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Healthy living doesn’t come easy for many people. In fact, for a large number of us I dare say it would qualify as “work.” You have to pay attention to what you eat and how much; make sure you take your vitamins; drink enough fluids; exercise; and get enough rest. If you aren’t consciously adjusting your lifestyle to fit your needs, you can be assured you’ll gain weight as you age. (Yes, even you whipper snappers who love to rub in the fact that you can eat “whatever you want” and not gain a pound). Modern living doesn’t include the kind of rigorous activity that kept many generations before us trim, and compensating for that can really start to feel like a full-time job. Which, as most people will agree, gets old.

Sometimes you just need to take a vacation from your job, and we all look forward to one day being able to retire altogether. Retirement from the weight loss and exercise job, though, would undoubtedly lead to weight gain. With obesity being the cause of any number of health problems, one would imagine that putting on the pounds during your golden years (when your health is already on the decline simply due to the aging process) would be a bad thing.

Well, maybe not so much.

Researchers in Australia recently revealed that adults over the age of 70 who were overweight (defined as having a BMI between 25 and 29.9) had a “clear survival advantage” over people in the same age range who were normal or underweight. The Australians weren’t the only ones who came to this conclusion, either. A study of 11,000 individuals in Canada concluded that overweight individuals were 17% less likely to die than their normal counterparts.

Another interesting fact that was uncovered in this research is that older women who were sedentary were twice as likely to die as women who got regular exercise.  Men are similarly affected, but not quite to that extreme. Older males who lead a sedentary lifestyle are 28% more likely to die than their active counterparts. In either case, there’s a clear benefit to staying active after 70.

So what does this all mean? In general, it would appear as though the BMI guidelines are a bit too restrictive when applied to older adults. Elderly individuals tend to get sick more often, and having a few extra pounds seems to help individuals recover from illness faster.  The increased risk of weight related illness may be counteracted by the benefits of having some extra energy stores to battle diseases. That being said, it’s important to note that in both studies this only applied to people who were overweight – not obese (with a BMI of 30 or above), and that regular exercise was still an important factor of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in older adults.

The good news is that it appears as though it may be OK to relax a bit and indulge more often when it comes to tasting the finer things in life as you get older. Putting on a few pounds may actually help you live longer, and at that point I personally think you’ve earned the right to have pie more often if you want to. As long as you’re careful not to go completely overboard and cross into the obese category you shouldn’t have to be quite so diligent about maintaining a “normal” weight in your golden years.

You just have to make sure you get there first.