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That's interesting, must be research newer than when I was still involved in the field. We were taught that as you age muscle mass diminished and because muscle takes more cals per pound, you could eat less without weight gain. I have not kept up with the newer research as I have been out of the field since the early 1990s and while I do read things I run across I wouldn't call that keeping up.

The loss of muscle mass has several consequences: You have less metabolically active tissue because you're less physically active. That lessens the body's ability to count calories ingested against calories expended, taking you closer to the region where it won't see the 100-150kcals/day offset but without the physical activity that could burn them up. You still have habitual eating practices of earlier, more active times, meaning it's easy to keep eating like you did when you were young because, hey, food still tastes good. And a couple pounds of body fat per year get insensibly added. So in a little while you're thinking, "When I was 28 I wore size 32 pants, now I'm 42 and wear size 38. WTH????"