Girth Control
By Ellie McGrath
The good news: it is important for the young to stay lean, but a little heft helps people live longer, according to a federal researcher at the Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore. The bad news: many obesity and cardiovascular specialists say that lifelong leanness is still the desirable goal.
Guidelines on girth have been the subject of a growing dispute since 1983, when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. updated its charts on desirable weight. The poundage associated with the lowest death rates, the insurance firm found, had risen by as much as 14 Ibs. over such weights in its 1959 tables. Now Dr. Reubin Andres, clinical director of the Gerontology Research Center of the National Institute on Aging, has added more fat to the fire. Using the same data (from 4.2 million people charted by 25 insurance companies over two decades), Andres has concluded that people in their 20s should weigh less than Metropolitan Life indicates, 40-year-olds should weigh about the same, but people in their 50s and 60s can afford to be anywhere from 4 to 37 Ibs. heavier. Andres, a gerontologist who has been studying the effect of weight gain on aging for more than five years, feels that after the age of 20, almost any normally lean person can put on about a pound a year.
The Andres study not only challenges the conventional wisdom, it says that men and women of the same height should weigh roughly the same. This relaxed attitude toward weight gain does not find favor with the medical establishment. The American Heart Association has stated that it finds even the 1983 Metropolitan Life table too lenient. Obesity researchers at the National Institutes of Health say that weights 20% higher than the Metropolitan midpoints are hazardous. Says Dr. Robert F. Kushner, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago: "We don't have anything to gain health-wise by allowing elderly patients to put on another 20 to 30 Ibs., because it's likely it will be fat tissue."
Dr. William Castelli, director of the 36-year Framingham Heart Study on longevity, declares, "We can show you that for every pound you gain over the 1959 Metropolitan Life tables, your death rate increases 2% over the next 26 years." Until the doctors can resolve their conflicting interpretations, many Americans will find it prudent to hold back on that second helping of pasta . --By Ellie McGrath. Reported by Patricia Delaney/Washington and Barry Kalb/New York
LET THEM EAT CAKE A comparison of desirable weight tables
[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]
Height
Men
Women
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
4'10"
100-131
84-111
92-119
99-127
107-135
115-142
4'11"
101-134
87-115
95-123
103-131
111-139
119-147
5'0"
103-137
90-119
98-127
106-135
114-143
123-152
5'1"
123-145
105-140
93-123
101-131
110-140
118-148
127-157
5'2"
125-148
108-144
96-127
105-136
113-144
122-153
131-163
5'3"
127-151
111-148
99-131
108-140
117-149
126-158
135-168
5'4"
129-155
114-152
102-135
112-145
121-154
130-163
140-173
5'5"
131-159
117-156
106-140
115-149
125-159
134-168
144-179
5'6"
133-163
120-160
109-144
119-154
129-164
138-174
148-184
5'7"
135-167
123-164
112-148
122-159
133-169
143-179
153-190
5'8"
137-171
126-167
116-153
126-163
137-174
147-184
158-196
5'9"
139-175
129-170
119-157
130-168
141-179
151-190
162-201
5'10"
141-179
132-173
122-162
134-173
145-184
156-195
167-207
5'11"
144-183
135-176
126-167
137-178
149-190
160-201
172-213
6'0"
147-187
129-171
141-183
153-195
165-207
177-219
6'1"
150-192
133-176
145-188
157-200
169-213
182-225
6'2"
153-197
137-181
149-194
162-206
174-219
187-232
6'3"
157-202
141-186
153-199
166-212
179-225
192-238
6'4"
144-191
157-205
171-218
184-231
197-244
All heights without shoes, weights in pounds without clothes
[*]Combining Metropolitan's ranges for small, medium and large body frames
TIME Charts by Cynthia Davis
With reporting by Reported by Patricia Delaney/Washington, Barry Kalb/New York