Science Shows Weight Loss Today Affects Tomorrow’s Health

When you are focused on weight loss, the odds are you’re thinking about how you look right now. You’re trying to shed the extra pounds so you’ll be healthier, fit into a certain outfit, or reduce your risk of a specific condition. While you may be thinking of the future in the sense that you are hoping the weight won’t come back, most people are thinking that far ahead when it comes to the impact of their current dieting efforts.

The Broader Sense of Your Weight Loss

A recent analysis of weight loss studies has shown that weight loss can have a considerable impact on a person’s health in the future. Until now, studies focusing on fat reduction have not taken age into consideration. Instead, they’ve focused on the more immediate outcomes after having reduced body fat levels.

That said, this recent research has shown that weight loss achieved during middle age has a different impact on your overall health than it does if you lose it when you’re 65 or older. Similarly, if you’re over 85 years old, the health impact is also quite different.

Your Weight Loss and Your Age

Researchers are starting to call into question studies previously conducted on weight loss in older adults. Previously, they have pointed to a link with losing weight at that age, and illness or even death. However, researchers have criticized those studies, saying that they were based on incorrectly interpreted information or studies that were not long enough to make an accurate determination.

That said, one osteoporosis and fractures study looked directly at the weight of women aged 65 years and older, and examined their overall health at the same time. Upon reviewing over twenty years of data for the participants in this study, an analysis showed the researchers that there could be a greater link between a woman’s weight gain or loss and her overall health over the long term.

The Study Results

The researchers published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Within that study, the researchers conducted an evaluation of the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures data. They theorized that women who experienced abrupt declines, large amounts of weight loss or a broader weight variability were less able to function twenty years later. Moreover, they were also more likely to experience a poorer overall health income between one and five years after that first twenty years had passed.