- Nov 1, 2001
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Or your boyfriend's father's body....
[/QUOTE]Want to know your girlfriend's future body shape? Just look at her mother, boffins say
It is often said that if a young man wants to know what his girlfriend will look like in the future, he should look at her mother.
Now research has shown there may be more than a smidgeon of truth in the advice.
A womans body shape tends to resemble that of her mother, rather than her father.
Sylph like: Kate Hudson and mother Goldie Hawn share a body shape
The finding could help explain why Kelly Osbourne and mother Sharon have both battled with their weight.
Likewise, Princess Beatrice can perhaps blame last years unflattering bikini pictures on her mother Sarah Ferguson, whose weight has fluctuated over the years.
Actress Kate Hudson, however, can thank mother Goldie Hawn for her sylph-like figure. When University College London researchers studied more than 4,000 families, they found, perhaps not surprisingly, that overweight parents were more to likely to have overweight children.
And the bigger the parents were, the bigger their sons and daughters.
Researcher Professor Jane Wardle said: If both parents are overweight then it is twice as likely that the children will be overweight. If they are obese then it is 12 times as likely and if the parents are severely obese then it is 22 times as likely.
Princess Beatrice could blame this unflattering bikini photo on her mother Sarah Ferguson, pictured right, who has struggled with her weight in the past
But the mothers weight had the biggest influence, the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden, heard.
Mothers have a little bit more influence on a childs weight, said the professor. It could be genetically related to the mother or their diet and weight in pregnancy or that mothers just have more influence in their children.
Most of the evidence suggests it is to do with your appetite its turning off and on rather than metabolism or your choice of food.
It seems to affect how effective your stop mechanisms are when you have had enough to eat. The effect is very small but gradually you gain weight.
Most parents at first believe that it is the way they bring up a child but when they have a second they realise it is in the genes. They are struck by the differences between their children.
Other research, from Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, also found a strong link between a parents weight and that of their child, with the mother-daughter relationship particularly strong.
The son of an obese father was found to be six times more likely to be obese than the son of a normal weight father but the daughter of an obese mother was ten times more likely to be obese.
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