Weight and Lifespan: Are Older People Really Healthier When They Are a Little Overweight?

Weight and Lifespan: Are Older People Really Healthier When They Are a Little Overweight?Aunt Zhao is a person who particularly loves food, and she also likes to cook at home and explore various delicacies. At the beginning, Aunt Zhao's weight was normal, but later, she lacked exercise and cooked a lot of food herself, but she couldn't bear to throw it away, so she always ate a lot

Weight and Lifespan: Are Older People Really Healthier When They Are a Little Overweight?

Aunt Zhao is a person who particularly loves food, and she also likes to cook at home and explore various delicacies. At the beginning, Aunt Zhao's weight was normal, but later, she lacked exercise and cooked a lot of food herself, but she couldn't bear to throw it away, so she always ate a lot. After a few years, Aunt Zhao's weight increased significantly, and her friends even joked: "You are really enjoying your retirement, you've gotten a bit chubby, but it's okay, people say chubby people are blessed, the heavier you are, the longer you live, you are definitely destined for a long life." Aunt Zhao smiled along and didn't take it to heart. So, is there really a relationship between lifespan and weight? Can you tell how long someone will live by looking at their weight? The doctor tells you the answer!

1. Is there a relationship between weight and lifespan?

Human lifespan is in a dynamic state, simply put, due to individual differences, everyone's lifespan is different. If we look at it from the perspective of gender, men's average lifespan is generally shorter than women's. Some people have long-life genes in their family, which may be inherited, and they may have a longer lifespan than ordinary people. Lifespan is linked to human health, some people may be born with better genes and have stronger bodies, but if they don't take good care of themselves afterwards, they are also prone to problems.

Take eating habits as an example, nowadays many people choose to eat an unbalanced diet or even diet to maintain a good figure, this method affects not only weight but also overall health. It may not be noticeable for a while, but over time, problems will emerge when people grow old. Because the diet leads to a poor health foundation, people are more prone to colds, fever, and illness. From this perspective, there is definitely a certain relationship between weight and lifespan.

Just like many people who lose weight for a long time, their height and weight are completely out of proportion, for example, a woman who is 170cm tall wants to be 80-90 kilograms, this state may not be normal. Because being too thin may be due to malnutrition, and malnutrition can indirectly lead to many health problems, such as digestive problems and bone and muscle health problems. From this perspective, being too thin is definitely not healthy.

So, many people may say, does being fat mean you will be healthy? Of course not, existing data shows that there are many overweight and obese people in our country, and a large proportion of these people suffer from metabolic diseases. The most typical metabolic disease is diabetes, especially for older people, if they are too obese, they are more likely to suffer from diabetes, or even develop cardiovascular diseases. From this perspective, weight is related to lifespan, mainly because the degree of weight can reflect certain health conditions of the body to some extent, being too thin or too fat may not be good. How long a person lives cannot be determined solely by their weight, it is related to many factors.

2. Are older people healthier when they are heavier?

We will find that many older people are thin and frail, and such people are very susceptible to illness, especially with fragile bones. For middle-aged and elderly people, once they suffer a fracture, it is very likely to threaten their lives. This is mainly because prolonged bed rest after a fracture is not conducive to recovery, the body's metabolism is already slow, and if blood circulation also has problems, then health will be seriously damaged.

Therefore, many people believe that older people who can eat are blessed, and after their weight increases, their bone and muscle mass will also increase, they will be healthier and may live longer. Indeed, if we look at it from this perspective, if an elderly person is already thin to the point of being frail, then a moderate increase in weight is indeed beneficial to their health. This is mainly because the muscle mass of the elderly will decline, their bones will become more fragile, and if they continue to lose weight, without the protection of muscle, their bones will become even more fragile and prone to illness. For people who are already thin, a certain amount of weight gain is indeed a good direction.

