Too much weight before and during pregnancy can have serious health consequences not only for the mother, but for her child’s health for many years, new research shows.

“While it’s pretty well-known a healthy weight is crucial to a healthy and long life, new research is showing that if a woman is overweight while pregnant, her baby is more likely to be overweight,” said Alan R. Fleischman, M.D., March of Dimes medical director. These health risks continue into childhood, with a higher risk of developing insulin resistance, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, all of which can lead to heart disease and diabetes.

The American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) does not support the concept that state intervention to remove a child from his or her home is the proper way to address life threatening cases of childhood obesity. Comprised of physicians involved in the frontline clinical treatment of obesity, the ASBP believes that in most cases this type of state intervention is extreme and unjustified.

With approximately one out of three children in America considered overweight or obese, it is clear that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Since the CDC began tracking childhood obesity data in the mid 1970s, and despite millions of dollars spent on various campaigns and research efforts, childhood obesity rates have continued to rise. ASBP does not attribute this dramatic increase solely to poor parenting.

Losing weight is perhaps the most desired experience people are looking for and is the reason why there are so many diets, diet plans and programs, pills, surgical options, and products available to achieve the dream of getting rid of the fat. Yet they fall way short with an estimated 95 percent of weight loss attempts failing.

We need to understand this about the human body. That for most of the time during its evolution food was scarce and as a result our bodies have become very efficient. Unused muscle tissue shrinks, unloaded bones lose density, thickness and strength. Unused tendons that hold things together lose strength and tear more easily. Unused brain neurons and nerves degenerate and die and red blood cell count goes down if oxygen demand is low.