Just have a look around you next time you are in a shopping center and check out how many older people are overweight. It is really an eye-opener.
What I’m hoping to do by writing this regular column ‘Dieting after Sixty’, is to make us all more aware that reducing our weight is something we can all do something about. We can’t change our height, our colouring or change that we are ageing, but we can improve our mobility, our health and how we look by taking off the excess kilos. And if we don’t resort to what the advertisers are telling us dieting is something we can start doing today at almost no cost.
Business booms dramatically for many slimming groups, slimming products and fitness centers after Christmas. This year I noticed the advertising started just after Boxing Day trying to play on people’s guilt for what they had indulged during the festive period. I had a friend staying with me over Christmas and he overindulged so much he was in bed ill for two days on December 27th and 28th.
It is an unfortunate fact but as we age many of us have gotten bigger. It may amuse our friends to look back at our photographs and go into shock at how we used to look, but it’s really something to take notice of. I have a photograph in my kitchen when I was in my early 20s holding my niece and people say, ‘That can’t be you?’ I remember one person actually said, ‘Oh my god what happened to you?’
The health professionals are now continually telling us things like, fat feeds cancer, fat causes heart attacks, fat causes strokes, fat causes hypertension, fat contributes to type2 diabetes and on an on. Do we listen? Apparently not because around 59% of women are overweight and 29% are obese, and around 66% of men are overweight and 25% are obese. I don’t have the age breakdowns on these figures but I would like to suggest from what I’ve recently read that the figures would be greater in the over 55s in our affluent groups and greater in the over 35s in the less affluent groups. The United Nations have announced that for the first time the number of overweight people in the world exceeded those who were undernourished, with more than 1.3 billion people overweight and 800 million underweight
My specialist recently told me that she would like me to lose at least ten kilos but fifteen would be better. I was a little offended as I was still fitting into a size 14 walking erect and not hobbling around like many people of my age. She then asked me if I would like to see a dietician, I told her it wouldn’t be necessary that there wasn’t anything about food and dieting that I didn’t know. Great she said, ‘Well put it into practice.’
I left her North Sydney office quiet angry thinking to myself if only she knew whom I was. I used to write for one of the very first Slimming and Nutrition Magazine in Australia and was an advisor to readers about their weight problems. I was also a state coordinator for their slimming clubs all across NSW. Then I thought to myself, ‘Well if you know it all why are you ten plus kilos overweight again?’
Even if we don’t want to admit it many of us now over the age of 60 are either slowing down or retired, and many of us eat far too much and do far too little. When I first moved from my urban lifestyle in North Sydney to a small village in the Blue Mountains I started having morning and afternoon teas and eating cake. All those around me were so why shouldn’t I indulge as well. I soon found out that with my metabolism slowing down having cake and extra carbohydrates between meals soon converted to un-wanted and unattractive extra weight.
Firstly, it is a must that we all know our BMI (body mass index) number. This is the true measure of where our body is at. The ideal BMI number is between 18.50 to 24.99. A BMI number from 25 to 29.99 is classified as overweight, and over 30 is classified as obese. If you are unsure of your BMI you can do the calculation of your present weight divided by your height squared at: www.health.nsw.gov.au › Home › Healthy Eating Active Living.
The other important thing that we all should know is our waist measurement in relation to our height. As we age many of us store fat around our middle, this puts us at a much greater risk of developing heart disease and type2 diabetes. Our ideal waist measurement should be half our height. More information on this is at: www.measureup.gov.au
I recently obtained both these numbers for myself and I have to tell you I was in shock with my BMI and my waist measurement in relation to my height. This was really a final wake up call for me and for the last month I have been working again on getting my BMI number down to my ideal number of 24.
According to a recent study it takes at least ten weeks to develop a new habit. That’s around 70 days for your brain to reset itself and get used to not indulging in certain foods or alcohol that you may know is responsible for your current BMI number. This theory was obvious to me when I switched to decafe coffee in October last year. When I first started drinking decafe and Cara I thought they were both disgusting. Now after about twelve weeks they taste ok, my taste buds and my brain have obviously reset to except the change. Another good example of this is with sugar in tea or coffee, once you have given the sugar up it’s almost impossible to drink tea or coffee with sugar.
Anyone with a BMI over 25 and over the age of 60 should really look seriously at devising an eating plan that has reduced kilojoules. You need an uncomplicated plan that can also fit in with your lifestyle, and one that you can adapt if necessary for unavoidable social events.
Next week I will relate some stories from other people about their weight and discuss the many options that are available if you want to reduce your BMI number.
xxx CaroleL
What diets have you tried over the years?
Please note that Carole is not a physician, dietician or nutritionist. If a reader has any issues about their weight that are medically related then a professional opinion should always be obtained before embarking on any changes or restrictions to their diets.
If you would like me to cover any particular topic in this column please email me at:
[email protected]
Carole Lethbridge is the author of “Online Dating After Sixty: One woman’s journey of love, lust and losers”. She has been both married and single over the last few decades and she has done her own research, gathering extensive data on relationships between females and males, drawing on both for her book and column. Online Dating After Sixty is available for purchase for $21.50 via Booktopia.