Why Are Daughters Outweighing Their Mothers?

If you want to know what a young woman will look like someday, look at her mother. Guys have heard that advice for years. After babies and aging, young women end up resembling mom, right? But it's just the opposite over at "The Biggest Loser" this season. For each of the four mother/daughter teams, the twenty-something daughters started the show weighing 20 pounds or more than their mothers. The trend, however, is not only seen on NBC's hit show, researchers say it is happening all over America.

That's Fit spoke with Season 7's Kristin Steede and Cathy Skel for their insights because they've lived it. At the start of Season 7, 28-year-old Kristin weighed 360 pounds and her 48-year-old mother, Cathy, weighed 293. Both Kristin and Cathy agreed they've seen this trend among families they know. In their own household before Biggest Loser, family happiness revolved around bad eating habits and co-dependent dieting. "We were each other's worst enemy, yet we were trying to help each other. We'd sabotage each other," said Cathy. They'd join Weight Watchers or the gym together, but if one would want a dessert, the other would have one, too. When they'd need a seat extender or go up a pants size, they'd hurt inside, but make a joke on the outside. "In a way it was a point of denial," said Cathy.

Kristin points to a society that supports obesity. "Think of how different food is today, versus 30 or 40 or 50 years ago," she said. "When she [my mom] was younger, they never made plus-sized clothes. If you couldn't fit in the jeans off the rack, you were in a moo-moo or homemade clothes. Our society has been so accommodating to the overweight." Cathy said pace of life and convenience foods have the younger generation putting on weight quicker.

Obesity researchers have coined the term obesigenic to explain how society is the real saboteur of our nation's former, thinner selves. "Think about the environment a young woman in her 20s has grown up in versus someone in their 40s and 50s," said Anthony Fabricatore, weight loss expert and assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, "the availability of food, food advertising, portion sizes. I think it's easy to see how the younger person ends up heavier than her mother." Morbid obesity data is revealing, as well. According to Fabricatore, the prevalence of obesity doubled from the mid-1980s to 2000. However, it increased five-fold in the heaviest category -- people with a BMI over 50.

Talking about weight is uncomfortable for doctors, too. Kristin doesn't remember a doctor seriously talking to her about her weight, she was the one who would bring it up. Kristin's larger size also shielded Cathy from realizing how large she was. At the ranch, she had to learn to lose the weight for herself, not her daughter.

The role a parent plays in childhood obesity is definitely on Kristin's mind -- after losing over 100 pounds on the Biggest Loser, she's thrilled to be pregnant -- one major goal she had in losing the weight. She believes ignorance and economics impact a parent's lack of responsibility. "I do believe people are just so uneducated and oblivious, and they don't realize that what they're doing is harming their children," said Kristen,"and it's easier and less expensive to eat unhealthy." However, while she was overweight as a child, morbid obesity didn't arrive until Kristin's 20s. "I was living out on my own with my boyfriend, just eating bad," said Kristin. Those twentysomething years are dangerous if healthy habits are not instilled at a young age. Baby Steede will be doted on by a healthy mom and grandma.

Remember, if obesity is a societal and family affair, so is losing weight. Kristin and Cathy are maintaining weights in the lower 200s and influencing everyone around them. Cathy's parents and sister are living healthier and the family was blown away at all the holiday leftovers. "We just don't [over]eat as a family like we used to," said Cathy. She's off her blood pressure medications, just turned 50 and hasn't felt so good in years. This spring is another half-marathon.

Mom and daughter aren't nearly 70 pounds apart anymore, either. Check out the real truth about genes and obesity, then get moving.