Children who are overweight or obese by the age of 11 are likely to carry their excess weight into adulthood and to suffer from related health problems, researchers said on May 4.
A study by scientists at University College London who tracked nearly 6,000 children in Britain over five years showed about a quarter had a weight problem when they entered secondary school.
"Children who joined the study at age 11 and were already plump did not slim down at all over the five years of follow-up," said team head Professor Jane Wardle.
The research, published online by the British Medical Journal, suggests that by the age of 11 a tendency to be overweight or obese is already set.
"It looked like obesity at 11 is already persistent obesity, so these things are being set earlier than we had previously thought," she told Reuters.