It has long been suggested that maintaining a healthy weight is a positive step for keeping healthy, and this is the same for postmenopausal women – but recent studies have shown that regaining that weight by even just a few pounds could be harmful to your heart health. The CM or cardiometabolic risk factors are high in postmenopausal women, causing long term negative effects such as diabetes and heart disease.
In research which studied the weight loss management of a group of women, it was discovered that weight regain of up to just four pounds can cause many long term health problems – the women were studied during their weight loss intervention and then for 12 months after this programme. All of the CM factors were improved with weight loss, an unsurprising discovery, but most regressed back to the original value just 12 months later, with several factors actually found to be worse than before they lost weight.
The women were an average of 58 years of age, and were studied over a five month weight loss regime, then for a year following. During this initial period, the women lost around 25 pounds on average, but two thirds of the group regained at least four pounds afterwards – on average, they regained around 70 per cent of the lost weight. This regained weight was predominantly fat rather than muscle, leading to the health problems such as heart disease or diabetes.
The study has highlighted the necessity for future research so that we can identify the barriers to long term weight loss and create strategies to keep the pounds off. An important piece of research, it also shows the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, in particular for postmenopausal women. When the women maintained a healthy weight, it showed a positive impact on the sustained improvement of cardiometabolic profile. It is for this reason that we need to view weight loss as a permanent lifestyle alteration, not just as a means to an end for a better physique.