Is it harder to maintain your weight in your thirties?

[EdgyCrow]

I'd like to start the question by saying that I am very body positive and have come a really long way from my excessive cardio and dieting to be skinny in my early twenties and I am very much at peace with however my body shows up being in my mid thirties, two c sections, 2 children and working.

However, I have noticed over the last year that it has been harder to stay the same weight/size I have been for a long time. I am eating the same foods, run twice a week, lift weights 3x and do yoga. I don't drink alcohol and being a teacher, am fairly active all day. But I have noticed an increase in body fat and am now firmly a dress size up to a year or so ago but I genuinely don't believe I consume more calories then I did.

Has anyone else noticed this?
I have been a size 10 for the last 5 years but now definitely a 12. As before, I have no issue with being a 12 and accept my body however but wondering if it is an age thing or should I be tracking my food more closely to not continue to gain?
I hope this doesn't come across insensitively as I firmly believe we shpuld all be proud of our bodies, I am kust curious.

Wait till you get to 50 then.... 30s is easy by comparison. Yes you need to watch what you consume, fresh air isn't fattening so it's everything you put in after that that makes the difference. I'm not proud of my body and live a constant life of being careful of what I eat.

Similar to you, until early-mid 30s I didn’t have to watch what I ate at all.

Had kids, put in weight, took up exercise (5 times a week) and dieted to loose it. But now I have to continue to really carefully watch what I eat or I start to gain it again.

Pre-kids I’d grab a pastry and coffee on the way to work every day, and a meal deal with a treat for lunch every single day and not put on weight (despite not really exercising). Now if I did that the weight would pile on really really fast.

I think this is a normal experience. It seems to happen to pretty much all women post kids and many men - especially once we are in our 40s.

It's worse in early 40s, I was prediabetic a few years ago at size 14! It's because of producing less oestrogen, then throw less sleep, plenty of stress, cortisol and a slower metabolism in and it's a recipe for disaster! I've lost almost 3.5 stones having been on mounjaro now size 10-12 so the battle will be maintaining. You will need less calories as you age, work out your TDEE on a calculator. Well done for staying active, I've just started regular this week after a long break.

I've noticed since 35 and worsening.

I had DCs early 30s and lost 2st of babyweight x2 and ended up slimmer and fitter for a few years. I gained a few lb while working FT with a bunch of foodie colleagues at 35 and that's never been shifted and plateaued out until I turned 40 in lockdown and gained again. I seem to slowly shift a few lb and then something like a niggly injury or holiday resets it and I'm back to the baseline again.

Added to that, I'm short, so if I'm not active my baseline would be 1300 calories to exist. Depressing!
Realistically I can't add much more exercise to my life to accomodate eating like a normal person and not a lifetime of picking at salad. While I wouldn't blog about my diet, it's not bad either so there's no easy sacrifices, and it does need to be practical, affordable and work with the demands of family life. There's ravenous teenagers in the house, so I can't avoid all carby temptation by decreeing the house an exclusion zone, because their dietary needs are different to mine.

I'm loitering around the "healthy/ overweight" cusp which isn't a major problem in itself. But as a long term trend that's far more inclined to go up than down without managing it, it will become an issue at some point.