diff --git a/Modules/zlibmodule.c b/Modules/zlibmodule.c
index 4f78dbc..0cb1e64 100644
--- a/Modules/zlibmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/zlibmodule.c
@@ -392,7 +392,8 @@
 static PyObject *
 PyZlib_objcompress(compobject *self, PyObject *args)
 {
-    int err, inplen, length = DEFAULTALLOC;
+    int err, inplen;
+    Py_ssize_t length = DEFAULTALLOC;
     PyObject *RetVal;
     Byte *input;
     unsigned long start_total_out;
@@ -461,8 +462,8 @@
 static PyObject *
 PyZlib_objdecompress(compobject *self, PyObject *args)
 {
-    int err, inplen, old_length, length = DEFAULTALLOC;
-    int max_length = 0;
+    int err, inplen, max_length = 0;
+    Py_ssize_t old_length, length = DEFAULTALLOC;
     PyObject *RetVal;
     Byte *input;
     unsigned long start_total_out;