For years, we’ve been told that metabolism inevitably slows down with age—especially for women over 40. But recent research has flipped that narrative on its head. A groundbreaking study published in Science revealed that metabolic rates actually stay stable from ages 20 to 60. It’s only after your 60s that a noticeable decline in metabolism typically occurs. This finding challenges the widespread belief that a slower metabolism is to blame for weight gain in midlife.1
So if your metabolism isn’t slowing down as you age, what’s really going on? For women, the hormone fluctuations that come with menopause can make it harder to maintain muscle mass and manage weight. But here’s the empowering truth: You can take control. By focusing on what’s within your reach—like building lean muscle mass through resistance training—you can boost your metabolism, support your overall health, and age powerfully.
Lifting weights is one of the most effective ways to optimize your metabolism and set yourself up for lasting health.
How Resistance Training Boosts Your Metabolism
1. Resistance Training Increases Muscle Mass
Resistance training provides a powerful way to boost your metabolism while safeguarding your long-term health. As you build muscle through strength exercises, your resting metabolic rate (the energy your body uses at rest to maintain essential functions) gets a significant upgrade. This increased muscle mass improves metabolic flexibility, allowing your body to switch more efficiently between using carbohydrates and fat for energy.2, 3
Lifting weights is also your best defense against sarcopenia, the natural muscle loss that occurs as you age. Regular strength training is the only proven method to slow down this process and reduce its effects, helping you maintain muscle mass, strength, and a higher metabolic rate as you get older.4
2. Resistance Training Enhances Calorie Burning
Resistance training can help you burn calories more efficiently because the muscle you build requires energy to maintain itself. The more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate becomes, and the more calories you burn at rest.5, 6
Plus, after you’ve finished resistance training, your body experiences the afterburn effect. This keeps your metabolism revved up for hours after you’ve finished exercising, continuing to burn calories at an elevated rate. By incorporating resistance training into your routine, you’re setting yourself up for long-term metabolic success, making weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight more manageable.
3. Resistance Training Improves Insulin Sensitivity
During menopause, lower estrogen levels can decrease insulin sensitivity, making it harder for your cells to use glucose effectively. This can raise blood-sugar levels, slow your metabolism, and lead to weight gain. It can also change how your body processes and stores fat and carbohydrates, making weight loss harder.7
Lifting weights can help you improve your insulin response. Insulin is a hormone that shuttles glucose into your cells so they can use that blood sugar for energy. Resistance training makes cells more responsive to insulin by increasing the number and efficiency of glucose transporters in muscle cells. When these transporters are more effective, they can move more glucose from the bloodstream into cells for energy, reducing blood-sugar levels and decreasing the likelihood of glucose being stored as fat.8
By improving your body’s response to insulin, you’re lowering your chances of developing insulin resistance, can lead to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome if left unchecked. Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors like high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, extra belly fat, and unhealthy cholesterol levels, which can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.9
4. Hormonal Balance
With declining estrogen during perimenopause, your body’s stress response becomes more sensitive, often leading to higher cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol can promote belly fat storage and muscle breakdown.10
Menopause can also affect thyroid function, with some women experiencing reduced thyroid activity (hypothyroidism) and others an increase (hyperthyroidism). Both impact your metabolism, altering how efficiently your body burns calories and regulates energy, affecting weight, energy levels, and overall health.11
Resistance training helps counter these hormonal shifts by optimizing hormone balance. Lifting heavy can increase levels of T3 (the active thyroid hormone that regulates metabolism) and improve your body’s stress response, giving your metabolism a boost that allows for better calorie burning and energy use.12, 13
Additionally, resistance training stimulates metabolism-enhancing hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, which tend to decline during menopause. These hormones are essential for muscle protein synthesis (building new muscle) and breaking down fat for energy, making your body a more efficient fat-burner.14
Each time you lift weights or use resistance bands, you’re supporting your body’s production and regulation of these hormones. The result? A more active metabolism, more stable energy, and a body that’s better at burning rather than storing fat.15
5. Enhanced Bone Density and Joint Health
Estrogen plays a crucial role in maintaining strong bones, but as estrogen levels drop during menopause, bone loss can accelerate. During this transition, women may lose up to 20% of their bone density, making bones more susceptible to fractures.16
This rapid loss of bone strength can lead to osteoporosis, a condition that makes bones porous and brittle. Even minor impacts or falls that were manageable before can now result in fractures.
