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Comment by TekMol | Hacker News Reader

Can you stay lean without looking emaciated at any age?

It seems many people get a belly as they age, but the face still looks normal.

Can you prevent this with a diet or will your face look haggard?

Human body is built to be economical. If you don't use muscles regularly, they degenerate to the size sufficient for your normal load.

If you want to look athletic, the only way is to be athletic, that is, spend significant effort working your muscles, proving to your body that you actually have a use for them. For most people it means a gym, or a barbell at home, or some kind of athletic sports, several days a week.

If, on top of that, you don't want a belly (which is a normal way for the body to store some energy reserve near the center of gravity), you also need to limit your intake of carbs.

You will look spindly if you remain sedentary and eat fewer calories, yes. Importantly, you can eat the same amount of food if you eat things that aren't laced with sugar and have higher fiber content. This is a good rule of thumb for cutting the excess calories when you're first starting out.

The trick is to metabolize the food you eat. You do that with exercise, primarily cardio. Then your body's new homeostatic program also involves "supporting the frame of the body during physical movement" and you begin to develop some muscle, preventing the emaciated look.

    develop some muscle, preventing the emaciated look

Muscle in the face?

With a reasonable amount of muscle mass, you don't need to reach as low of a body fat percentage to look fit. With regard to your original comment, yes there are millions of people who remain fit, lean, and without a "belly", as you put it, in older age.

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