Want a Younger Brain? New Research Says These Healthy Habits Make It Much More Likely

Over the last year, I dropped 50 pounds. Here’s how I did it:

• First, I quit drinking alcohol.
• Next, I started using a GLP-1 medication. That worked great, but it got expensive, and I wanted to wean myself off of it.
• Finally, I got in the consistent habit of going to the gym at least four days per week: Cardio, HIIT classes, and weight training.

It’s been a fantastic change all-around; I feel better, I think I look better, and all the blood work that I get done once a year has improved. But it turns out there might be another benefit that I had no idea about when I started.

In short, my brain age might have gone down, which is a good thing, at least according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine.

Muscle versus fat

The researchers used AI algorithms trained on MRI scans from 5,500 adults to determine each participant’s brain age.

On average, participants were 55 years old chronologically, but their brains looked about 56 years old. Athough, that gap wasn’t statistically significant across the whole group.

Those participants with more muscle tended to have younger-looking brains, while those with more hidden belly fat relative to their muscle had older-looking brains.

Moreover, the type of fat—visceral or subcutaneous fat—that they had played a direct role as well. For clarification:

• Visceral fat is the fat tucked deep inside your abdomen, wrapped around your organs.
• Subcutaneous fat is the pooled fat around your belly or other areas, that you can pinch under your skin.

Higher visceral fat to muscle ratio was associated with higher brain age, while subcutaneous fat showed no meaningful association with how old the brain appeared.

The connection between body composition and brain health makes sense.

Visceral fat is linked to a higher rate of diabetes, insulin resistance, pre-diabetic states, and high cholesterol, which creates inflammation throughout the body. Over time, that inflammation affects the brain.

“While it is commonly known that chronological aging translates to loss of muscle mass and increased hidden belly fat,” explained lead author Dr. Cyrus Raji, “this work shows that these health measures relate to brain aging itself. It shows muscle and fat mass quantified in the body are key reflectors of brain health, as tracked with brain aging.”

Better drugs in the future?

There’s an interesting wrinkle here for the millions of people taking GLP-1 medications.

While these drugs are effective at reducing body fat, they may also contribute to muscle loss, as Raji, an associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University, told NBC News in its reporting on this subject.

I knew that ahead of time, which is part of why I tripled down on my gym commitment (and protein intake) while losing weight.

The findings, Raji suggested, could help design better medications—ones that target visceral fat more than subcutaneous fat while protecting muscle mass.

As he put it, “Losing fat—especially visceral fat—while preserving muscle volume would have the best benefit on brain aging and brain health.”

See you at the gym

None of this requires an expensive full-body MRI or staying on a prescription medication forever. The basics still work:

Strength training at least twice a week, targeting all major muscle groups, with 10-15 different exercises doing 8 to 12 reps each.

Aerobic exercise is particularly effective at targeting visceral fat; aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity weekly.

Exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser told NBC News that you get the biggest return on investment in those first 30 minutes of weekly exercise.

Bottom line: The visceral fat you lose and the muscle you build today might be protecting the brain you need tomorrow. That’s worth showing up for.

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