By Amy Norton — MedicalXPress, 21 March 2022
Middle-aged people who are obese, or even simply overweight, may face more health problems down the road, a new study finds. The study of nearly 30,000 men and women found that the more people weighed around age 40, the greater their odds of chronic health conditions after age 65. And obesity, particularly severe levels, ultimately cut people’s lives short by five years on average, compared to those who were in the normal-weight range. “There are serious health consequences to obesity that should not be ignored,” said lead researcher Dr Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The findings show a gradient: middle-aged people who were overweight fared a little worse in older age than those who were normal-weight, and those with mild obesity did a little worse still. Those who were normal-weight died at age 82 on average, versus age 77 among those with Class III obesity (BMI of 40 or more) in middle age. When it came to chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or stroke, even overweight people spent about one extra year of their lives with these conditions compared with their normal-weight counterparts. That increased to two to three years among people who were moderately obese.
Dr Vance Albaugh, a bariatric surgeon and researcher, said the findings underscore the potential benefits of healthy lifestyle changes for people with the common middle-age spread: “This suggests you can benefit from losing a small amount of weight, or just stopping yourself from moving into the ‘obese’ category.” The good news, however, is that it’s not all about the number on the scale — people can still reap health benefits from eating well and exercising, even if the scale shows little change. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open.