Weight gain in certain decade of life may be more dangerous, study suggests

Weight management is often treated as a "middle-age" problem, but new research suggests that the pounds you pack on in your 20s may be the most dangerous of your life.

The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, analyzed data from the Obesity and Disease Development Sweden project.

"The most consistent finding is that weight gain at a younger age is linked to a higher risk of premature death later in life, compared with people who gain less weight," Tanja Stocks, a professor at Lund University and one of the researchers behind the study, said in a press release.

Weight gain later in adulthood, between ages 30 and 60, was also linked to higher death rates, but the connections were generally weaker.

"One possible explanation for why people with early obesity onset are at greater risk is their longer period exposed to the biological effects of excess weight," Huyen Le, a doctoral student at Lund University and first author of the study, said in the release.

To reach these conclusions, researchers tracked participants' weight paths across adulthood over more than 50 years, focusing on three specific windows: ages 17 to 29, 30 to 44, and 45 to 60.

Using a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher to define obesity, the team compared weight data against Sweden's national death registry.

"We shouldn't get too hung up on exact risk figures," Stocks said.

Because the study was conducted in Sweden, more research is needed to understand the effect of early-onset obesity in other populations, the team noted.