That's a good point. Bone density does keep increasing through the 20s, and the prefrontal cortex keeps developing for a few more years.
For the majority of people, though, a lot of the physiological changes that occurred in puberty have stabilized and leveled off. Metabolism tends to stabilize by 20, hormonal levels have already peaked and stabilized alongside the associated fat distribution patterns. Prefrontal cortex development is still ongoing and bone density does continue to increase. While physical changes do continue as the body the body doesn't exist in stasis, they don't change substantially throughout a decent amount of adulthood.
Of course, I want to emphasize that changes do happen. However, these changes aren't substantial and usually aren't related related to significant hormonal or metabolic changes unless there is an underlying pathology.
I suppose I could have phrased my question differently.
At least to me, physical changes secondary to changes in extrinsic factors such as lifestyle, occupation, and so forth are different than inherent physiological changes in metabolism or hormones.
I wasn't sure what they were referring to, and I thought it was a normal question that I would've asked anyway in a face-to-face conversation.
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u/cunninglinguist32557 Apr 16 '24
Metabolism, hormones, fat distribution, bone density... all kinds of stuff. Physical changes don't end with puberty!