Moving Beyond Static Body Composition Paradigms to Assessments of Change, Plasticity, and Function

Gender Differences in Anthropometric Predictors of Physical Performance in Older Adults

“…Reasons for the potential gender discrepancy due to level of fragility are unknown, but it has previously been proposed that lean mass becomes a critical limiting factor in least fit/most frail older women over time, while fat mass assumes this role in their male counterparts. 2032 Our data supports this concept and quantifies the relative burden of the load imposed by higher BMI on physical functioning in older women. Prior research has similarly reported associations between higher fat mass, BMI, and percent body fat and different measures physical functioning (e.g.…”

“…14 Hence, anthropometric predictors of physical performance differ in older men and women, where it is hypothesized that lean mass becomes a critical limiting factor in least fit/most frail older women over time, while fat mass assumes this role in their male counterparts. 20 However, this hypothesis has not been tested in comparable samples of older men and women. To date, we do not know the relative benefit of muscle quality or burden of body load (BMI) on physical functioning ability between older men and women.…”

Physicians’ Discussions About Body Weight, Healthy Diet, and Physical Activity With Overweight or Obese Elderly Patients

“…Recent estimates show that obesity affected 33% of females and 37% of males aged 60 years or older in the United States (Ford, Li, Zhao, & Tsai, 2010). With aging, fat is redistributed and increasingly infiltrates tissues such as pancreas, muscle, and bone (Duque & Kuchel, 2010). Some studies identified the "obesity paradox" in which overweight and obese older adults were actually likely to have better health outcomes than their normal-weight counterparts (Diehr et al, 2008;Oreopoulos, Kalantar-Zadeh, Sharma, & Fonarow, 2009).…”