What is sarcopenia?

How is sarcopenia defined?

The sarcopenia definition rests on strength first. In EWGSOP2, the revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis published in Age and Ageing in 2019, low muscle strength is the primary criterion. Low muscle quantity or quality then confirms it, and low physical performance marks it as severe. Low strength on its own is the stage the consensus calls probable sarcopenia.

EWGSOP2 is a European consensus and is widely used in UK practice. The words around it differ a little by country: US pages tend to say muscle loss, while UK ones often say muscle wasting and may mention frailty in the same conversation.

Sarcopenia is not the same as a few weeks of feeling out of shape. It describes a shortfall in strength that is measured, which gives you and a primary care provider (a GP in the UK) something specific to talk about.

What does the evidence say about muscle loss in women?

Muscle mass and strength peak up to about age 40, according to the EWGSOP2 consensus (Cruz-Jentoft et al., 2019). After 50, leg muscle mass falls about 1–2% a year and strength about 1.5–5% a year. The strength figure is the larger of the two, so strength can slip faster than muscle size.

From perimenopause on, muscle mass and power tend to decline, and muscle appears to respond less to protein and training, a pattern called anabolic resistance. Anabolic simply means building, so the phrase describes muscle that answers more quietly than it used to when it is fed and worked. It is the reasoning behind the protein range of 1.2–1.6 g per kg of body weight a day in the PROT-AGE position paper (Bauer et al., 2013) and the ISSN position stands on protein, a range paired with heavy progressive lifting.

Without training, that decline in mass and power appears to continue through menopause. After menopause, the EWGSOP2 consensus ties muscle to everyday independence: low strength predicts falls and loss of independence. That makes strength a health measure in its own right. It is about function, such as steady footing and carrying what you need to carry, and about how you feel day to day, not about appearance or a number on the scale.

Because of that link, UK falls prevention guidance, NICE guideline NG249 (2025), is worth knowing about if you or someone close to you is concerned about steadiness.

How much protein and training help with sarcopenia?

The protein range is a daily figure worked out from your own weight: multiply your weight in kg by 1.2 and by 1.6. As one example, at 137 lb (62 kg) that comes to 75–100 g a day. The same sources spread it as 25–40 g per meal over 3–4 meals. We answer how much protein do I need in more detail on its own page.

This is a general range, not a personal prescription. If you have kidney disease, or a doctor or dietitian has already given you a protein amount, that advice comes first.

For training, the evidence supports heavy progressive lifting as the form of resistance training for sarcopenia. Heavy is usually taken to mean a load that feels demanding for you by the last few repetitions, not a set number on the bar. Progressive means the load rises as you get stronger, so the starting point is wherever you are today, with no need to have lifted before. The sources behind this page name that style of training without fixing one load, repetition count or number of weekly sessions, and our guide to strength training for women is where we cover those specifics. In the UK the same kind of work is often called resistance exercise, or strength and balance training.

You can check strength with a timed chair stand. In the EWGSOP2 consensus, taking more than 15 seconds to rise from a chair five times indicates low strength, and grip strength is the other measure it uses. If your time is longer than that, or strength seems to be slipping, it's worth a conversation with your primary care provider or GP.

What did the studies show, and what did they leave open?

EWGSOP2 is a consensus paper: it sets out how sarcopenia is defined and measured, and it does not test a treatment. A grip or chair-stand result on the wrong side of a cut-off is a reason for a fuller assessment, not a diagnosis in itself.

On reversal, the word to notice is seem. It signals a likely benefit from nutrition and exercise training, not a guaranteed result for every woman.

The decline figures are wide for a reason. A strength loss of 1.5–5% a year spans more than a threefold range, so two women of the same age can be on quite different paths. The figures also describe leg muscle after 50, not every muscle at every age.

The protein range comes from position papers, which gather expert reading of the research into a recommendation. They are not a single trial of sarcopenia in women, so we treat the range as a sensible target, not a proven dose, and the description of how muscle changes around perimenopause as likely, not settled.

Next steps

A good place to start is the five-rise chair stand, followed by a conversation with your primary care provider (GP in the UK) if the result, or your own sense of your strength, leaves you with questions. From there, many women find it helpful to add protein to each meal and to begin lifting at a pace that feels manageable. If you notice unexplained weight loss, or symptoms that are getting worse, it's worth booking a visit sooner rather than waiting. Your history, your goals and your week are your own, so take the steps that fit you: not one size fits all.