[joyfulloser]

I think I read somewhere that people typically lose 5% muscle mass a year, but that sounds very high to me, so I'm not even sure if that's true. That said, this means that weight bearing exercises would prevent this from being an issue.

Well...yes and no. I believe that while we can "stave off" muscle mass loss with proper exercise and diet, we are all still "decaying"......and as such, nothing we do will STOP the process of dying, but we can prolong it. I'm doing my part to prolong my decaying process...I'll be 45 in April...wut?

[JayEll]

I'm quite a bit older than you, joyful--and you're right that while weight-bearing exercises will slow the loss of muscle, nothing can completely stop it. I don't like to think of it as "prolonging dying," however.

Also, decay isn't the right word--decay happens to dead things once bacteria start eating them, and that certainly isn't me yet... A better word is degeneration, but that still seems so, well, degenerate.

Let's just say things change as we get older, and we must adapt and pay attention to our health. But it's all good.

Jay