However, if the original weight is within a reasonable range and is not controlled, and there is continuous overeating, leading to a rapid increase in weight, in this case, the elderly may experience unhealthy conditions. Because after the weight increases rapidly and reaches a state of obesity, if exercise does not keep up, the body fat percentage is abnormal and exceeds a certain range, then it is easy to lead to an increased risk of disease.

For the elderly, the most common problems are abnormal blood lipids and blood sugar, which can also lead to cardiovascular diseases. For example, high blood lipids are mostly caused by diet, and most obese people are likely to develop abnormal blood lipids over time, and the probability of developing hyperlipidemia will greatly increase. Blood sugar is a metabolic disease, and for obese people, high blood sugar is also very common.

So, what weight is considered healthy and suitable for longevity in the elderly? In terms of this question, the Annals of Epidemiology once published a related study, which followed up for 73 years and finally concluded that maintaining a normal weight in youth, and being slightly overweight in old age, has a lower mortality rate, which means that they will live longer.

So what is the specific data? It is not simply calculated based on how many kilograms, but by calculating the weight divided by the square of height, that is, the BMI value. For young to middle-aged people, BMI less than 18.5 is considered underweight, while 18.5 to 25 is considered normal. For older people, there are different requirements, because the height of older people is different, their bones have degenerated, and many older people have back problems. The BMI of middle-aged and older people should be kept between 20 and 26.9, which is considered relatively healthy, with a lower risk of death, and their lifespan will also be longer.

Overall, the relationship between lifespan and weight in the elderly is a U-shaped relationship, both being too light and too heavy can greatly increase the risk of death. Because both being too light or too heavy are accompanied by diseases, which pose a greater threat to the health of the elderly, and will affect their lifespan. In Aunt Zhao's case, at the beginning, she paid attention to a balanced diet, and her body should have been in a healthy state. But as she ate more and more, without control, and with less exercise, her weight and height have become out of proportion, if she continues like this, various indicators of her body may become abnormal and affect her lifespan.

Therefore, for the elderly, if they want to be healthier and live longer, they should pay attention to their weight, not just by judging it by eye, but also by calculating their individual body fat percentage based on their height and weight to see if it is within the range.

3. How to Maintain a Reasonable Weight?

There are many ways to maintain a reasonable weight, but here we don't recommend everyone to choose dieting to maintain weight, especially for older people. Because the bodies of older people are much more fragile than those of young people, their own nutrient reserves may not be sufficient, and if they try to control their weight through dieting, it may lead to organ problems, which is a substantial and more serious problem.

Therefore, in terms of maintaining a reasonable weight, diet is still recommended to be normal, so what is considered normal for older people? First, control carbohydrates, refined rice and noodles should be consumed at a ratio of 1:1 with coarse grains. You can't eat a lot of coarse grains, but you also can't eat refined rice and noodles exclusively, replace ordinary eating habits with this kind of food in terms of staple foods.

For other nutritional intake, such as protein, protein includes both animal protein and plant protein. Animal protein, it is recommended to consume fish meat, fish meat not only contains high-quality protein, but also contains nutrients that can prevent cardiovascular diseases. Protein intake can also be obtained from beans, milk, etc., not only found in meat. As for vegetables and fruits, they contain vitamins and other trace elements, and you should ensure such intake every day to ensure that your body's nutritional status is sufficient.

It is recommended that middle-aged and elderly people first get a health checkup when managing their diet, to see the distribution of their body's nutrients, supplement what is lacking, and formulate a reasonable nutritional plan, so that they can better control their weight. The body is healthy while maintaining weight, this is truly being healthy.

Exercise is definitely indispensable when it comes to maintaining weight. It is recommended that older people, if they have some underlying health problems, should observe their body's reaction during exercise, and if they experience obvious fatigue or changes in indicators, they should stop immediately. During exercise, they need to constantly adjust, that is, to find the most suitable exercise methods and amount of exercise by trying different activities.

Summary:

The relationship between weight and health cannot be judged solely by the weight number, but should be considered together with height and weight, so that you can accurately determine which weight range is the most appropriate for your body. It is not

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