decline, so it does make it easier to gain weight and lose muscle mass as we age. So that is a truth that as you age, you know, it is going to be easier to gain weight and is going to be easier to lose muscle mass. But you can actually combat that natural decline by increasing your RMR. This doesn't just impact your body composition, it actually contributes to a healthier metabolic profile overall, which has so many other benefits which can reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases associated with weight gain. So it's not just for esthetics, it's actually for your overall health as well. Number two, improved insulin sensitivity. So as we age, our bodies experience a natural decline in insulin sensitivity. First of all, you might be wondering what the heck is insulin sensitivity? I would venture to guess about 80 to 90% of you guys are saying that right now. So let me just take a few minutes to get a little bit sciency here to kind of educate you, because I think this, again, just plays back to the beautiful design of just our bodies and how things are processed. [00:08:21][111.0]
[00:08:22] And as we get older, how things can change, but how we can combat things. So insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and plays a super important role in regulating your blood sugar levels. This is by signaling to our cells to absorb the glucose, which is sugar, from the bloodstream, and use it for energy, because most of the food that you get gets broken down into the body as sugar, a.k.a. glucose. However, as we age, our cells can become resistant to the insulin's message, meaning that it stops telling our body to use that sugar for energy. And when this happens, our body then starts to store the sugar as fat instead, and it leads to a higher blood sugar level, right? Which triggers our hunger hormones to be all out of whack, making us likely want to eat more than our body actually needs. And this is where building muscle mass comes into play. So building muscle and your muscles actually act as your body's glucose sponge. And the more muscle mass you have, the greater capacity that muscle mass has to absorb glucose. So when you exercise and when you're building muscle, your body actually becomes more sensitive to insulin, allowing it to work more effectively. So in simple terms, you can combat the natural decline of insulin sensitivity by just maintaining and building more muscle mass. And this will allow your body to use and utilize the sugar in your bloodstream more effectively and properly to avoid that waking, which is again, so, so cool in terms of just the design of our bodies. But there is a solution which I feel like so many women, you know, they just come to terms with while I'm just older. And it's just this is just the way that it has to be, and this is just the way that it's always going to be. [00:10:01][99.3]
[00:10:01] And I'm telling you that it doesn't have to be like that. You don't have to just accept, you know, I'm getting older and I'm just going to accept all this weight gain and I'm not going to feel good in my body and I'm not going to have all this energy. There is an alternate solution. And that just again, goes back to building more muscle mass and making sure that you're maintaining that muscle mass. Number three stronger bones and joints okay, so this point is not really glamorous, but. It is a super important one for aging. Bones are constantly under undergoing the process of renewal, where old bone tissue is broken down and replaced with new bone tissue, and this is where muscle plays a crucial role in this process. So as a muscle contracts and exerts force on the bones, they actually stimulate bone cells to produce more mineral minerals, including and increasing bone density and making them stronger. And this is super important as we age, because when bone mineral density naturally declines, this is when a lot of the age related symptoms start to happen. So keeping your bone density high, this is actually not only going to help so many different ways in terms of just the anatomy of our bodies as we age, but it's going to help you feel younger for way longer as well. Number four increased mobility. Most people start to feel older because of the loss of mobility. That's one of the first things that they start to notice is, man, I'm just not as flexible as I was. I'm just not as mobile as I was. Which again, this is a natural decline. As we age, they feel like they can't move in the same way that they once could. [00:11:34][92.5]
[00:11:34] It hurts or feels harder due to that loss of mobility. But guess what? Building muscle again goes back to building that muscle mass. This can actually help to counteract that decline. So stronger muscles allow for greater power and flexibility, which makes it easier to perform everyday activities that you're doing, whether that's climbing stairs, that's carrying groceries, that's getting, you know, getting up from a chair, that's picking up your kids or grandkids as playing with your kids or grandkids. And while these things might seem like, you know, this is only going to happen for people that are older and I don't have to worry about this right now. This is real for women who are in their mid to late 30s. They start to just things just start to feel a little bit harder, especially if you're not prioritizing and having that muscle strength and that mobility. So if you want to be able to move through life better and more flexible and just have it be easier to perform those everyday activities, keeping your mobility through resistance training, that is what is ultimately going to help you continue to feel great. And lastly, number five, reduce inflammation. Okay, so let me get a little technical here. I will simplify it at the end. But inflammation starts as this feeling bloated and puffy all the time. But chronic inflammation. So if you are constantly inflamed in your body this is actually what turns into the root cause of most diseases. According to many health experts, muscle tissues act as an anti-inflammatory, so producing these beneficial molecules in your body that suppresses the production of inflammatory markers is crucial. Now, if this sounds too complicated, all you genuinely need to know is this that building these muscle tissues helps to create a calmer internal environment, which helps to reduce the chronic, low grade inflammation that will contribute and does contribute to various health problems in the long term. [00:13:25][110.8]
