Oops!… I Did It Again. Another Bad Health Choice?

The CNN headline reads “a surprising consequence to losing weight later in life.” And guess what? The consequences aren’t good ones.

So here I go again, finding out my latest health care choice might not be the best one for me overall. As I have related, my creeping weight gain and rising blood sugar led me to transform my eating habits at the beginning of the summer. I have been “rewarded” with a loss of about 15% of my body weight. My energy is good, my new trim-cut tapered slacks fit great, and I have reached a pretty solid weight plateau. At my visit to the internist last week, she congratulated me on my great blood sugar, healthy lipids, and especially my newly-normal BMI. Her parting words were “see you next year, keep up the good work.”

So I was dismayed to read the CNN report of a study stating that weight loss later in life (I am later in life, right?) is linked to increased risk for premature death, particularly from heart disease. I feel like I have jumped from the frying pan (bacon, anyone?) to the autopsy table-and not for professional reasons!

Now there are a few caveats to consider about the CNN article. The study CNN reports on does not seem to have been published in a prestigious journal such as The New England Journal of Medicine or the Annals of Internal Medicine. In fact, the CNN article doesn’t say where the study was published, and I can’t find it online. Confusingly, the study’s author is a professor in China, but the data used was from the US. And the study doesn’t differentiate intentional from unintentional weight loss. The pounds I dropped were very much intentional, and good intentions are important, right?

I still think I am doing the right thing trading away breakfast Pop-Tarts for sprouted English Muffins, cutting portions below Titanic size, and limiting myself to one trip to the buffet table. More fresh fish can’t be a bad thing, either.

So I’ll stick to the way I’m eating, and not worry about this new study. Based on past experience I just know a new study next week will say weight loss is the cat’s meow and I can say that I was right all along!

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