Children mirror the weight gain and losses of their mothers but not their fathers, a study has found.

A team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim looked at activity levels of 4,400 children and their parents over 11 years to discover if there was a link in their weights.

They found that if a mother lost weight, their children followed suit.

Doctoral student Marit Næss said: “Parents have a major impact on their children's health and lifestyle. Behaviours that lead to obesity are easily transferred from parent to child.

"Mothers whose activity levels drop as their children are growing up are linked to children with higher BMI in adolescence.”

But the researchers found no significant link between a child’s weight and a father shedding or piling on the pounds.

The researchers believe the disparity is due to mothers primarily being responsible for planning activities, and making food choices.

The team found that mothers whose activity levels dropped as their children were growing up had teenagers with bigger BMIs than those who had stayed a healthy weight. But when fathers changed their activity levels it made not difference.