[00:13:26] Plus, chronic inflammation is actually another reason why many people struggle to lose weight. So by keeping that muscle mass and by allowing your body to have and maintain that muscle mass in that muscle tissue, this is actually what's going to defend against the inflammation and make it so much easier for you to build and maintain the body composition that you want. So there you have it. I talked about five things that really help you to transform how you age. And it all goes back to one simple truth, which is muscle mass is actually the key to aging gracefully, living longer, and having a better life. So let me kind of quickly recap what we talked about. First, I want to recap the myths that I debunked earlier in the episode. So research has actually shown that much of the decline that many people attribute to aging is actually due to inactivity and loss of muscle mass, not due to aging itself. Another common misbelief is that it's so much more difficult to achieve the body that you want as you get older, but again, this is just a myth. By taking a consistent and structured approach to exercise and nutrition aka learning how to properly fuel your body through utilizing the 12 macro counting women at any age can change their body composition. And the last myth that I talked about is it's normal to gain weight as you age. And while yes, weight gain is often associated with aging due to factors such as a slower metabolism and hormonal changes, much of this weight gain can actually again be attributed to this loss of muscle mass, because you're going to naturally lose muscle mass if you're not actively working on building and maintaining it. [00:15:03][97.2]
[00:15:03] And then let me quickly recap the five ways that muscles can actually help you to age better. So number one, muscles give your body a metabolic boost. Number two, improved insulin sensitivity. Number three stronger bones and joints. Number four increased mobility. And lastly number five reduced inflammation. So you might be sitting here and you're okay. This was a great. Wealth of information. I now don't feel as discouraged as I get older to know that it is possible for me to age gracefully and to transform my body at any age. But what is next? Well, I want to introduce two things that I talk about a lot on the podcast. But again, if you are struggling in this area, if you feel like as you get older, you're just really struggling to build that muscle, to stay consistent, to properly fuel your body. And this could be because you don't have a plan. It could be because you don't know how to properly train your body, or you don't know how to properly fuel your body. I have two resources for you. You have to focus on building muscle through resistance training, and that's going to mainly be through strength training, right? So I have dumbbell workouts and that's what I do. That's what I that's my program is completely based around just dumbbell workouts, which is just another word for strength training. So if you hear strength training, strength training, double workouts, that is one in the same. Right? And then I always talk about how to properly fuel your body through utilizing the tool of macro counting. Now these two things will help you age better than you could ever imagined. And I'm not just speaking for myself. You know, as I get into my mid 30s, I know and I have properly fueled my body. [00:16:41][98.1]
[00:16:42] I know how to properly train my body, and now I'm able to feel better than I do in my 30s, than I did in my 20s, and especially in my teens. And it's because I am properly fueling and training my body. So if you are struggling with training your body, this is something that maybe you're really consistent in your nutrition. But the training aspect, you just don't know how to properly do get access to the movement visually. App. So I have an app that makes resistance training super, super easy. You can work out at home with minimal equipment, or if you're a gym goer and you prefer to work out at the gym, you can absolutely do all of these workouts at the gym, but it gives you carefully programed workouts every single week that are extremely easily easy to follow. And you can just start with three workouts a week, right? Even for 30 minutes, you can still see amazing results. Just doing the dumbbell workouts three times a week for 30 minutes combined with your nutrition. Which leads me to step two, which is get access to my macro economy. It's an online academy, so when you are inside that academy, you get your macros custom calculated by us based on where you're at and what your goals are. Now, this is very, very important to do, especially if you want to learn how to properly feel your body. I don't want you to just follow some random numbers. I don't want you to just follow some random meal plan because it is going to be different from person to person, and it's going to be different from person to person. Even if you're like, oh, well, she has the same body type as me, well, it's likely that she is a different age than you. [00:18:10][88.0]
[00:18:10] It's likely that she has a different day to day, you know, job, whether it's more sedentary or less sedentary than you, it's likely that she's doing different workouts than you or at a different intensity than you. And so it's really important that you get your custom numbers that are specific to your body, where you're at, and what your goals are. Plus, inside the academy, we give you all the tools that you need to make macro counting a seamless lifestyle. We really want to empower you so that you don't feel like you have to rely on coaches for the rest of your life. That is. Our goal, is that we teach you, step by step how we do it, so that you can say, oh great, this is something that you know is an investment up front, that it's going to serve me for a lifetime, and I won't need to have to constantly go back to coaches to say, okay, what are my numbers? What are my numbers? We are teaching you how to do it yourself so that you can feel empowered in your journey. So I will leave both of those links in the show notes. If you want to learn more about either my Dumbbell Only workouts or my Macro Academy, it's simple. Online Academy again, both of those will be linked in the show notes, but if you love this episode, it would mean the world to me. If you could take a few seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with a friend. There are views on the podcast really just help the podcast itself to grow, and also as a result, we're able to reach more women so that we can help them change their relationship with food, fitness and their bodies. [00:19:32][82.7]
[00:19:33] So you can do so by going to the podcast app on any Apple device, type in Embracer reel and scroll all the way down. You can leave a rating interview again. That would mean the world to me. And then all you have to do to share the episode with a friend is copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can also, screenshot this, post it up on your Instagram story or Facebook, and you can even add a link there for your friends and followers to tune in. But I hope that this episode was helpful for you. I hope that this gave you some hope. Just know I believe that aging is a gift from the Lord. I believe that we get wiser as we get older, and it doesn't have to be so stressful. And you can absolutely feel your best at any age, especially when you have a plan in place and when you're doing it effectively. But that is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so dang much, I mean it, I'll talk to you next one. [00:20:20][47.3]
[00:20:25] All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an “A” the name middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it. [00:21:13]