Children reflect weight gain and loss of their mother but not of their father

COne study found that children reflect weight gain and losses of their mother but not of their father.

A team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim examined the activity level of 4,400 children and their parents for 11 years to determine if there was a link between their weight.

They found that if a mother lost weight, their children would do the same.

Marit Næss, PhD student, said, "Parents have a major impact on the health and lifestyle of their children. Behaviors that lead to obesity are easily transferred from parent to child.

"Mothers whose level of activity decreases as their children get older are associated with children with higher BMI in adolescence."

But the researchers found no significant link between the weight of a child and that of a father who lost or accumulated extra pounds.

Researchers believe this disparity is due to the fact that mothers are primarily responsible for planning activities and choosing foods.

The team found that mothers whose activity level decreased as their children grew up had teenagers with a higher BMI than those who had maintained a healthy body weight. But when fathers have changed their activity levels, this has not changed.