However, a study published on Wednesday in JAMA Network Open suggests that adopting a lower-calorie Mediterranean diet and engaging in mild exercise may avoid or delay these age-related changes.
The participants in the study, who ranged in age from 55 to 75 and were either overweight or obese, shed more body fat and less muscle over the course of three years if they followed a lower-calorie Mediterranean diet and engaged in mild activity up to six days per week than those who didn't. Their body composition changed most in the first year, but by the three-year point, most of the alterations had been maintained, according to the study.
They improved their fat-to-muscle ratio while also losing visceral fat, which is found around the abdominal organs and under the stomach muscles and has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Although the participants' fat loss was very mild, the authors deemed it to be "clinically meaningful."
Dietitians' regular supervision resulted in greater fat loss for participants.
Data from an ongoing eight-year Spanish study with 6,874 overweight or obese people with metabolic syndrome, a general term for patients with high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low DHL or "good" cholesterol, and extra body fat around the waist, were used in the study. The study's objective is to determine whether a Mediterranean diet may stop cardiovascular disease.
At three different times during the study, the researchers assessed the body composition of 1,521 participants. Randomly selected participants were assigned to either the intervention or control groups.
The intervention group was advised to minimize their intake of processed meats, butter, margarine, cream, sweetened beverages, added sugar, biscuits, and bread. They also followed a Mediterranean diet with a 30% calorie reduction. In order to increase their strength, flexibility, and balance, they were also instructed to exercise and walk for 45 minutes each day.
The control group also ate a Mediterranean-style diet, but they weren't instructed to cut back on calories or work out more. Twice a year, they received general dietary counsel.
Both groups lost some fat, but only those in the intervention group lost visceral fat, according to the study. According to the study, they also shed more weight while maintaining or adding more muscle than the control group did.
Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine who was not involved in the study, told CNN that the study "demonstrates that a calorie-controlled Mediterranean diet plus exercise does not simply produce weight loss; it results in a redistribution of body composition from fat to muscle."
Before we can determine whether these changes would endure in the long run, more research is required.
More study, according to the authors, is required to determine whether the changes they saw would have long-term consequences on the participants' health and whether they would apply to a younger or healthier population.
The three-year follow-up was "most profound" to Dr. Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine and the director of the Nutrition Studies Research Group at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in California who was not involved in the study.
"The magnitude of the three-year differences are modest, and the trend from one-year to three-year suggests that at six-years the effects may be diminished to insignificance," On the other hand, he asserted that "three-year statistically significant differences are impressive!"
Without being engaged in the study, Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of food and nutritional science at the University of Reading in the UK, told the publication: "It would have been much more informative had the control group received a similar high-intention support (even if it only contained generic advice)."
"Motivation and compliance is very important in studies that investigate behavior change, and the study design clearly favored the intervention," Kuhnle stated.
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