No, muscle and fat are two very different tissues in your body and they cannot morph into one another. Aging comes with many physiological changes; however you can reduce deleterious muscle loss and fat gain by staying active throughout your entire life span.
Just as how when you start exercising, your fat cells don't turn into muscle cells, when you stop exercising, your muscle cells don't become fat cells. You will see a decrease in the size of your muscles over time, a process termed atrophy, which is essentially the loss of muscle mass due to disuse.
You gradually begin losing muscle mass and strength sometime in your 30s or 40s. This process picks up between the ages of 65 and 80. Rates vary, but you may lose as much as 8% of your muscle mass each decade. Everyone loses muscle mass over time, but people with sarcopenia lose it more quickly.
Typically, muscle mass and strength increase steadily from birth and reach their peak at around 30 to 35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly at first, and then faster after age 65 for women and 70 for men.
According to Withings, normal ranges for muscle mass are: Ages 20-39: 75-89 percent for men, 63-75.5 percent for women. Ages 40-59: 73-86 percent for men, 62-73.5 percent for women. ages 60-79: 70-84 percent for men, 60-72.5 percent for women.
A good lean muscle percentage range should be about 70% to 90% to be considered healthy. That means your body fat percentage ranges from 10-30%. Athletes typically range in the 7-22% body fat for maximum performance. Men tend to be on the higher side with lean mass in 80-90% range and woman in the 70-85% range.
There is no particular age that you should stop lifting heavy.
In summary, Women are the strongest between 26 and 37 years of age. Men are the strongest between 26 and 35 years of age. But of course there are individual differences between athletes and some people peak before or after that age window.
You can put on muscle after 40, but you will have to take a completely different approach than when you weight trained and dieted as a youth. Below I will discuss the training, cardio and nutrition you will need to focus on in your pursuit to a more muscular physique.
Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures.
It's unnatural for the body to go for muscles and not fat first. This happens when someone trying to lose weight does not eat enough protein, over trains, doesn't sleep well or do not give themselves time to recover, that they lose muscle mass instead of fat.
Many women notice an increase in belly fat as they get older even if they don't gain weight. This is likely due to a lower level of estrogen because estrogen seems to have an effect on where fat is located in the body.
We also lose height as the discs between our vertebrae compress, shrinking the vertical space in our abdominal cavity and expanding it outward. Finally, the loss of estrogen after menopause causes a slight shift of fat to the abdominal region.
Your Skin Stays Hydrated
Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance responsible for the hydration and moisturization of our eyes, joints, and skin. As we age, this substance breaks down, leaving our joints sore and our skin and eyes dry. If you aren't battling the war on dryness, then odds are you are aging well.
While men seem to be genetically predisposed to be attracted to women in their mid-to-late-20s, women tend to be attracted to men around their ages, if not older; this means men in their 30s have the best of both worlds. Men in their 30s are attractive to a wide range of women, from 20-somethings to women in their 40s.
The physical peak age is the point in your life when your reproductive system, motor abilities, strength, and lung capacity are in optimal condition – this generally occurs between 30 and 40 years of age.
On average, you will reach your sexual peak in your 20s, your physical peak in your 30s, your mental peak in your 40s and 50s and at will be at your happiest and relaxed in your 60s. Really though, the most important message is life is a series of ups and downs, peaks and troughs.
A child of 7 or 8 may be old enough to use free weights. But the child should know to be careful with them and lift them safely under supervision. A general rule about strength training is: If a child is old enough to take part in organized sports, then they are probably old enough to begin training with weights.
If you are currently in your 50s or 60s and have been lifting weights for many years, then it is likely that you will be able to continue doing so for many years to come. However, if you are in your 70s or older or have not been lifting weights for very long, you may need to start considering stopping.
Lifting weights is a great way to build muscle strength, but when you're over 50 there is no reason to push yourself too hard. Try a slightly lighter weight that you can safely do 10 to 12 reps with.
There was a study conducted over twenty years in Northern America that measured 468 muscle mass in both men and women. The study showed the differences in the age and sex of participants. Women had around 21kg of skeletal mass (~30.6%) and men had around 33kg (~38.4%)of skeletal mass.
The largest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus, also known as your buttocks or glutes. In terms of the largest average muscle size, the glutes are followed closely by the quadriceps, lats, hamstrings, and pectoral muscles.