Weight control for seniors: An overview
Weight control for seniors focuses on the various complications related to obesity or excessive weight that frequently impact upon your health. The frequent focus of weight control for seniors is on the your general health as well as various medical conditions such as coronary heart disease, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure and gall

bladder disease. These disease conditions are second only to smoking as a cause of preventable death among the elderly. Various studies have concluded that even a reduction of between 5% and 15% of body weight may significantly decrease the risk of these medical problems if you’re either overweight or obese. Some experts actually believe that weight loss may not only reduce the incidence and severity of these diseases but may actually result in reversing the disease progression, which should be an added incentive for weight control for seniors.
Weight control for seniors: Are we there yet?
Although there is significant publicity about the multitude of health risks associated with being overweight and the spending of billions of dollars on products to make people thinner, many Americans are significantly overweight or obese. Some individuals have been more attentive to all the warnings and have significantly cut back on their level of dietary fat. Even studies as far back as 1997 had found that many Americans had reduced their consumption of total fat by approximately 6%, between 1987 and 1992. While this had resulted in achieving an average intake of approximately 36% of the total calories in fat, the amount recommended by most experts is about 30% or less of total calories consumed.
Although there has been some progress, way too many Americans continue to be either overweight or obese. Unfortunately, these statistics have continued to rise significantly since the 1980’s. A much more recent and ongoing study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has found that an estimated 61% of US adults are either overweight or obese. Their obesity or overweight status was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more. The large proportion of Americans who are actually defined as obese is even more concerning in that between 1980 and 1999, the percentage of obese individuals has almost doubled from about 15% of the population to approximately 27%. Obesity is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.
Another huge concern is that obesity seems to be rising among all segments of the American population in addition to the elderly, including individuals from all ethnic backgrounds and especially among children and adolescents. Also, another very unsettling fact is that the obesity epidemic is not limited only to Americans but is increasing worldwide with the increased urbanization of the world’s population. Weight control for seniors and individuals from all age groups as well as ethnicities has now become a global problem.
Some information adapted from The Johns Hopkins Medical Guide to Health After 50 Webpage by Paul Susic Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist