Why the Difference Matters

By Jamie Bussin, featuring Jason Nelson

When people over the age of 45 want to improve their health, they often focus on weight loss. But according to fitness coach Jason Nelson, they may be focusing on the wrong thing. What matters most isn’t the number on the scale or how your clothes fit. Your biological age is more important than weight loss to your health.

I discussed how lifestyle choices can result in epigenetic changes that affect biological age with Jason on Episode #441 of The Tonic Talk Show/Podcast. This article is a digest of that conversation.

What Is Biological Aging?

As Jason explains, “Biological aging is the wear and tear on the systems of the body, as opposed to chronological age, which just gives you the number on your birth certificate.”

In the context of improving health, focusing on biological age means optimizing the body’s systems. When we do that, fat loss often becomes a positive side effect, while health outcomes improve at the same time. Being healthy is about more than maintaining the right weight. It reflects our ability to continue living life on our own terms as we age.

Conversely, if we focus only on weight loss, we may not be optimizing our strength, stamina, flexibility, energy, or overall wellness. For example, people taking GLP-1 agonist medications to support weight loss without making other lifestyle changes may not be getting enough nutrients and could lose skeletal muscle and lean body mass along with fat.

How Epigenetics Influences Aging

Epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression that do not alter the underlying DNA sequence. Jason explains: “Think of epigenetics as a dimmer switch that turns certain genes on or off based on environmental factors—things that can be influenced by your lifestyle, diet, stress, sleep, and even toxicity.”

According to Jason, when we “turn down,” our unfavourable genes that may have been inherited from our parents, we can improve biological aging.

Why Muscle Mass Matters as We Age

According to Jason, muscle can be viewed as an “endocrine organ.” In other words, the more muscle mass you have, the more glucose disposal sites you have in the body, which helps keep metabolic health in check.

Muscle mass is vital to preserve as we get older. It increases functional strength and our capacity to remain active and independent. It also serves as armour, helping to protect bones and organs in the event of a fall.

“Muscle mass is probably the biggest driver of your metabolic health,” says Jason.

The Critical Role of Recovery and Sleep

Recovery after exercise is crucial for people over the age of 40. Unfortunately, according to Jason, “recovery seems to be the thing that people do when they have time to do it.”

He believes recovery is often treated as an afterthought when it should be a priority. Proper strength training can help keep you moving for decades, but you also need sufficient reserves to maintain performance over the long term.

As Jason puts it, “We focus too much on the flame and not so much on the oil in the lamp.”

Recovery starts with good sleep. If you’re not sleeping well, your body is always operating at a deficit. Sleep is when the body repairs and restores itself.

Sleep also helps reduce inflammation. When we don’t sleep well, cortisol levels increase the next day, which raises blood glucose levels. This can trigger cravings, leading to increased carbohydrate consumption and, ultimately, more inflammation.

Proper nutrition is another important component of recovery. Adequate intake of both macronutrients and micronutrients helps fuel the body’s repair processes and supports tissue rebuilding during periods of rest and recovery.

Finally, Jason prioritizes relaxation techniques that reduce stress, both physically and mentally. Practices such as meditation can help shift the nervous system into a parasympathetic state. Once we’re in that state, the body has an opportunity to rebuild, recover, and rejuvenate.

Measuring Biological Age

How can you tell whether your efforts are having an epigenetic effect on your biological age?

According to Jason, one approach is epigenetic methylation testing. The key metrics tracked include:

• Biological age (OMICm Age): How old your body appears at the cellular level.
• Pace of aging (DunedinPACE): How many biological years you age for each calendar year.
• Organ-system aging scores: Measures of the biological age of systems such as the brain, heart, liver, and musculoskeletal system.

Can You Slow Biological Aging?

The big question is whether lifestyle choices can counter genetic predispositions and influence biological age. According to Jason, the answer is yes.

“One hundred per cent. If I didn’t believe it was possible, if I hadn’t experienced it, and if I hadn’t seen it in my practice, I wouldn’t be here today,” he says. “Your genes account for 20 to 30 per cent. Epigenetics accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of how those codes are read by the body.”

While we can’t change the genes we inherit, Jason believes we can influence how those genes are expressed through lifestyle choices such as exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and recovery. In that sense, biological aging may be far more within our control than many people realize.