When you think of losing weight, at any age, you think of that as healthy don’t you?

Especially when it comes to someone who has a high BMI (Body Mass Index) – where they are approaching or already classified as obese – losing weight has to be a great thing right?

Apparently it is not that simple.

I came across a recent research study that analyzed various races and ages across a spectrum of body mass indexes and found something quite shocking…that after 50, weight loss of more than 15% was associated with an increased mortality rate NOT the other way around.

In fact, if someone was already living with a very unhealthy weight – say they were obese – they were STILL more likely to outlive the person (assuming they were both over 50) that lost more weight…seems odd doesn’t it?

Three things immediately come to mind when I read this research…

1. We don’t yet fully understand the link between weight, weight loss and overall health – we get better each decade, but we are still largely in the dark

2. A question I had from the study was over what time period did they take into account the weight loss…follow me here, people over 50 have a much higher risk of various diseases including cancer, diabetes, etc..which may very well result in an unnatural weight loss that is certainly more than 15% of your current weight.  So it could just be that the study was simply measuring the propensity for weight loss in older people at extreme levels is associated with illness and thus, mortality?

3. In any case, we know it is not healthy to be obese.  We know that healthy and lasting weight loss needs to incorporate moderate exercise, stress management, a controlled diet and some smarter nutritional choices in addition to maintenance of muscle tone.  Weight lost following this balanced approach is much different that losing 20lbs by using one method alone.  In other words, our health will depend as much on HOW we lose our weight as on HOW MUCH weight we lose.

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What do you think, is weight loss associated to being more healthy?