Epidemiological studies indicate that the impact of body composition on health starts early in life.
The association between body mass and mortality in more than 100,000 U.S. women 30 to 55 years of age was evaluated. The lowest mortality rate was observed among women who weighed at least 15 percent less than the U.S. average for women of similar age and among those whose weight had been stable since early adulthood1.
In a separate study, it was found that being overweight in adolescence predicted a broad range of adverse health effects that were independent of adult weight after 55 years of follow-up2.
