Stress increases the basal metabolic rate.

A person going through a divorce, a business reversal, or a tragedy of some kind may lose weight on the very same diet as before the event because of the action of stress on the basal metabolic rate.

Each additional decade of life costs one approximately 5% reduction in basal metabolic rate after age 25. After age 75, the basal metabolic rate DROPS approximately 7% per DECADE.

It is necessary, then, that food intake be progressively reduced as each decade passes. This decline accounts for the fact that many people gradually accumulate weight on the same diet they used in YOUTH.