It has previously been shown television is linked to weight gain as children are less active and eat while watching.
Researchers at New Zealand's University of Otago looked at how much TV children aged five to 15 watched.
The International Journal of Obesity study found the 41% who were overweight or obese by the age of 26 were those who had watched most TV.
Sensibly limiting hours of TV watching would be a good start
Dr Ian Campbell, National Obesity Forum
A study by the same team published last year suggested children should watch no more than two hours of TV a day to protect their future health.
They warned then that adults who had watched a lot of TV as children were more likely to go on to be overweight, to smoke and to have high cholesterol.
Situation 'worse now'
In this latest paper, they monitored TV watching and body mass index - calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres.
A BMI of 25 or over is......
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