Baby fat? Maybe not. According to some new research, kids who are overweight in kindergarten are four times more likely to be obese by the time they hit eighth grade.

Researchers from Emory University began their study in 1998, following kids as they entered kindergarten. Then they tracked their weight and general health for the next 10 years, until they were about ready to go into high school.

Not every child who was overweight in kindergarten was heavy in eighth grade, but about 32 percent of obese kindergarteners went on to have weight problems in middle school—far more than the 8 percent of kindergarteners with healthy weight who went on to be overweight.

“A lot of the risk of obesity may start early in life,” says lead author Solveig Cunningham, an assistant professor at Emory University. (USA Today)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.