How the Mediterranean diet and exercise can protect bone health in older adults

A lower-calorie Mediterranean diet and regular exercise may help older women lose weight without causing bone density loss, new research suggests.

A lower-calorie Mediterranean diet, combined with regular exercise, helped older women lose weight without causing bone density loss, new research suggests.

Weight loss, especially quick or significant weight loss, is known to reduce bone mineral density and increase risk of fracture. Older women are more prone to bone loss due to drops in estrogen during menopause. 

Of the 10 million Americans with osteoporosis — a “silent” disease that weakens bones and rarely causes symptoms — more than 80% are women, a quarter of whom are aged 65 or older, according to the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women’s Health. 

Lifestyle changes, however, could offset those negative effects by preventing muscle loss, which plays a major role in overall bone strength, said Jesús García Gavilán, co-first author of the study and biostatistician at the University of Rovira I Virgili in Spain. 

The research, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, builds on a 2023 study that found a similar low-calorie diet and exercise regime lowered total body and visceral fat (fat that surrounds organs) in the same study group.