It’s hard to buy a thousand dollars to get old and thin？ ＂Deliberate weight loss＂ may affect the health of middle-aged and elderly people.
As the saying goes, "a thousand dollars can’t buy old people to lose weight." Nowadays, many old people have joined the army to lose weight, and it seems that they will be healthy if they lose weight. Recently, a study published in the American Obesity magazine shows that the elderly’s deliberate weight loss may affect their bone health.
Body mass index BMI= the square of weight/height, which is an accepted standard to measure obesity. In this study, 77 students with an average BMI of 33.6 (usually 18.5≤ BMI index ≤ 23.9 old people with normal weight, more than 29.9 are severely obese) were given weight-loss intervention for 18 months, and the overall weight of the old people and the bone mineral density of the areas (total hip, femoral neck, lumbar vertebrae and trabecular bone) were monitored and scored at 18 months and 30 months. The results show that the decline of hip bone mineral density will last for one year after weight-loss intervention for elderly obese patients, whether they rebound or not. The study also found that fat loss and weight loss reduced the bone mineral density of hip and increased the risk of osteoporosis.
Gou Bo, a professor in the Department of Health Sciences of Xi ‘an Institute of Physical Education, said that if the elderly lose weight improperly, such as excessive diet control, resulting in insufficient nutrition intake, or lose weight too much and too fast, resulting in significant weight loss, it will lead to a decline in bone density. Older people do not have to lose weight if they are only slightly obese and have no obvious cardiovascular disease. If there are some contraindications to exercise, and it is not suitable for exercise to lose weight, you can seek nutrition, medical care and other methods to control your weight under the guidance of a doctor. If obesity is accompanied by other chronic diseases, lose some weight appropriately. In principle, adopt safe and effective methods to achieve the goal at a slower speed such as diet control and exercise.
Many old people find that even if they eat and exercise as much as when they were young, it is easy to "gain weight". The reason is that the basal metabolic rate and muscle mass of adults decrease year by year with age. Therefore, even if the elderly eat less, their digestion and absorption ability are poor, and the balance of energy in and out is still "less in and out", in which case it will be "fat".
Gou Bo emphasized that obesity will directly affect heart function and vascular health, and it is easy to suffer from various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The ideal situation is to "gain muscle and lose fat" on the premise of ensuring basic nutrition.
Old people can’t take extreme measures to lose weight, let alone go on a diet like young people. We can start with the moderation and choice of dinner, eat some coarse grains instead of staple food, eat food with high protein content for breakfast, and control the staple food at about 2 Liang at noon. It is not recommended to choose diet pills or surgery to lose weight.
In sports, it is suggested that aerobic exercise should be combined with strength training, and it is best to take some soothing forms, such as Tai Ji Chuan, yoga, walking, etc. As long as you can persist every day and achieve a certain amount of exercise, you can lose weight completely.
Interviewed expert: Professor Gou Bo, Department of Health Sciences, Xi ‘an Institute of Physical Education