Research has shown that current theories on weight guidelines may be too harsh, after a study found that overweight adults are in fact not as likely to die during a period of ten years, as those adults which have a lower weight. Professor Leon Flicker from the University of Western Australia believes that it could be a good time to have another look at BMI ratings for the elderly.
Flicker and his collaborators came to the conclusion from revising ten years of statistics from over 9,200 Australians aging 70 to 75. Australia has the 3rd highest obesity rate in the world, after the US and the UK. Normally, obesity is calculated on a person’s BMI, which takes into account weight and height. The WHO lays out four main classifications: underweight, normal, overweight and obese. However, these classifications were mostly calculated based on younger adults as opposed to the elderly.
This research was started in Australia in 1996 and involved 4,677 males and 4,563 females. The contributors were tracked for ten years or until they died, and took into account lifestyle, general health and more. According to the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, those classified as overweight had a 13% lower chance of death compared to those with normal weight. Obese people were not found to have any benefits. Professor Flicker saw that this investigation was carried out due to worries surrounding the calls to help the elderly lose weight.
Participants of the study who died before the ten years, were deemed to not have been affected by being overweight. To avoid inconsistencies, the scientists compared those with healthy histories to those with serious illnesses and did not find any major discrepancies in the results.Although being overweight was beneficial for both males and females, being sedentary increased the chance of death by two times in females, but only by 25% in males.
