A Japanese research team led by Tohoku University has found that babies conceived during the winter months are less susceptible to weight gain when they become adults.

The team hopes that its finding will lead to the establishment of a new method to prevent lifestyle-related diseases.

The finding was published in an online edition of the international magazine Nature Metabolism on Tuesday.

The body has white fat, which stores energy, and brown fat, which consumes energy to produce heat. Brown fat gets active when body temperatures fall, encouraging the body to burn fat.

For its research, the team analyzed the brown fat of 356 men between the ages of 18 and 29 who were sorted into groups depending on when they were conceived.

It found that brown fat was more active among those conceived during the colder months than those conceived during the warmer months.

Breaking down data on where their mothers lived and how the weather was at the time, the team also found that the activation of brown fat was associated with cooler outside temperatures before the fertilization and a larger daily temperature difference.

The team also conducted another study involving 286 men and women between the ages of 20 and 78.

In the study, the team discovered that brown fat tended to be more active among those conceived during the colder months and that such people tended to have lower body mass index scores and less visceral fat.

"This appears to be an adaptive response for survival in cold areas," Takeshi Yoneshiro, associate professor at Tohoku University, said. "(Our finding) may be useful in preventing obesity."