​White and African American lesbians or bisexual women are more at risk of being overweight than heterosexual women, according to this analysis of sexual orientation, weight and race/ethnicity, in the American Journal of Public Health. Using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a research team from the Boston University School of Public Health found that these sexual minority women tended to be overweight at 18 and retain that weight in adulthood, when compared to heterosexual women of the same race and ethnicity. Strategies to reverse this trend are stymied by the almost total lack of research on how race and sexual orientation interact to influence weight gain, the authors note.

In contrast, sexual minority men were found to be able to maintain a healthy weight at greater percentages than the general population, something that – in a society where a majority of Americans, regardless of sexual identity, are overweight – merits further study "to provide information for weight-reducing interventions or healthy lifestyle campaigns focused on all men," according to the authors.

Data from the 2001-2007 California Health Interview Surveys were used in this study.