The importance of physical activity & fitness in maintaining a healthy weight from childhood into adulthood

Little is known about whether the physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness levels of healthy weight children who successfully maintain a healthy weight into adulthood are different to those healthy weight children who become overweight as adults. A better understanding of these factors may provide useful insights for obesity prevention strategies, which have had limited success to date. This is of concern because overweight and obesity is increasing in prevalence in Australia and internationally in both children and adults. This prospective cohort study therefore aimed to examine the role of physical activity and fitness in healthy weight maintenance from childhood into adulthood. Subjects were 2,053 Australian adults examined at age 26-36 years in 2004-5, who were first examined as 7-15 year olds in 1985 as part of a national survey of the health and fitness of Australian children. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated at both time-points from measured weight and height (kg/m²); healthy weight was defined as a BMI less than internationally accepted cutpoints for overweight in children, and as a BMI