If you want to spend your golden years in the best shape possible, being overweight at midlife isn't the way to go about it as it may cut the average age expectancy.
American researchers have found that being fat in middle age cuts a woman's chances of reaching a ripe old age in good physical and mental shape by almost 80%.
The study appears online in the medical journal BMJ, and was funded by the U.
S.
National Institutes of Health and the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center.
With average life spans increasing due to advances in both detecting and treating illness, it's those extra pounds so many of us carry that might just undo these hard won gains.
And since fat is known to act the same way in both men and women, it's likely these results linking extra weight at midlife with a reduced chance of a healthy old age hold for men as well as women.
The team of researchers observed over 17,000 female nurses, part of the U.
S.
Nurses' Health Study, who were an average age of 50 years and healthy, when the study began in 1976.
The subjects weight and health changes such as occurrence of chronic diseases, information on cognitive function, physical function and mental health were taken every 2 years by questionnaires until 2000.
In terms of weight we know that a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 19-25 is considered more healthy, numbers from 25-29.
9 designate a person thought to be overweight, and a value over 30 is categorized as obese.
Researchers Qi Sun and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that for every one point increase in BMI women had a 12% lower chance of making it to age 70 in good health compared to those with lower BMI.
Good health was defined as being free of 11 different chronic conditions while also having enough physical and mental ability to do everyday things like shopping, cleaning or climbing stairs.
What's more, for every 1 kilogram (2.
2 pounds) a woman gained after age 18, her odds of living past 70 dropped by 5%.
Subjects who were already overweight at 18 and then gained more than 10 kilograms later in life had about a 20% chance of making it to age 70 in good health.
You can see how those extra pounds early on can bring some real troubles as you get older.
The diseases often plaguing these overweight women were major, life changing ones - like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
"People may think they can safely gain weight through their 20s, 30s and 40s, but there is no evidence that gaining weight is natural," points out Aviva Must, professor and chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine, but not part of the study.
"These results suggest that small weight gains are not innocuous.
" Medical experts agree that our population is aging, and that obesity is more common than ever before.
In fact, in 2003-4, a record 66.
3% of American adults were overweight or obese - this compared to just 14.
5% in 1976 when the Nurses' Health Study began.
Adding to the need to get rid of those extra pounds is the work by British researchers published earlier this year that found those with a BMI from 30-35 die almost 3 years earlier than those with BMI's in the normal range.
Anyone with a BMI over 40 is considered morbidly obese and likely to die almost 10 years before they should.
All the more reason for getting up - getting active now, so average age expectancy is increased.
American researchers have found that being fat in middle age cuts a woman's chances of reaching a ripe old age in good physical and mental shape by almost 80%.
The study appears online in the medical journal BMJ, and was funded by the U.
S.
National Institutes of Health and the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center.
With average life spans increasing due to advances in both detecting and treating illness, it's those extra pounds so many of us carry that might just undo these hard won gains.
And since fat is known to act the same way in both men and women, it's likely these results linking extra weight at midlife with a reduced chance of a healthy old age hold for men as well as women.
The team of researchers observed over 17,000 female nurses, part of the U.
S.
Nurses' Health Study, who were an average age of 50 years and healthy, when the study began in 1976.
The subjects weight and health changes such as occurrence of chronic diseases, information on cognitive function, physical function and mental health were taken every 2 years by questionnaires until 2000.
In terms of weight we know that a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 19-25 is considered more healthy, numbers from 25-29.
9 designate a person thought to be overweight, and a value over 30 is categorized as obese.
Researchers Qi Sun and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that for every one point increase in BMI women had a 12% lower chance of making it to age 70 in good health compared to those with lower BMI.
Good health was defined as being free of 11 different chronic conditions while also having enough physical and mental ability to do everyday things like shopping, cleaning or climbing stairs.
What's more, for every 1 kilogram (2.
2 pounds) a woman gained after age 18, her odds of living past 70 dropped by 5%.
Subjects who were already overweight at 18 and then gained more than 10 kilograms later in life had about a 20% chance of making it to age 70 in good health.
You can see how those extra pounds early on can bring some real troubles as you get older.
The diseases often plaguing these overweight women were major, life changing ones - like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
"People may think they can safely gain weight through their 20s, 30s and 40s, but there is no evidence that gaining weight is natural," points out Aviva Must, professor and chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine, but not part of the study.
"These results suggest that small weight gains are not innocuous.
" Medical experts agree that our population is aging, and that obesity is more common than ever before.
In fact, in 2003-4, a record 66.
3% of American adults were overweight or obese - this compared to just 14.
5% in 1976 when the Nurses' Health Study began.
Adding to the need to get rid of those extra pounds is the work by British researchers published earlier this year that found those with a BMI from 30-35 die almost 3 years earlier than those with BMI's in the normal range.
Anyone with a BMI over 40 is considered morbidly obese and likely to die almost 10 years before they should.
All the more reason for getting up - getting active now, so average age expectancy is increased.