Research
Hormonal
Maternal obesity and high pre-pregnancy BMI increase the risk of offspring being overweight, having higher body fat, and exhibiting insulin resistance in childhood, independent of birth weight.
Maintaining a healthy weight before pregnancy is one of the most effective ways to protect your child's long-term metabolic health. If you are overweight, focus on gradual, sustainable lifestyle changes before conception to reduce the risk of your child developing obesity and insulin resistance.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
a child born to a woman with a pre-pregnancy BMI greater than 25 was 1.7 times more likely to be overweight in early childhood and twice as likely to be overweight in late childhood.
Why this rating
Supported by large meta-analyses and cohort studies (Nurses’ Health Study II).
Source
Developmental origins of metabolic diseases
Daniël J. Hoffman et al. · Physiological Reviews · 2020
DOI 10.1152/physrev.00002.2020
narrative_reviewCited 427×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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