A healthy weight helps women age better, says study

Nov 17, 2009 4:00 PM

Can you still fit into your high school clothes? I know I’d struggle after two kids and a decade and a half of marriage. But according to a study released last month in the British Medical Journal, our chances of living long and healthy would improve if we could squeeze into those old clothes.

In the study, researchers looked at the body mass indexes of 17,065 women, and found that the more weight the women gained from age 18 until mid-life, the less likely their chances of being healthy in later life. And it didn’t have to be a significant amount of weight—for every kilogram of weight gain (2.2 pounds), the odds of being alive and healthy into their 70s decreased by 5%.

The study also found that, when compared with lean women (BMIs of 18.5-22.9), the women with a BMI of 30 or above had lowered their odds of living healthily into their 70’s by 79%.

That’s a scary thought. And if I want to lose enough weight to even get close to my high school jeans, I have to overcome two very large obstacles—me and my husband.

I try to eat healthy, trying several stay-thin strategies. I’m a big fan of salads, and have never met a vegetable I didn’t like in at least some form (though I’m still struggling on those beets). My personal weakness is all those luscious, scrumptious carbs. I have been known to burn my fingers ripping apart a hot, crusty loaf of bread fresh out of the oven.

Which leads me to my other obstacle: My husband. He sees no reason to change his eating habits as he slurps down an entire platter of pasta, using a half a loaf of crusty Italian bread to sop the sauce. For breakfast, he’ll eat an entire batch of hot biscuits, with butter and honey, while I clutch my bowl of plain oatmeal and try not to breathe in the buttery smell.

Exercise isn’t any easier. It’s hard enough squeezing in a workout between work, cooking dinner, soccer practice, and helping with homework, without my husband’s well-meant but ultimately defeating assurances of “I think you look nice just the way you are” which can often drive the nail in the coffin of my exercise intentions.

So what can I do to get back into my acid-washed high school jeans? Rather than make my husband eat on the back porch, I’ve started purposely setting dishes down at his end of the table, so for me, they aren’t within easy reach. I’ve also started using a smaller plate than he does, and giving myself permission not to keep up with him. He can eat as he pleases, I concentrate on making my smaller portion last as long as his (it certainly makes you eat more slowly!).

And for exercise, I’ve found that the dog is always willing to be my walking partner, even when my life partner is more interested in the TV.

—Erin Gudeux, sensory senior project leader