These 3 experiences from high school can predict your weight at middle age

Turns out that high school really can shape you.

New research suggests that certain teenage learning experiences can have a lasting impact on waistlines.

“There are decades of research that link the degrees people earn to long-term health and well-being, but there is an entire educational process that goes into earning those degrees that is facilitated by high schools and fostered by parents,” said lead study author Michelle Frisco, a sociology professor at Penn State University.

“To really understand why education matters for weight and other health outcomes, my colleagues and I realized that we need to take a step back and better understand how the educational process shapes health.”

The study — published recently in the journal Social Science & Medicine — identified three key high school factors linked to healthier midlife weight.

Students who attended private high schools or schools with more socioeconomic resources were more likely to maintain a healthier weight when they were middle-aged.

Frisco believes this early advantage may be due to the way these schools — and the families who pay for them — encourage healthy diet and lifestyle choices.

“Social groups influence health behaviors and lifestyles, and this process begins very early in life. It begins with families and continues in school,” Frisco said.

Taking more advanced classes during high school was also linked to better weight outcomes later in life.

Finally, students who were popular or socially adept in high school tended to have healthier weights decades later.

These associations remained significant even after accounting for factors like earning a college degree or attending selective colleges.

The effects were particularly pronounced among women — which Frisco said makes sense, given that women typically feel more pressure to be thin.

It’s notable that the researchers used data on people in their 50s, who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s — when the obesity epidemic was just beginning.

“The study sample attended high school when only 5% of students had obesity, a percentage that quadrupled over 4 decades,” the researchers wrote.

The World Health Organization officially declared obesity a global epidemic in 1997, noting that rates had nearly tripled since 1975 — which is when experts believe the epidemic began.

The persistence of the obesity crisis has many experts pointing the finger at lifestyle factors such as the increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods and a decrease in physical activity.

This new study indicates that — when it comes to having a healthy BMI — the correct “programming” has to begin early on.

“Studies like ours are important for thinking about how school programs and policies can help improve long-term health and well-being,” Frisco said.