I've never heard anyone so full of praise for their other half's
physique. However, 105 kilograms is quite heavy and if he isn't a
large-boned man he must carry quite a bit of fat.
Young
people can carry fat and look good - even very good. But as we age, the
fat redistributes onto tummies and hips and goes bumpy and wrinkly as
the strands of connective tissue weaken and so have a harder job
holding it in place. The result is what is commonly known as cellulite.
Sexual
attractiveness is more beneficial to the young than the old. Young
adults are more likely than older people to produce live children and
supply genes to the next generation. They are also more likely to
survive to carry out their protective parental role. So individuals who
thought that young people were attractive successfully passed on their
genes; those who didn't aren't represented any more because their genes
died out. The notion of what is attractive and what is not became built
into our instincts. One could speculate that the changes that occur
with age occur to specifically mark out the elderly.
Have
your husband's genes just failed to do the normal thing? Without
wishing to cast aspersions, female warthogs find male warthogs very
attractive, so attractiveness is often in the eye of the beholder.
There are no easy ways of stopping fat redistribution with age or
we'd all be doing it. We can only presume your husband is lucky and a
tribute to natural variation.
Steve Bloom, Department of Investigative Medicine, Imperial College London, UK
