Weight Loss For Seniors

30 seconds

The study showed that these seniors lost 7.3 percent of their weight compared to 6.9 percent among younger participants. The seniors’ losses took an average of 33.6 months to achieve compared to 41.5 months for those under age 60. The weight loss program used for the study was based on individually tailored lifestyle-changes including dietary modifications, psychological support and physical activity. Lead author Thomas Barber, M.D., Ph.D., of Warwick Medical School noted a number of reasons why people may discount weight loss in older people including an ‘ageist’ perspective that weight-loss is not relevant to older people and misconceptions of reduced ability of older people to lose weight through dietary adjustments and increased exercise. He added that age should be no barrier to lifestyle management of obesity and advocated proactively facilitating that process.

Source:
Thomas M. Barber et al, “Older age does not influence the success of weight loss through the implementation of lifestyle modification.” Clinical Endocrinology, October 22, 2020; DOI: 10.1111/cen.14354