Caloric restriction
 

I saw something on tv recently about living longer. There are scientists who study lifespans and they say that the thinner you are the longer you will live. This has been proven with animals who live longer and dont seem to get the same diseases the fatter animals get. The same seems to be true for humans. This is why insurance companies have those weight charts for "ideal weight". Basically if you weigh in this range you should have a higher life expectancy than those who weigh more. I looked up "caloric restriction" on the internet and these people who follow this lifestyle eat VERY low calorie diets high in nutrition-- mostly fruits and veggies and some fish for example. Most eat no more than 1200 calories a day. They are very thin, usually too thin if you ask me: men who are 6 feet tall and weigh 130 pounds!! They are convinced this well help them live to be 100 or more.

I would love to live a long time too- but know I could never stick to their practices!! A friend told me her doctor said you dont see too many little old ladies who weigh 240 pounds (like she does) and she should lose weight if she wants to live a long life.
It makes you think. Most really old people are thin/normal sized or atleast not extremely overweight.
Anyone care to share their thoughts on this??
laura

I don't know about this. My great grandmother is almost 90 years old and is about 75lbs over weight. She smoked all her life and didn't eat a low cal diet. I also have a grandmother who is 81 and very thin NOW. After she broke her hip, they gave her some medication that made her loose her appitite. It wasn't until now that she had lost the 65 extra lbs that she had.

There is more then just weight that determines who long you live. Just because we are thin doesn't mean that you will live forever. My mother was very thin her hole life then died at 38 from breast cancer.

It has also said that people who cut there cal to only 1200 a day have bone problems. They tend not to get enough protien and other things that the body needs.

This is just my view on the subject.

Bella23

I saw the same show. Very interesting. They were WAY too thin. Didn't even look healthy. One of the points was a VERy long life, but they were also saying how much energy they had. I thought about it for like a second. There is no way I could live like that.

From what I understand how long you live has more to do with your genes... we are talking about looooong lives... people 95 plus

Only the good die young - my fil is 65 and smokes like it's cool, eats red meat every night, he should have been dead years ago.

We are all making major improvements on our health - that can only add years.

I'd like to throw my 2 cents in as a RN who has seen thin and fat elderly people in the hospital. Thin elderly people tend to stay more independent than their fatter counterparts and recover more quickly. People tend to lose their mobility quickly if they are not up and about. If you are sick and in bed for awhile you are going to lose muscle tone (this is true of everyone, not just elderly people). Elderly people usually have less muscle mass anyway so you can imagine that after being in bed for a few days they aren't going to be able to get around very easily. Now imagine if you are overweight...you've got less muscle but more bulk to try and move around. A lot of elderly fat people end up bedbound because of their weight while the thinner ones can usually get up and about faster. Now someone said about the osteoporosis...it is true that thinner people tend to get it more easily than heavier people mostly because the heavier people have been exercising their bones more simply because of the excess weight that they are carrying not neccesarily because of better nutrition.

Jen-It's good to get a nurses opinion on this. I think you are right. Generally the thinner people get around better even if it's just because it requires less energy to haul their bodies around! You are right about the obese not having bone problems too. I have read the weight of our bodies stresses them and keeps them strong. We are giving our bodies weight bearing exercise just by walking around each day! thinnies are putting less stress on the bones so it makes sense.

I think we all know someone who smoked their whole life, drank like a fish and never exercised who lived a long time.
They have longevity on their side. Just think how much longer they COULD have lived had they taken better care of themselves.

Jacobs Mommy-I thought about it too until I realized I eat probably twice as many calories as these guys do!! :lol:

It wouldnt hurt any of us to cut back on our calories to help us lose weight but I am not gonna go to extremes like this!! 1200 a day is as low as I will go...

laura