There are many problems faced for young people who are obese, not only physical health but also psychological, the importance of a healthy diet early on can mean that you face less of a risk of developing other health problems when you are older.  New research has found that men who are obese by the age of 20 have double of the risk of dying prematurely, which is a worrying prognosis for young people in the UK because a third of them aged five to 13 are already considered obese.

The study that was presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm followed more than 5,000 military conscripts starting at the age of 20 until up to the age of 80, here they found that at any given age, an obese man was twice as likely to die as a man who was not obese and that being overweight aged 20 had a constant effect on death up to 60 years later. They also noted that the chance of dying early increased by 10 per cent for each BMI point above the threshold for a healthy weight.

The study found that on obese participants died eight years earlier than those of normal weight, Esther Zimmermann, of Copenhagen University Hospital, who was the study leader said: ‘As the obesity epidemic is still progressing rapidly, especially among children and adolescents, it is important to find out if obesity in early adulthood has lifelong mortality effects. ‘It is the first study with such a long follow-up time and thus the first study to investigate the lifelong effect.”

For the study, mortality rates of a sample of 1,930 obese male military conscripts were compared with a random sample of 3,601 non-obese male conscripts, researchers measured body mass index (BMI) of, 35 and 46 years, and investigated that in relation to death in the next follow-up period. During the follow-up period of up to 60 years a total of 1,191 men had died, the results were also adjusted to eliminate any influence on the findings from year of birth, education and smoking.

The researchers said ‘it was unclear whether being obese at age 20 conferred the men’s increased death risk or whether the lifelong effect was due to obesity often being a lifelong condition.’  However the study did show that either way the majority of obese 20-year-olds struggled to lose weight as they got older. Dr Zimmermann said: ‘More than 70 per cent of the obese young men were still obese at the follow-up examinations, whereas only four per cent of the men in comparison group developed obesity during follow-up.’