Overeating and metabolism in younger years

**spittin' 'n cussin'** · 06-27-2006, 08:00 PM

I have searched all over google for some articles on overeating while young (20's-30's) and how it affects your metabolism later in life. I have heard people talk about overeating when youre younger makes you gain more weight (bad weight) as you get older. If this is true is it because of your metabolism? And if so does overeating make your metabolism drop quicker in life? I was just wondering if anyone has any links to articles about this or if you know anything about it (w/ refs maybe?).

By overeating I mean for a bulking diet very similar to the ones we post and critique here. Thanks yall

**spittin' 'n cussin'** · 06-30-2006, 06:07 PM

bump?

**Kärnfysikern** · 07-01-2006, 05:35 AM

I suspect it would be hard to find info on that since it would be hard to prove a relation.

Its also not fully understood(as far as I know) why BMR gets lower with age. Its not fully explained by age related drops in thyroid hormones.
Like this study that se no correlation betwen thyroid and drop in BMR.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

It seems to be a very open question
http://www.unu.edu/Unupress/food2/UID01E/uid01e1e.htm

A biologically interesting question is, whether changes in body mass and body composition in the elderly fully explain changes in BMR, as they do in younger adults, or if the aging process involves other metabolic changes that have to be taken into consideration. It is difficult to answer this question, because of the scarcity of body composition data from elderly people

Untill we know the answere to the bolded section we have no way of telling if habits in your early life has effects on metabolism in later life.

So I dont think you can find anything reliable that will answere your question. I would suspect it is a myth that overeating in your 20's makes you gain weight easier when older. The most probable cause would be that if you overeat in your 20's you will probably continue to do so while older and that will be the cause of weightgain. Not a physiological change.

**Kärnfysikern** · 07-01-2006, 05:40 AM

I guess overeating in your 20's could cause a lowering in insulin sensitivity and overproduction of insulin that could have detrimental effects later in life(even if not turning into diabetes) even if you later clean up your diet.
Just a guess though...

I suspect hyperglycemia(to high blood sugar)would be what causes the most problems long term from overeating since it is so bad for so many things.