Most Weight Regained by Older Women Is Fat, Study Finds

(HealthDay News) -- Some weight regain is common after weight loss, but in older women many of those regained pounds return as fat mass rather than muscle mass, according to a new study.

How this affects strength and health needs further study, but experts said the findings underscore the downside of so-called yo-yo dieting.

The study included 78 women, average age 58, who had lost about 25 pounds during a previous diet study. Looking at data on the regainers, the researchers found a change in body composition.

"A third of the weight lost was muscle," said Dr. Barbara Nicklas, a gerontologist at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"The proportion of weight they gained [back] as muscle was 20 percent." That left them with more fat and less muscle.

The researchers evaluated the women's body weight, lean mass and fat mass before the diet, right after weight loss, and six and 12 months later. At one year, the researchers zeroed in on 68 women for whom complete records were available. Fifty-two (76 percent) had regained some weight, including 11 who weighed more than at the study's start. Sixteen were still losing weight. Read more...

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Lack of vitamin D can lead to diabetes, study finds

The array of undiscovered health benefits afforded by high vitamin D intake is vast thanks to several new studies linking deficiency in this important hormone to diabetes.

One study published in the journal Diabetes Care explains that a simple 25 nanomole per liter (nmol/L), or 10 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), increase in blood levels of vitamin D results in a roughly 24 percent reduction in diabetes risk, while another study similarly reveals a correlation between high blood levels of vitamin D and reduced risk of diabetes.

Dr. Ken Sikaris and his colleague Zhong Lu, both of which are pathologists at Melbourne Pathology in Australia, tested the blood levels of 5,200 participants as part of their research. After accounting for more than ten outside risk factors that may affect outcomes, the duo found that participants with the highest blood levels of vitamin D had a significantly reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes compared to those with the lowest levels. Read more...

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