My 70-year-old father seems to be getting weaker, and I’m concerned about his independence. Things that used to be easy for him, such as bathing and preparing meals, now seem much harder. He appears to be eating enough, and he isn’t losing any weight. But what can I do to help him?
It sounds as if your father’s body composition is changing. This often comes with aging and will make a person weaker.
Body composition is the ratio of fat vs. fat-free mass in the body — in contrast to body weight, which is simply the measure of total mass. Fat-free mass is essentially muscle, water, and bone — the metabolic motors of your body. Throughout our lives, our body composition is affected both by our food intake and by our activity level.
Body Fat: Too Much of a Good Thing
Body fat is important for many reasons. It protects us, insulates us, and is involved in the production of hormones. But too much body fat contributes to a variety of chronic diseases and other health problems, including obesity, heart disease, high blood cholesterol, and some types of cancer. Too much fat also takes its toll on physical performance.
Your body composition — that ratio of fat to fat-free mass — usually changes as you grow older, even if your body weight doesn’t. For example, if you become less active as you age, your fat mass increases and your fat-free mass decreases. In particular, losing skeletal muscle mass is the main reason why people lose strength, function, and mobility as they age, why they become frailer and fall more.
Preventing the Decline
Is the process inevitable? Many have assumed it is, but that notion’s been challenged recently.
Studies of strength training — also called resistance exercise — have demonstrated that it’s possible not only to prevent the gradual loss of muscle tissue, but to actually reverse it as well. That’s because strength-training exercises can rebuild muscle tissue even among the elderly. And because muscle is metabolically more active than fat, increasing your muscle tissue raises your metabolism.
It also improves balance. Older people who have better balance have less fear of falling and are more willing to take part in both activities of daily living and regular physical exercise.
How to Help
If your metabolic rate goes up and your physical activity increases, you’ll need more calories just to maintain your weight — possibly as much as 15% more. If your father becomes more active and builds muscle, he’ll need to eat more.
You can help your father by encouraging him to try strength-training exercises. Buy him a book on the subject or enroll him in an exercise program for seniors. You can also encourage him to make healthy food choices.