Don’t Underestimate Risk of Becoming Overweight, Study Warns

December 2005

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Odds are, even if you’re in shape now, eventually you’ll become overweight. That’s the weighty conclusion of a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers studied 4,000 white adults, ages 30 to 59, taking part in the long-term Framingham Heart Study, over a span of 30 years. They found that 90% of the men and 70% of the women either stayed overweight or put on enough pounds over that period to become overweight. More than a third either were obese—with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher—or became obese.