Given the recent discussion about women’s’ dissatisfaction with their bodies because they feel unable to meet the media standards of very tall and thin models, it made me laugh to come across this article . It reports on research that found that overweight women live longer than their very under- or overweight counterparts.
The most interesting part was that the usual risks of increased body mass are considerably less in older women than they are in younger people. These findings are making the researchers realize that it is time to review what is really ‘normal’ as we age. While I would be the first to warn against unlimited eating, it is good to hear that there is a useful reason for the weight we tend to gain as we age. Our bodies seem to know something science is only just coming to understand.
On a similar vein, I was listening to NPR this morning, and heard this story. Initially it seemed to be a story about the physical and mental benefits of raising your heart rate which was interesting, but nothing new. Part way through I suddenly heard a reference to this long term study of nurses. It was found that in women aged 50 and up, just 72 minutes a week of activity that raises your heart rate, such as walking, can make a real improvement to your health as you age. The study found that women who exercised even this modest amount had significantly less diabetes and heart disease. So, not only does exercise improve your heart function and mood, but the increase in blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex of your brain helps control impulsive behavior, possibly giving an extra moment to decide against eating the candy bar after exercising.
Given the discouraging messages the media often gives us about our bodies, I was encouraged to realize that upping my exercise level a bit and carrying a bit of extra weight isn’t all bad!
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Heard this also, thanks.
This idea of being overweight during our senior years is what I’ve been waiting for. Validation for being what I am. I love it!!!!!
Gillian, your headline was one of the best things I’ve read in a long time.
My chubby little self loved reading it
though I have refrained from buying ice cream and other things I know full well I shouldn’t eat. Really, though–I love the way I feel when my muscles are strong, and if they’re carrying a little extra padding, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. I’m tired of adoring skinniness, which on me looks like the end stages of a dread disease, not the height of chic. Cheers for your post!!!
Way too much being written about weight loss and exercise in newspapers, magazines, and rest of media. By now, we should all know the benefits of exercise. The bottom line is that for women 50+ the buzzing words should be “strong” and “fit” resulting from moderate exercise and lifting weights to retain muscle mass that we lose through aging. By the way, I practice what I preach, even with a broken hip.
I don’t think I’ve ever clicked on a VN post any more quickly than this one! Couldn’t wait to read it. I’ve always tried to stay fit; I exercise and eat healthy, but have never been thin and never will be-it just isn’t in the cards. Thanks for a validating post.
It certainly is good news isn’t it?!
I also saw on a health show being a bit over weight is better. Underweight, your body starts to “eat” the cells to survive..causing failure..in the extreme…periods stop etc..hair falling out. If you have extra padding and get sick, you body has “extra” to repair itself.
I thank the media and the newspapers for making the public sit up and take notice of the obese nation we live in. The problem with the studies that Gillian found is that people sit back and say, “Well, it’s better to be overweight than underweight” and proceed to sit on their butts and do nothing. Yes, 5 pounds overweight is healthier than 5 pounds underweight but we are talking 5 pounds NOT 30 pounds.
“Fashion” magazines have done us all a disservice BUT the rage against obesity is well-warranted. Government sanctified sweeteners (sugar in any form other than when it is in the food it was created) is the root cause of almost every disease we know and that includes high cholestrol, heart disease, strokes, cancer, diabetes, etc. We tend to think only of diabetes but that is only one disease whee sugar is the culprit. Obesity is a billion dollar business, both in so called diet products and in healthcare. It also costs employers millions of dollars every year.
It’s time to stop rationalizing and start thinking health. Maybe we should go back to the insurance “weight charts” of the 50s, which had far more reasonable weight ranges but let us never use some study as a pass to stay fat.
Yes, as Gillian says the media standards (fashion magazines and film stars) for very tall and thin models is wrong but the media hype now about obesity is hasn’t even made a dent in our consciousness…
You are so right Paloba! The goal isn’t to be skinny or a certain weight–the goal has to be to keep moving; eat whole, healthy foods; and keep an eye on the scale but not obsess over a few pounds. When we talk about 30 pounds or even 20 pounds, a little obsessing back to the goal is probably warranted. Those old commercials of Jack LaLanne holding 10 pounds of “ugly fat” are worth thinking about, especially when all that fat settles around your heart, lungs, and vital organs. Stay healthy, ladies, by having your eye on the prize–strong, fit bodies!
The good news? Anyone can do it–you just have to start!
