Individuals who are obese by the age of 25 have an increased risk of even more serious weight problems over the next 35 years.
Researchers looked at the link between BMI at the age of 25 and obesity later in life, an Elsevier Health Sciences news release reported. People who were obese at that age had a higher chance of struggling with even more severe obesity down the road.
The team determined current weight was a better indicator than obesity duration in determining metabolic or cardiovascular risk.
The data suggest men who were obese by the age of 25 had a 23.1 percent probability of reaching class III obesity (a BMI over 40) after the age of 35. Men of a normal weight at the age of 25 had only a 1.1 percent risk of stage III obesity after the age of 25. For obese 25 year-old women the risk of class III obesity later in life was 46.9 percent compared with 4.8 percent in those of a normal weight.
"The current findings suggest that the biological risks of longer-term obesity are primarily due to the risk of more severe obesity later in life among those obese early in life, rather than the impact of long-term obesity per se," study lead author Jennifer B. Dowd, PhD, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, Hunter College, said in the news release. "This is good news in some respects, as overweight and obese young adults who can prevent additional weight gain can expect their biological risk factors to be no worse than those who reach the same level of BMI later in life."
Long term obesity can lead to health problems such as such as "hypertension, inflammation, and diabetes," the news release reported.
"This study adds to growing evidence that in terms of traditional cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic risk, obesity duration confers little additional risk beyond the current level of attained weight," Dowd said. "The bad news, in turn, is that maintaining a stable level of obesity from a young age is not the norm, and being obese at age 25 years places individuals at risk of a much more severe level of obesity later in life compared to those who are normal weight at age 25 years."
