Moderately overweight elderly people may live longer than those of normal weight, an Australian study suggests, but being very overweight or being underweight shortened lives.
The study of 9,200 over-70s found that regardless of weight, sedentary lifestyles shortened lives, particularly for women. The report, published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, said dieting may not be beneficial in this age group.
The team tracked the number of deaths over 10 years among volunteers who were aged 70 - 75 at the start of the study. It found that those with a BMI which classed them as overweight not only had the lowest overall risk of dying, they also had the lowest risk of dying from specific diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease.
Overall death rate among the obese group was similar to that among those of normal weight, but those who were very obese had a greater risk of dying during the 10 year period.
The conclusion of this study is that being overweight may be less harmful for elderly people and it corroborates the findings of previous research.
However, sedentary lifestyles shortened lives across all weight groups, doubling the risk of mortality for women over the period studied, and increasing it by 25% for men. I think I need to go fix a bacon, bacon, bacon and cheese sandwich with potato chips on the side.