Americans heavier than 20 years ago

According to this AOL article Americans weigh 15 more pounds than they did 20 years ago - AOL as the title says:

“According to a new federal report U.S. men and women weigh about 15 pounds more than they did 20 years ago!”

The number is for average adults, but the average adult has changed over the years. The average age of Americans has gone from 30 years of age in 1980 to 37.7 years of age in 2014, and 37 year olds tend to weigh more than 30 year olds.   

How much of that 15 pound gain is fat and how much is muscle? It may be that they actually lost muscle and gained even more fat.  The number might be accurate, but it’s not specific.

Here is a number that is specific: adults lose on average 5 pounds of muscle as decade as they age.  Less muscle means a lower metabolism leading to increased likelihood of fat gain.

At Austin Personal Trainers and New Orleans Fitness Training we can help you reverse that trend.  One of our clients, 65 years old, attends a fat lose clinic.  Her latest reading at the clinic indicated that in addition to losing fatshe was gaining muscle.