People over 50 who are struggling to lose weight and still have around 32 percent of their body fat lost over 10 years ago may be advised to exercise, according to a new study.
By Stefan Szymanski Thursday, 9th November 2020, 10:48 am Updated Thursday, 9th November 2020, 11:40 am
An analysis of 126 studies of overweight women aged 65 to 79 found those who exercise more are significantly more likely to have less around the midsection.
This means the older a woman, the more they'll likely be able to make healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle, particularly changing how much time they spend sitting down, the researchers say.
For most people, this means reducing the amount of time they spend sitting down and reading, and more weight loss with a little more time movement.
"Frequent exercise increases the health of every individual - for older women, this means they may become overweight or become older and yet still able to lose weight," says the study's author, Dr. Marc-Olivier Mollotsky from the department of sport and exercise at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London.
He says reducing sitting for longer periods could improve blood pressure and heart health, as well as be a good way to drop those numbers.
Interestingly, there were no differences between those who were less active - meaning the likelihood of them being overweight increased slightly, on average.
Researchers say the more women enjoyed moderate exercise - a habit they should try to introduce more frequently, says their professor, Professor Marguerite Bennett, who also works on aging and people at high risk of heart disease at Warwick Medical School.
"Those who are exercising do make the negative impacts of being overweight and having excess weight less obvious and reduce the potential negative health consequences of increasing weight," says Professor Bennett.
Walking briskly, climbing stairs, engaging in resistance exercises, or even making a glass of water with lemon juice, researchers say these are all good ways to start getting in shape.
Emmet Lapsley, a clinical associate professor at the University of Glasgow who carried out another recent study on 60 overweight-aged participants, says for many, this could simply mean trying to get out of the house more.
"An individual might feel quite certain that sitting down for too long or sitting for a long period will lead to her or his health getting worse, but those with less fitness (a state where they are unfit in the absence of enough exercise) are usually not going to see much change during those 10 years and so our findings may have been slightly misleading," he says.
The two researchers say it's possible that once people are feeling fairly satisfied with their pre-being, or self-regulatory efforts, they could become less likely to be active.
In the UK, more people are not only losing weight but also have less of it due to eating a calorific diet and more exercise.
The average person is now estimated to have a 45 percent loss of fat overall, which is a 0.5 percent drop from a decade ago.
