Weight Loss Central

From The Times

December 10, 2007

Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

Fitness is more important than thinness in retaining mobility, strength and balance in old age.

Middle-aged people who do half an hour’s vigorous activity three times a week are half as likely as the sedentary to suffer physical decline and impaired mobility as they get older.

“Use it or lose it” was the message, said Dr Iain Lang, of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, who, with collaborators in the United States, studied data on more than 10,000 people aged between 50 and 69 for up to six years.

Importantly, he said, the benefit of exercise was enjoyed regardless of body mass index. All groups roughly halved their risks of physical decline by doing exercise — so that a fit obese person did as well, or better, than a thin, unfit one.

“Some people take up exercise and then give up when they don’t lose weight,” Dr Lang said. “This research shows that you get important benefits from exercise even if it doesn’t help you lose weight.”

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