Childhood overweight does not lead on to adult fatness

A long term follow up study has thrown doubt on the assumption that fat children become fat adults. Wright and colleagues (p 1280) followed up 412 members of a 1947 birth cohort until the age of 50. Although children with high body mass index aged 9 were more likely to have high body mass index as adults, they did not have higher percentage body fat. This suggests that it may be build that tracks to adulthood rather than obesity. Teenagers with a high body mass index at 13 were twice as likely to have a high body mass index as adults but did not have higher risk factors for disease. For every level of adult fatness, those thinnest in childhood tended to have the highest risk. Being a thin child and obese adult seems to be the worst combination.

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Relevant Article

Implications of childhood obesity for adult health: findings from thousand families cohort study

Charlotte M Wright, Louise Parker, Douglas Lamont, and Alan W Craft
BMJ 2001 323: 1280-1284. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]