When you get older, having higher BMI is a good thing.

Comments about body mass index elderly cutoffs

This article has an impressive sample size of elderly women, age 60 to 88 years. Their data graphed looks like this, showing body fat percentage versus Body Mass Index.

elderly body fat

A couple of points about this graph. They used a linear trend line, but a curving line would have been a little better.

Yes, a curvy trendline would fit the cloud of data points better.

I sort of understand, that BMIs below 20 have very low body fat.

But why does body fat percentage level off at high BMI ?

I’m not sure.

I’ve compared this data (above) of average 67-year old women, compared to the Heritage Family study¹ data of American women, average age 34. I’ve superimposed the current elderly data (red) over the Heritage Family study data ( light grey circles).

body mass index elderly body fat is higher

It is not unexpected that the (red) elderly women would have a higher body fat percentage, by about 5%, compared to younger adult women.

Elderly women carry 5% more fat than younger women…

and women carry 8% more fan than men.

And that is Natural.

Say no, to old people on diets.

References

Jackson AS, Stanforth PR, Gagnon J, et al. The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: the Heritage Family Study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord, Jun 2002;26(6):789-96
The Pubmed link to the Heritage family study.

You should also see this one: As you get older, higher BMI is healthier.