Why You Weighed Less at Uni
And how this impacts your current goals
It’s currently the perfect time of year to be outside in the morning here in Queensland. 15 degrees and not too humid as the sun rises over the water.
That will change in a few months when the sun rises at 4:30 am in the State that refuses to adopt daylight savings time. But that’s OK - at least I can be a hardcore early riser for part of the year.
I enjoy exercising outside but not in the sun. I’m prone to overheating during any form of cardio as is, there is no need to add direct sunlight to the equation.
The challenge is that if I don’t finish it early, I must wait until the evening. But then I’m tired and unlikely to train (especially when I just say I’ll do it tomorrow morning).
Getting the morning sessions done is the key to any of my cardio sessions. I can go to the gym anytime, but if it requires being outdoors, the sun is not welcome.
Everyone is different. I’ve got clients who won’t even think about training until after 5 pm or love lunchtime workouts to break up the day.
What’s your favourite time to exercise? Do you have a set time or can you go with the flow?
Feel free to reply or leave a comment below to let me know.
Let’s get into this week’s article.
Why You Weighed Less at Uni
When it comes to setting goals related to body composition or weight, there is an important question I’ll often ask when discussing these targets.
When did you last weigh [insert goal here]?
It’s remarkable how often the answer is somewhere in their early twenties. This insight leads to a couple of points to consider when contextualising goals and timeframes.
Firstly, it quantifies the time between then and now. If it took 15 years to gain weight, do they need to lose it in ten weeks?
Most people have never considered the time it takes to accumulate weight. While this doesn’t necessarily impact the rate it can be lost, it provides a reality check for overly ambitious targets that few people can adhere to.
Secondly, we can compare and contrast lifestyle differences between then and now. This is a useful activity for discussing ways to manage the 3 F’s.
It is also a handy exercise for learning about their fitness and nutrition preferences and understanding what may work now. Of course, this can change over time, and we don’t just replicate what they did back then, but it’s a useful starting point for personalisation.
Many people complain they can’t lose weight after 30 despite being able to ‘eat anything and do no exercise’ in their 20s. But this isn’t always the case - sometimes your lifestyle during that time was more conducive to lower body weight.
Before we run through that, we need to touch on metabolism.
It’s a common misconception that basal metabolic rate (energy expenditure to maintain baseline functioning) drops significantly as we age. This is not the case.
Research continually shows that BMR remains similar from age 20 to age 60. After 60, it begins to reduce by 0.7% per year.
Changes in BMR are mostly determined by weight. If weight goes up, so does BMR as there is additional load and tissue to maintain. If weight goes down, so does BMR.
This means the changes in energy balance remain driven by the 3 F’s - food, fluid and fitness, so let’s compare the early twenties to later in life.
Food Intake
Many people look back at their diet from their early twenties and ponder how poorly they ate yet maintained decent body composition. While it’s true that food quality might have been low, it’s often common that energy intake was also lower than it is today.
This can be for several reasons.
Firstly, younger people are likely to eat less frequently throughout the day or consume smaller meals. There aren’t many catered morning teas or office snacks when you’re going to uni or working in a bar.
Secondly, the frequency of eating out and ordering in is often much lower, mostly due to the cost. As we get older, we can afford to eat out more.
What generally happens when we pay for food is we treat ourselves to ‘make the most of it’ which can have a disproportionate impact on energy intake.
These differences highlight where energy intake is creeping up and guide the development of strategies to manage it. We may identify the need to reduce snacking through the day and put in place plans for ordering in and eating out.
Fluid Intake
Comparing fluid intake seems obvious to some - primarily due to fewer calories from reduced alcohol intake. But not everyone is consuming less, even if there are fewer big nights out.
Many people think they drank more alcohol during their early twenties when they consume a lot of alcohol at parties. While the typical intake is often greater, the frequency can be quite low (a few times per month).
As we age, it becomes more common to drink more frequently with less alcohol intake, but this quickly adds up. Two standard drinks five nights a week are 40 per month.
If drinking four times per month at uni, this would require ten drinks in each sitting to match. While some people would hit that comfortably, many others would not.
Either way, energy intake from alcohol isn’t always significantly less than it was back in the day.
The other big change is caffeine intake. While habitual coffee intake might be the same (i.e. two coffees per day) what often changes is the content of the cup.
During the younger years, people drank much more instant or homemade coffee. This tends to have a lot more water and less milk, which reduces energy intake.
As we age, we appreciate the taste of good coffee while also taking on the additional energy intake of more milk.
It’s also common for coffee intake to increase as people get older, particularly with busy jobs and decreased fitness levels. I’ve worked with clients drinking up to seven coffees per day, which even with a combination of three lattes and the rest espresso, adds up to an extra 500 or so calories each day.
Fitness
I will break this down into two categories - non-exercise activity and exercise activity.
Firstly, non-exercise activity is often significantly greater during earlier years. Just looking at the workplace is a great contrast. Younger people tend to be more active in the workplace - taking on roles in hospitality and retail or other outside jobs.
Even in the office, the more senior you become, the less active you are. As people increase in seniority, their work becomes more sedentary.
People start to come to you, there are many more meetings, and it’s harder to fit in time to exercise.
On the other side, we have exercise activity.
It’s much easier to exercise when studying at uni if your primary time usage. No kids, no extra work and the such. A routine is much more adhereable under these circumstances.
The body tends to be more capable of exercise when younger. As we age, previous injuries, developing issues, and changes in body composition can make exercise more difficult.
Many people can flick a switch and start training for a marathon 12 weeks away in their 20s. This isn’t necessarily the case later in life - there might be some work that needs to be done before the running can be ramped up.
Compare and Contrast
This rule doesn’t apply to everyone, and some people have lifestyles that make it easier to manage the 3 F’s than they did in their twenties. But on the whole, it becomes a bit more challenging as we age.
While it remains a matter of managing energy balance to change body composition, understanding these differences can inform the goals being set, in particular the timeframes.
Losing 10 kg in ten weeks is achievable but requires massive change. But the target is more manageable if we extend the timeframe to achieve it.
Once you’ve contrasted the lifestyle differences between your early twenties and now, it’s easier to accept the longer duration and engage in a slower and more steady approach.
Even if you give yourself 12 months to lose 10kg that you gain over ten years, you’re still losing the weight at 10x the rate you accumulated it!
Q&A
If there is anything fitness and nutrition related that you are trying to get your head around, post it below or reply to this email and it will go straight to my inbox. All questions are posted without names unless you specify otherwise.