Thank you Paloba – that needed saying! As I read you Gillian, I was in total agreement with the principle, but I, like Paloba, was thinking that, goodness me, a lot of women are going to take this way too literally and think that it is OK to stay at whatever weight they are, regardless of how much it might be – a license to vegg out on the couch with perhaps a 1lb weight in each hand to take care of the exercise – lol!
It’s all in the numbers, as Mosie says a little later in this thread. And one of those numbers HAS TO BE WEIGHT! I learned in my mid-forties from my naturopath to expect to put on roughly 10 pounds in my fifites because it is in God’s plan, it is part of our DNA as aging women, it’s built into our very bio-chemistry. Of course, in my mid-forties, I did not want to hear that and I promptly switched naturopaths – “shooting-the-messanger-because-I-did-not-like-the-message” sort of thing. But as time passed and I became exposed to other respected sources of health information, I came to realize that this was not some poor-taste joke – if I wanted to be healthy and promote my longevity, I was best to buy into this notion that 10 pounds extra as of menopause was the way to go. But 10 pounds is the recommended extra poundage ladies, and 10 pounds only (at least this is the only number I have ever heard referred to with any clarity and certainty).
So I hope that Gillian’s blog has not lulled too many women into a sense of blissful complacency – it’s your life on the line, quality and quantity!
This is wonderful….. it’s another way to tell us to be happy with who we are. Thank you for reminding us.
If I had weighed what I weigh now when I was 40 years younger I would have felt so bad!!! But, now I am carrying around 130 lbs. on my small-boned 5’2″ frame at age 62, and it seems like a nearly perfect weight at my age. I spent many years being underweight, so at least now I have enough weight that if I get sick I can lose a few pounds and not be in danger of being underweight.
It IS all about the numbers, ladies, just NOT the numbers on the scale! Remember the commercial with the very thin woman with S&P hair walking a red carpet, looking healthy as could be? Then they show her cholesterol numbers — yikes, she could have stroked out any minute! So – watch the numbers that matter (cholestrol, blood pressure, glucose, sodium, hormones, and the like) and the rest will actually fall in to place just fine. I have decided to be healthy, not skinny. I am 5’6″ and weigh 150 pounds and will be 53 very soon (I weighed 135-145 most of my adult life). I am considered quite healthy by my physicians who have said my numbers are the envy of many people in their practice who are 1/2 my age! I had 2 surgeries and radiation last fall that would have been far riskier and would have taken far longer to recuperate from had I not had these good numbers to start with.
Too bad Gillian, that they do not provide the recommended BMI for aging women. I had initially thought that the middle-of-the-road approach would be a good one, so I was aiming for 21.7, exactly in the middle of the BMI index. But I was never able to reach my target BMI despite a pretty trim weight for my height at any age, if I do say so myself. I was 52 at the time – and then it hit me … women my age are supposed to be a little heavier, 10lbs or so, and so maybe the BMI has to be adjusted accordingly. I’m happy with my weight (145 at 5’6″), but it would still be fun to know what the BMI is that I should be aiming for (I’m a numbers girl, can you tell? – lol!).
I had a look and found several pages within this site: http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm that allow you to enter your age, gender and weight to find out how you compare to others within the same demographic. I don’t know if it provides exactly what you were looking for, but do like that it offers a variety of ways of viewing your results.
Thanks a lot Gillian – this site provided me with an 18 percentile meaning that more than 80% of the female population in my age group and with my frame weigh more than I do. Although that may offer comfort to some, it still does not tell me whether my weight or BMI is right for me.
There were links there that led to another page to determine ideal weight and interestingly, according to the several systems they provide for establishing ideal weight, I was still in the upper end of my range - not overweight - but high in my range. So it would seem that I could still stand to be 5-10 pounds lighter than I am currently to be closer to the middle of the various system ranges provided … and yet, I am lighter than 80% of my piers (scary).
Like I said, no comfort. And BTW, there goes my 10lbs-at-menopause theory for why I can’t get that last 5-10lbs off. A little more exercise and yet smaller meals and fewer calories??? This goes against every fibre of my being, I’m so afraid my body will hoard. Ah, what the heck, if I’m healthy and VIBRANT and happy with an extra 5-10 lbs on me, then maybe I should just keep doing what I’m doing!!! But that too goes against every fibre of my being because I am a perfectionist and I like to see that I am statistically where conventional wisdom tells me I should be.
Oh, what to do – to lose or not to lose – that’s a loaded question for sure – lol!