Sarcopenia
Age-related loss of muscle mass and strength — the background risk that makes muscle-preserving weight loss essential.
Sarcopenia is the slow leak of muscle with age — beginning in the thirties, accelerating past sixty — eroding strength, balance, metabolic rate, and ultimately independence. Unopposed, significant weight loss accelerates it: the body shedding both fuel tank and engine.
This intersects weight medicine most for older patients and repeat dieters, whose lean reserves may already run low. The countermeasures mirror lean-mass defense generally — protein targets, progressive resistance training, adequate but not crash-level deficits — and the payoff compounds: muscle preserved at sixty is fall prevention at eighty. "Lose weight" and "age strong" are compatible goals, but only when programmed together on purpose.
This glossary entry is general information, not medical advice, and is written to be consistent with FDA prescribing information and primary trial publications as of its last review. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider for personal medical decisions.
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