Fragile bones also require extra energy for repair after minor injuries or microfractures, but this energy demand is more sporadic than steady and doesn’t significantly raise baseline metabolism like muscle tissue does. Instead, the risk of fractures can discourage physical activity, leading to muscle loss and a slower overall metabolism.17
Resistance training combats these effects by stimulating new bone growth and slowing bone loss, helping to counteract the natural decline in skeletal health. It also strengthens the muscles and tissues around joints, enhancing joint stability and reducing the risk of injury. Healthier joints make it easier to stay active and mobile, which allows you to perform more frequent, intense activities that build muscle and burn calories. This results in a higher metabolic rate and better overall metabolic health.18, 19
Lift Heavy, Live Better: Your At-Home Metabolism Makeover
Ready to rev up your metabolism and get all the benefits of resistance training? With the right tools and guidance, getting started is simple. My Resistance Training Cheat Sheet provides everything you need to kickstart your strength journey.
This handy guide typically includes a list of gym essentials to set up an effective workout space in your home. I’ve also included a structured eight-week workout plan to remove the guesswork from your training sessions and ensure you’re progressively challenging your muscles.
With each workout, you’ll also get a progress tracker to monitor your sets, reps, and weights. By following this plan and tracking your progress, you’ll be able to see your strength increase and feel your metabolism boost over time.
Get your FREE Resistance Training Cheat Sheet here.
References:
- Harvard Health: Surprising findings about metabolism and age
- Healthline: 14 Benefits of Strength Training, Backed by Science
- Shoemaker ME, Gillen ZM, Fukuda DH, Cramer JT. Metabolic Flexibility and Inflexibility: Pathology Underlying Metabolism Dysfunction. J Clin Med. 2023 Jul 3;12(13):4453. doi: 10.3390/jcm12134453. PMID: 37445488; PMCID: PMC10342527.
- UT Southwestern Medical Center: Strength training over 60 can help prevent sarcopenia
- Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials: What Is EPOC? (And Why It Matters)
- Verywell Fit: How Many Calories Does Muscle Really Burn?
- Women’s Health Network: How to Avoid Insulin Resistance
- Kolb H, Kempf K, Martin S. Insulin and aging – a disappointing relationship. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Oct 3;14:1261298. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1261298. PMID: 37854186; PMCID: PMC10579801.
- Niemann MJ, Tucker LA, Bailey BW, Davidson LE. Strength Training and Insulin Resistance: The Mediating Role of Body Composition. J Diabetes Res. 2020 May 8;2020:7694825. doi: 10.1155/2020/7694825. PMID: 32455135; PMCID: PMC7235686.
- Woods NF, Mitchell ES, Smith-Dijulio K. Cortisol levels during the menopausal transition and early postmenopause: observations from the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study. Menopause. 2009 Jul-Aug;16(4):708-18. doi: 10.1097/gme.0b013e318198d6b2. PMID: 19322116; PMCID: PMC2749064.
- Healthline: Thyroid and Menopause: Is There a Connection?
- Harvard Health Publishing: Exercising to Relax
- DA Silva JMP, Silva GCE, DA Conceição RR, Laureano-Melo R, Giannocco G, Sato MA, Bentes CM, Simão R. Influence of Resistance Training Exercise Order on Acute Thyroid Hormone Responses. Int J Exerc Sci. 2022 May 1;15(2):760-770. PMID: 35992182; PMCID: PMC9365113.
- Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA. Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise and training. Sports Med. 2005;35(4):339-61. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200535040-00004. PMID: 15831061.
- Feisty Menopause: 4 Reasons Why Menopausal Women Should Lift Heavy Sh*t
- Endocrine Society: Menopause and Bone Loss
- Karlamangla AS, Burnett-Bowie SM, Crandall CJ. Bone Health During the Menopause Transition and Beyond. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2018 Dec;45(4):695-708. doi: 10.1016/j.ogc.2018.07.012. Epub 2018 Oct 25. PMID: 30401551; PMCID: PMC6226267.
- Harvard Health: Strength training builds more than muscles
- Healthline: 5 Ways to Strengthen Your Joints
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The views in this blog by JJ Virgin should never be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. Please work with a healthcare practitioner concerning any medical problem or concern.
