Melbourne: People aged over 40 years gaining weight look younger when their faces are fatter, a new study has found.
The study compared 186 pairs of identical twins and found that dropping one dress size could age a woman by an average of four years, <i>Herald Sun</i> newspaper reported.
Identical twins share all their genes and so any differences in their looks must be determined by lifestyle rather than DNA.
"It's not wrinkles and lines that make people look older, it's changes in the shape of the face. People have this thing about being thin. It perhaps gives them a slimmer body but they certainly age in the face more quickly," revealed Rajiv Grover, secretary of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
During the study, the body mass index (BMI) of each twin was calculated by dividing their weight by their height. The ideal BMI for an adult is between 18.5 and 25. A BMI of over 30 is classified as obese.
"The twins were divided into groups based on a four-point BMI difference. 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," commented Researcher Bahaman Guyuron.