Weight Regained in Later Years Has More Fat Dec. 16, 2011 -- As you draw up your New Year’s resolutions, new research may provide added incentive for some older women to not only lose weight, but to keep it off.

The study of postmenopausal women suggests that when they regain weight -- and previous research suggests about 80% of dieters eventually do -- they don’t recover as much lean mass as they lost. As a result, they end up with more fat, even if they’re about the same weight as they were before the diet.

People lose lean tissue as well as fat when they shed pounds, the authors of the new study write. In fact, they write, studies have found that lean tissue represents roughly a quarter of total weight loss. Because the loss of muscle and bone can be especially detrimental to older people, “it is important to examine whether the benefits of weight loss outweigh the risks in this population.”

The scientists analyzed the body composition of 78 non-active postmenopausal women, ages 50-70, before and immediately after they’d completed a five-month-long diet. The researchers then weighed the women six and 12 months after the weight loss trial ended and analyzed the body composition of those who regained at least 4.4 pounds.

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