New research suggests that adults who were overweight during their teenage years are more likely to have type 2 diabetes. “Overall, elevated BMI at adolescence, including values within the currently accepted ‘normal’ range, strongly increase risk of diabetes mortality later in life,” explained Hagai Levine, one of the study’s leaders. In analyzing long-term data of more than 2 million people, researchers found that adults who had a BMI of 22.4 or higher as teenagers, were more likely to die from diabetes–and the higher their BMI as a teenager, the greater their risk as an adult. A member of Duke University’s Clinical Research Institute, Ashley Skinner, who was not involved with the study, pointed out a potential limitation: “It’s possible that obesity as a teen itself is not the problem, but rather that teens with obesity are more likely to become adults with obesity.