A study finds that women gaining 1.74 kg per year in early 20’s can make them overweight or obese in 40s.

The results suggest that the women, who gained 0.19 kg/year remained healthy weight, 0.84 kg/year became overweight and 1.74 kg/year became obese.The research, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Porto, Portugal, showed that the rates of weight gain are established by the time women are 18-23 years old.The study, by Professor Wendy Brown from the University of Queensland, Brisbane in Australia, also found that women, who are divorced, separated or widowed and smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day are most at risk of becoming overweight or obese.

They analysed 4881 women with healthy BMI at baseline and those, who subsequently remained a healthy weight, or became overweight or obese at 16-year follow-up between 1996 and 2012.The data showed that 59.4 percent remained in the healthy BMI category, 29.0 percent transitioned to overweight and 11.6 percent became obese.The women who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day were 36 percent less likely to maintain a healthy weight than those who never smoked and those who used oral contraceptives were 11 percent less likely to maintain a healthy weight than those that did not.