Posted on 10/16/2023 7:31:29 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Reducing overall calorie intake may rejuvenate your muscles and activate biological pathways important for good health. Decreasing calories without depriving the body of essential vitamins and minerals, known as calorie restriction, has long been known to delay the progression of age-related diseases in animal models. This study suggests the same biological mechanisms may also apply to humans.
Researchers analyzed data from participants in the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE), a study that examined whether moderate calorie restriction conveys the same health benefits seen in animal studies. During a two-year span, the goal for participants was to reduce daily caloric intake by 25%, but the highest the group was able to reach was a 12% reduction. Even so, this slight reduction in calories was enough to activate most of the biological pathways that are important in healthy aging.
The research team next sought to understand the molecular underpinnings of the benefits seen in limited, previous research of calorie restriction in humans. One study showed that individuals on calorie restriction lost muscle mass and an average of 20 pounds of weight over the first year and maintained their weight for the second year. However, despite losing muscle mass, calorie restriction participants did not lose muscle strength, indicating calorie restriction improved the amount of force generated by each unit of muscle mass, called muscle specific force.
To figure out which human genes were impacted during calorie restriction, the scientists isolated messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule that contains the code for proteins, from muscle samples.
The researchers confirmed calorie restriction affected the same gene pathways in humans as in mice and non-human primates. For example, a lower caloric intake upregulated genes responsible for energy generation and metabolism, and downregulated inflammatory genes leading to lower inflammation.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
If this is true, I’ll be immortal. At 5’ tall, I’ve been restricting my caloric intake since I was 14. I just turned 70, lol.
Ze bug buffet will remain open.
Bkmk
Let’s see - healthy aging or an In-N-Out Double Double animal style? Decisions....
So hard to understand how this is POSSIBLE.
Eat less and live longer?
Eat less and grow stronger?
Eat less and spend less time eating?
Eat less and spend less money on food?
What an amazing thing to learn just as Big Pharma is pushing a variety of weight loss drugs.
Be aware, those weight loss drugs all have side effects, and the pictures and stories and music on the TV ads are MARKETING.
“Marketing” is just an alternate spelling of “misleading”, in most cases.
Bookmark
Maybe when the balloon goes up and the food supply chain collapses we will all live forever...
PUFA calories should be totally restricted,
it all depends on what KIND of calories one consumes
I’m doing that now out of necessity.
But I wonder if lowering food intake at my age will also decrease muscle mass.
I need my healthy aging genes stimulated..............
Isn't this just another way of saying eliminate junk food? Calories with little or no nutritional value (like chips, sweets, and soda) are hard on the body long term. Although easier said than done, eating healthy and eating light is wise.
Now in my 75th year, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone older than me who was fat.
I have the same concern. Gaining muscle after forty is extremely difficult. The key is not to just reduce the amount of food. More important is the quality of the food and the fat/protein/carb balance.
Exercise however is the deciding factor. Not hours in the gym. Just a 30 to 40 minute walk every day and some light resistance work combined with sufficient animal protein in your diet is all you will need.
At fifty I was a dedicated gym rat; a lean and hard 180. Now in my seventies, I hover around 140; still lean with good muscle definition and I haven't been in a gym in 15 years.
That has been my experience. FWIW
This “study” is relatively worthless. What is the basis of “a 12% reduction”? Were these overweight fatties? What were the nutritional characteristics of their before and after diet? Did their exercise habits change? Did they do any fasting?
Now you are in trouble!
Yeah, I’ve started to do protein shakes. I never did them before. But the guidelines I’m reading on daily protein intake is way more than I normally eat.
I’m always battling with one injury or another so my work out schedule is one that gets better and better and better day after day week after week. And then I pull a muscle somewhere and I’m out for a week or two.
Apparently I don’t know how to work out without injuring myself.
I was up around 190 six weeks ago or so. Now I’m below 180. I think I’ve got a routine that will get me down below 160. I’m hoping what comes off is fat. I’m hoping too the mix of drugs supplement and diet will remove the plaque from my carotids.
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