Mother's weight predicts adult obesity better than birth weight

Weight of mothers before pregnancy largely explains the association between birth weight of babies and their body mass index as adults and may be a more important risk factor than birth weight for obesity in childhood. Also, the risk of obesity in adulthood among boys who grow rapidly is similar for higher and lower birth weights. Parsons and colleagues (p 1331) measured the body mass index in a 1958 British cohort at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, and 33 years. They found that when patterns of prenatal and postnatal growth were considered together, boys with a low weight at birth but who subsequently had rapid linear growth had a similar risk of obesity in adulthood as boys with a heavier birth weight.

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Relevant Article

Fetal and early life growth and body mass index from birth to early adulthood in 1958 British cohort: longitudinal study

Tessa J Parsons, Chris Power, and Orly Manor
BMJ 2001 323: 1331-1335. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]