Thinness may make you look older

New York, April 1:Women generally think that being slim would make them more beautiful and glamorous, adding up the spotless smooth skin and shiny hair. But, according to a new study this assumption is totally wrong, revealing dieting actually makes them look older.

According to the novel study, being thin can affect one's face, making it appear older, while the fatter faces look younger.

The study results show the thinness ages us more than anything else. But, this holds true only for women over 40, says lead study author Dr. Bahman Guyuron, who is the chairman of the department of surgery at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland.

"For those younger than 40, it's the other way around," says Guyuron. "For women under 40, gaining weight obscures the facial definition that is inherent in a younger woman."

According to the Daily Telegraph, the study findings, published on the web-based version of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), suggest that losing 10lbs can age a woman over 40 by an average of four years.

To reach their findings, Guyuron and colleagues studied 186 pairs of identical female twins over the course of two years, monitoring their body mass indexdefine (BMI) and assessing the apparent age of their faces.

Since the twins share all their genesdefine, researchers were able to attribute the differences in their looks to external factors and lifestyle, rather than to their DNA.

During the study BMI of each participant was calculated. BMI is a simple and frequently used method for estimating body fat: BMI less than 18.5 - ‘underweight’; BMI 18.5 - 24.9- ‘normal weight’; BMI 25.0 - 29.9 - ‘overweight’; BMI 30.0 - 39.9 - ‘obese’; BMI 40.0 or higher - ‘severely (or morbidly) obese’.

The researchers found that thinness badly affected the facial appearance. "A BMI higher by four points was found to result in a younger appearance of between two and four years in women over 40 years old," said Guyuron.

"This loss of volume creates jowls and makes wrinkles develop," he says. "The older we get, the more the face gets depleted. When you lose weight, this look is enhanced and aging is accelerated. In older women, having a little weight on board makes the face look a little younger."

Besides thinness, other stressful environmental factors, such as a divorce, smoking, drinking, exposure to sun and use of antidepressants were also found to take their toll on one’s appearance.

In the study, divorce had a negative effect on appearance, making separated women 1.7 years older than married or single women.