Why Don’t We Look Like We Did in High School?

What happened to our bodies after high school? Is there merit to the freshmen 15? A lot of us are told once you hit (insert age) that gaining fat is just a fact of life, but is this true? Let’s explore.

I was a skinny kid growing up. Majority of us were. As I got older I found it easier to put on fat. What’s that all about? Most parents, like myself, have children who are very lean. It’s metabolism right (I will elaborate on metabolism in a future post)? As you get older your metabolism slows down right? Actually that’s wrong, and honest reflection and introspection will lead you to the same facts that I’m presenting today.

Those skinny kids of yours…….watch them. I have a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old. They RUN EVERYWHERE all of the time. I’m willing to bet that you do not. Think about that. Adults don’t run. In fact you would probably be considered a weirdo if you just ran all the time lol. Now think about yourself as a kid. If you grew up anything like me you ran across the neighborhood or road your bike to play with your friends. You played all day. You played cops and robbers. You climbed trees. You raced. You played hop scotch and jumped rope. You played tag. Massive amounts of calories are burned through children’s running and playing. If we were to become as active as adults as we were as kids we would see significant changes in our bodies.

Sticking with the activity level theme let me pivot to another slightly older demographic; the middle and high school kids. The rebellious know-it-alls eating you out of house and home that remain lean. I remember those days. Some of us were awkward and unsure of ourselves (like I was). Others were quite popular or athletes. What we all had in common though was that we walked……..yea. You walked from the bus/car in the morning to mingle with your friends before the first bell rang, and every time that bell rang it was your cue to walk again. From class to class to lunch to class to class all day. All of that walking adds up. Few of us walk as much as we did in high school. If we did we would see significant changes in our bodies.

The largest culprit of the fat-laden adult bodies most of us find ourselves in is a lack of the activity in which we USED to participate, but there is a little more to cover here…….habits. Kids can’t be but so sedentary. They have to walk from class to class of course, but kids also are not chronic consumers of cigarettes and alcohol namely because they can’t legally buy it. Consumption of such products makes fat gain much easier. What about eating habits? One of the perks of being an adult is that you can legally earn a paycheck. Suddenly the kid that couldn’t afford to buy fast food everyday becomes the adult who can easily hop in the car and hit the drive-thru and oftentimes does just that. Another check in the fat gain box.

To those that desperately want the metabolism myth to be true, I’ll throw you a bone. One advantage of youth is that you are growing at a ridiculously fast rate. This growth requires quite a bit of fuel and burns through way more calories than a fully grown adult can manage. The metabolism myth is as I described at the beginning. It is “your metabolism slows down after you hit (insert age)”. It’s always the age that said person started getting out of shape. The actual fact is that metabolism doesn’t actually slow down in any meaningful way until we reach our sixties. And even then the change isn’t impressive. Oh and those who believe they gain weight because they have slow metabolism……not so much. The heavier you are the higher your metabolism. You are primed to lose fat as soon as you choose to enter a caloric deficit. Also, studies have shown that the difference between  “fast” metabolism and  “slow” metabolism is about a 20 percent difference. This means that if I have fast metabolism and burn 3000 calories per day then the slow end of that spectrum for someone of the same activity level would burn 2400 calories per day (This applies to the “starvation mode myth as well). This is not insurmountable and is not even that common as it is an extreme case. Most people fall somewhere in between.

In conclusion, let’s just shed the age and metabolism excuses. Let’s be more active. Let’s be more like children sometimes.  Let’s change our lifestyles and reclaim that youthful shape and energy. Live well and go play!

-Chris