A weighty old matter

This photograph’s of my scale. It’s a calibrated, balance beam scale. A Mercury 211FP. Made in Adelaide. I’ve owned it since the mid-late 1980s. I used it in my Melbourne consulting room until 1998. Since then I’ve practised only in Tasmania – in rooms rented by the day. So from late 2002 when we moved into our Mole Creek house, the scale’s graced our bathroom. Because you can’t manage what you don’t measure, I weigh myself each morning. I’m keen to stay within cooee of my ideal body weight. Or rather of a Body Mass Index of 25 – the acknowledged ideal [1]. It’s currently 22.5. So I’m doing okay. Or so I thought until I read this paper [2] published in the Australasian Journal of Ageing in late December. According to this report [3] of the paper, the figures from almost 25,000 older Australians in the ongoing ‘Men, Women and Ageing’ longitudinal study [4], join an emerging body of evidence that being overweight’s less of a health hazard the older people get. Specifically, over-70s live longest if their BMI’s 26-27. In other words putting on a little weight as you get older’s no bad thing – indeed it may be the secret to longevity. In yet other words, a BMI in the overweight range appears protective for both older men and women. I’m not an over-70. Yet. So until then I’ll keep aiming for a BMI of 25. But I’ll be less upset if I go over it a bit. Ho hum.

P.S. Having written this post, I discovered I've written on these matters before [5, 6]. Sorry.

farmdoc's blog post number 189

Until I read this article, I didn’t know the body mass index [BMI] was invented over 150 years ago. Here’s a BMI calculator. I’m currently 175cm and 70.1kg, so my BMI’s 22.9 which is within the normal range (18.5-24.9). But my ideal weight’s 67.5kg equating to a 22.0 BMI which is nearer the 21.7 middle of the normal range. But for some reason I’m having trouble getting there after putting on my usual three winter kilograms. I think I eat healthily – certainly no junk food. And I exercise daily (recently mainly splitting and stacking wood, and walking). But my weight’s not falling. Why? This article in the current BMJ, reports a Japanese study showing that eating quickly and eating until full are associated with being overweight, independent of total energy intake and other confounding variables; and these two eating behaviours combined may have a substantial impact on being overweight. Assuming these conclusions apply in Tasmania, the key issue for me – which this survey didn’t study – is whether eating slowly and stopping eating before full are beneficial weight-wise. In his 2008 book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan suggests they are. I’m guilty on both counts, which may explain my plight. Anyhow I’m giving it a try – I’ve resolved to eat more slowly, and to stop before I’m full. Stay tuned, folks.