Losing weight in your 40s and 50s may seem unbearably hard — but it could keep you alive longer
Researchers based in the U.K. and Finland say they found health benefits in people who lost an average of 6.5 percent of their body weight in early middle age and maintained that weight loss throughout a period of 12 to 35 years.
Those benefits especially include a lessened risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well as an overall lower risk of death from chronic disease.
'The benefits of lifestyle-based weight management are widely discussed even though studies have found it surprisingly difficult to demonstrate health benefits beyond the prevention of diabetes,' University of Helsinki professor Dr. Timo Strandberg said in a statement.
Strandberg was the lead author of the study which was published recently in the journal JAMA Network Open, the open-access journal of the American Medical Association.
To reach these conclusions, the study tracked and analyzed the health of 23,000 white Europeans who were between the ages of 30 and 50 years old using data from three studies, conducted from 1985 to 1988, from 1964 to 1973, and between 2000 and 2013.
They sorted the participants into four groups: people with persistent healthy weight, people who were overweight but became a healthy weight, people who were healthy and became overweight, and people who were overweight the entire time.
'Measurement of weight and height was conducted at a time when surgical and pharmacological weight-loss interventions were nearly nonexistent,' the authors noted. The cause of weight loss was not assessed, but given the age of the participants and lack of diagnosed disease, it was more likely intentional than caused by severe chronic conditions or frailty.'
In one study, a reduction in body mass from overweight to normal weight over six years in mid-life was tied to a lower risk of developing chronic diseases. There was also a 48 percent lower risk for chronic illness compared to those who remained overweight, which largely held even after excluding participants who developed diabetes during follow-up.
Another study showed a 57 percent risk for chronic illness. A third study, with the longest follow-up period, showed that weight loss in mid-life was associated with a 19 percent reduction in overall mortality.
'I'm certain that overall prevention of overweight and obesity starting in early life is absolutely the best thing to do,' Stranberg told The Independent. 'Our study indirectly proves this by showing that persistent healthy weight over the life-course is best.'
He said that he hopes the findings will inspire people to see that lifestyle changes can lead to a longer life.
'This is particularly important today as more people are overweight than when the collection of our research data began 35 years ago,' he said in the statement.
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