Is weight loss good or not? Study links stable weight with exceptional longevity in older women

The scientists in their study, published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, studied thousands of women to determine the likelihood of reaching the ages of 90, 95, or 100, which they labelled as “exceptional longevity.” The data analysis revealed that older women who maintained a stable weight maybe 1.2 to 2 times more likely to reach ages 90 to 100.

"While maintaining a stable weight was shown to be beneficial towards reaching exceptional longevity, unintentional weight loss was linked with a reduction in the likelihood of reaching 90," the researchers wrote.

The study was conducted by Aladdin H. Shadyab, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA, and colleagues to examine the associations of short-term (3-year) and long-term (10-year) weight changes with survival to ages 90, 95, and 100 among older women. They also examined whether intentional and unintentional weight loss differed in their associations with survival at these ages.

For this purpose, they used longitudinal data from the Women’s Health Initiative comprising 54 437 women aged 61–81 years. Weight measurement was done at baseline year 3, and year 10. The participants were classified as having stable weight (<5% change from baseline), weight gain (≥5% increase from baseline), and weight loss (≥5% decrease from baseline).

The researchers reported the following findings:

• 56.3% of women survived to ≥90 years.
• After adjustment for relevant covariates, 3-year weight loss of ≥5% versus stable weight was associated with lower odds of survival to ages 90 (OR, 0.67), 95 (OR, 0.65), and 100 (OR, 0.62).
• Compared to intentional weight loss, unintentional weight loss was more strongly associated with lower odds of survival to age 90 (OR, 0.83 and OR, 0.49, respectively).
• Three-year weight gain of ≥5% versus stable weight was not associated with survival to age 90, 95, or 100.
• The pattern of results was similar among normal weight, overweight, and obese women in body mass index (BMI)--stratified analyses.

The study revealed that weight loss of more than 5% but not weight gain was linked with lower odds of longevity, more strongly among women with unintentional weight loss.

"These findings, in the context of the totality of the evidence, suggest that blanket recommendations for weight loss in older women are unlikely to lead to better survival to advanced ages," the investigators wrote. "These data do not affect clinical recommendations for moderate weight loss when required to obtain positive health outcomes, specifically for obese and severely obese persons.

However they add that, "these data support close monitoring of the amount and speed of weight loss, particularly when unintentional, as an indicator of underlying poor health and predictor of reduced lifespan in older women."

"Importantly, this study supports the promotion of weight stability as a useful predictor of longevity in older women," they concluded.

Reference:

Shadyab, A. H., Manson, J. E., Allison, M. A., Laddu, D., Van Horn, L., Wild, R. A., Banack, H. R., Tabung, F. K., Haring, B., Sun, Y., LeBlanc, E. S., LeBoff, M. S., Naughton, M. J., Luo, J., Schnatz, P. F., Natale, G., Ostfeld, R. J., & LaCroix, A. Z. Association of Later-Life Weight Changes With Survival to Ages 90, 95, and 100: The Women’s Health Initiative. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glad177