4 simple habits can help slow muscle loss as you age, fitness expert says

As Americans increasingly turn to — which have been linked to a loss of lean muscle, especially during rapid weight loss — experts say preserving strength and mobility should be a priority as people age.

Jacob Zemer, a New York-based fitness coach who primarily trains clients ranging from 35 to 55 years old, said that beyond GLP-1s, there are several other reasons that adults start losing muscle as they get older.

"The biggest change is lifestyle," he told Fox News Digital. "When you're in your teen years or your 20s, you're running around, you're doing activities that lend themselves to building muscle."

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That tends to change as people shift focus to career and family, the expert said.

"You simply become more sedentary, which lowers your metabolism and your level of activity, so you're going to have less muscle."

As people approach their 40s, hormone levels begin to change for both men and , Zemer noted.

"That means we partition the calories we're using less and less for and building muscle, and more and more for simply storing as fat," he said.

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"We see this all the time … people start to store fat in their tummies, and they start have less muscle."

Zemer said he believes that everyone should be "very mindful" about building muscle, starting from a young age.

"All the way up into your 50s, your goal should be to build muscle so that when you enter your golden years — your 60s, 70s, 80s — it's kind of like your 401K," he said. 

"You're going to be depleting from it as you go through life. So in your 30s and 40s, you just have to be more strategic about it, because your has changed. You need to go to the gym and train in order to have that muscle later in life."

Zemer shared the following strategies that can help people slow down muscle loss as they age.

Protein helps to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, the body's process of repairing and building muscle, according to Zemer.

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Including enough protein in your daily diet can help reduce the risk of sarcopenia, which is the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength.

While peoples protein needs will vary based on age, activity level and fitness goals, Zemer said people who regularly strength-train generally benefit from higher intake.

"If you're a sedentary person, you don't need to be obsessed with protein," he told Fox News Digital. "Very few people aren't getting enough protein in terms of macronutrients. But if you're training and , you want to be getting somewhere between 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight."

For general health, the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that adults strength train at least two days per week, working all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises using moderate or greater intensity until it's difficult to complete another repetition with good form.

The guidelines also recommend pairing the strength training with 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity