Men in their 60s and 70s can no longer take it easy after a big meal and still expect to burn off as many excess calories while resting as they once did, a new government study showed.
The study showed older men were susceptible to a weight gain of 2.2 pounds of body fat per year or about 22 pounds a decade, Dr. Susan Roberts wrote in a study published in the March issue of Journals of Gerontology."Older men need to be aware that they may not burn off surplus calories as easily as they did when young," Roberts said in a statement. "They have to compensate somehow - such as going for a walk after a big meal."
Roberts, a Department of Agriculture physiologist, and her colleagues at Tufts University measured metabolism in nine older men and seven men in their 20s before, during and after they ate an extra 1,000 calories a day for three weeks.
The men's ability to save calories when underfed by about 750 calories per day was also tested. In that test, age did not make a difference.
"Aging apparently hampers the ability to burn excess calories without affecting the ability to conserve calories when there's a shortfall," Roberts said.