"While the findings offer clues to how obesity prevention efforts might target certain time points in a person's life, they also underscore the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for life, Dr. Mary Beth Terry of Columbia University in New York City told Reuters Health."

"Terry and her team studied a group of 261 women born between 1959 and 1965 with an eye toward figuring out which factors would independently predict their risk of obesity at age 20 and at age 40. "

"They found that the amount of weight a woman's mother gained during pregnancy influenced her risk of being overweight at age 20, with every 10-pound increase in weight gain associated with a 65 percent greater likelihood of being overweight. "

"But maternal pregnancy weight gain had no effect on whether or not a woman would be overweight at age 40, suggesting that current environmental factors had a greater influence."

"Mom's body mass index, as well as her own birth weight, also influenced the likelihood that the daughter would be overweight at age 20, but not at age 40. "

"Rapid weight gain between one and seven years of age was the only factor to influence obesity risk at both time points."

"Given that people today are heavier than they were four decades ago, and that women tend to gain more weight during pregnancy (averaging 30.5 pounds in 2003, compared to 22 pounds in the early 1960s), "these trends all point to dramatic long-term consequences for the prevalence of overweight in adulthood," Terry and her team note."

"Nevertheless, she added in an interview, the findings should not be interpreted as discouraging women from gaining enough weight during pregnancy. "Having a healthy weight gain and having a healthy size baby at birth is very important for reducing
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