New Delhi: In an era of ‘living life on a fast pace’, weight loss is something that weighs on everybody’s mind. Having a lean and toned body helps one keep pace with the swift changes happening around.

According to a new study, Obese patients over 60 years can also lose an equivalent amount of weight as younger people and that can be possible by making some changes in one’s lifestyle.

The study led by the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust researchers demonstrate that age is no barrier in losing weight.

The findings are based on analysis of patient records from a hospital-based obesity service and are reported in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

The researchers randomly selected 242 patients who attended the WISDEM-based obesity service between 2005 and 2016, and compared 2 groups (those aged under 60 years and those aged between 60 and 78 years) for the weight loss that they achieved during their time within the service.

Researchers used only lifestyle changes tailored to each patient, focusing on their dietary pattern, psychological support and encouragement of physical activity.

Lead author Dr Thomas Barber of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick said: “Weight loss is important at any age, but as we get older we’re more likely to develop the weight-related co-morbidities of obesity. Many of these are similar to the effects of aging, so you could argue that the relevance of weight loss becomes heightened as we get older, and this is something that we should embrace.

“There are a number of reasons why people may discount weight loss in older people. These include an ‘ageist’ perspective that weight-loss is not relevant to older people and misconceptions of reduced ability of older people to lose weight through dietary modification and increased exercise.

“Age should be no barrier to the lifestyle management of obesity. Rather than putting up barriers to older people accessing weight loss programmes, we should be proactively facilitating that process. To do otherwise would risk further and unnecessary neglect of older people through societal ageist misconceptions,” he said.