‘I may be 51 – but my body is 70 years old’
Ahead of BBC documentary ‘How to Stay Young’, Judith Woods is shocked to learn medical science considers her out of date
Atangle of ECG wires is being attached to my chest as a rubber mask is placed over my mouth. I am reclining slightly on an exercise bike, where my lung capacity, heart rate and metabolic rate are measured to assess my fitness. My fatness has already been calibrated – in a sci-fi “bod pod” that measures the amount of air I displace. The resulting figure, together with my height-to-weight ratio, will reveal my body composition, and what percentage of it is fat rather than muscle. Then, by way of a finale, I will be told how my body age compares to my birth age.
It’s the premise of a fascinating new three-part BBC series called How to Stay Young, which begins tonight. The first programme witnesses volunteers undergoing the same tests and a raft more, including blood analysis, to gauge whether their lifestyles are ageing them prematurely.
I’ve seen the first episode and I’m already hooked, because the outcomes are astonishing: 51-yearold Patrick, an NHS worker, appears lean as an athlete but, thanks to his appalling junk food diet, he has a biological age of 73.
Jennifer, 47, looks overweight and, having undergone a total hysterectomy due to cancer, suffers from chronic insomnia. The accumulation of poor sleep has caused her body to function like a woman of 71.
As for me, I am intrigued rather than worried. Of course I could do with losing a bit of chub, but I just bought a size 10 dress from Mango, for heaven’s sake. Besides, I go to the gym once or twice a week, so I’m quite fit. But I also know there is room for improvement, so I will be interested to discover where and how I can shape up.
Overseeing my tests in a medical lab is Professor Mike Trenell, professor of movement and metabolism at Newcastle University, who has spearheaded the research and appears throughout the series.
“The notion of calculating body age is more than just a gimmick,” he says. “Ageing is a very complex process that we are only now beginning to understand. Individuals age in different ways, depending on their lifestyles.
“And although they may look great and feel OK inside, they are storing up trouble and are set to age very badly indeed. Showing them their biological age is a hugely powerful way of conveying to a person just how their body is being affected by the choices they make.”
As longevity increases, the emphasis is understandably shifting from just staying alive to staying healthy for longer.
“Ideally, we’d like to think that our progression through life will be ‘happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, dead’,” says Prof Trenell. “In truth, it’s more likely to be ‘happy, less happy, more unhappy, depressed, socially isolated, burden on society, burden on family, death’. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Simple lifestyle changes are far more effective and permanent than popping pills.”
Obesity ages us fastest. Excess weight is a predictor for a great many conditions associated with ageing: type-2 diabetes, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
“Carrying too much fat is a huge impediment to your body’s systems. It impacts on the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses contained in every cell, and because they can’t work properly, our eyesight or hearing or brain function starts to fail.”
In How to Stay Young, the participants are offered support and placed on a 12-week personally tailored programme that includes a healthier diet and more exercise.
“Losing weight is very hard until you find the method that works for you,” says Prof Trenell. “That could be the 5:2 diet, cutting out carbs, or only eating within a restricted time period every day. Once a person finds the right approach, they will stick at it much better.”
Losing weight invariably leads to more energy, increased vitality and improved mood. It can also reverse any previous ill-effects and reduce the body age of an individual.
“Most of us are overweight these days,” says Prof Trenell. “But we prefer not to acknowledge it, or we might acknowledge it but choose not to do anything about it. What our research shows is that measuring someone’s weight against a population average isn’t an accurate way to assess an individual’s health.”
Then the moment comes when I learn about my individual health and my biological age is revealed. I am genuinely expecting it to be bang on my birth age (a perky 51), or maybe even a little better.
“It’s 70,” says Prof Trenell, with impassive features. I laugh and wait for the punchline. The punchline doesn’t come. The only punch is proverbial, and in my solar plexus.
I am speechless. Just like Patrick. Just like Jennifer. When he elaborates, I feel worse, not better.
My body is 37 per cent fat; it should be under 20 per cent. Regardless of my ability to pull on my skinny jeans, I am fat. I might look perfectly average, but around my organs there is a duvet of fat.
I am 5ft 3in with size three-and-ahalf feet and, before the children were born, I was a size zero. Apparently, that is, give or take a pound or two, what I should be now. Gulp.
“Someone with a bigger frame might not get the same result,” says Prof Trenell, carefully. “But for your particular body frame, you are carrying too much weight.”
He does not use the “O” word. Later, I get a second opinion from Dr Google. Dr Google says 37 per cent body fat means I am obese. And, for once, Dr Google is right.
No point blaming my thyroid, or the fact I have had two children or that I once broke my back, after which my weight spiralled. I could shake my fist at the way high-sugar, high-fat junk food is pimped to us every minute of the day via advertising, or the fact that modern working life is deskbound and sedentary, and swimming at lunchtime is the stuff of fantasy.
Having been told the hard facts, I need to adapt my life by drastically cutting back on calories and exercising every day, rather than just twice a week. Somehow.
My last shred of dignity prevents me from disclosing my weight. But when Prof Trenell suggests that participants on his 12-week programme are expected to lose 17 kilos, or just over two and a half stone, I steel myself to do the same.
“It’s important that the calories you take on are healthy and nutritious,” he stresses. “Otherwise, you are putting the wrong sort of fuel in your engine and wondering why it’s spluttering and choking, rather than running at peak performance.”
My attitude is one of resolve – but what first dismays then utterly fascinates me is other people’s response when I tell them. With a few honourable exceptions, all my friends rubbish the findings, insist I’m not overweight and decry my intention to diet, although nobody disputes my intention to take up exercising more.
One says I should seek out a second opinion. Another says I am being melodramatic. The unanimous verdict is that these tests are entirely ridiculous, and what does some professor of metabolism know about my metabolism?
This is extraordinary. If an orthopaedic consultant had told me I needed a new knee, nobody would have quibbled. If an oncologist had informed me that my cancer risk was unacceptably high and I must shed weight immediately, my entire social circle would have been offering support.
In every case, my friends utter the self-same phrase: “If you’re too fat then I must be as well.”
I resist the temptation to say “probably”, but it is very much the elephant in the room.
Quite simply, my diagnosis is being dismissed because it threatens the status quo.
There’s a crazy, collective sensitivity to weight that leads people to take even third-party criticism personally. But I am taking the findings seriously, however hard it will be, because I have no intention of feeling like a 90-year-old when I’m 70.
“The four pillars of ageing well are good diet, weight management, keeping physically active and good-quality sleep,” says Prof Trenell.
“The readings for you, personally, show that if you lose 10 kilos, you will gain 10 years of good health.”
That’s a stark prognosis I can’t afford to ignore.
Watch this space.