BALTIMORE, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The more U.S. adolescents participate in physical education at school the more likely they will maintain a normal weight as young adults, a study found.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore found that each weekday of physical education at school decreased the odds of being an overweight adult by 5 percent. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found participation in all five days of physical education decreased the odds of being an overweight adult by 28 percent.

Senior author Dr. Robert Blum studied studied 3,345 teens in grades 8 through 12 who took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The researchers tracked the participants five years after leaving school.

The likelihood of being an overweight adult was most reduced among teens who participated in wheel-related extracurricular activities, such as in-line skating, biking or skate-boarding more than four times per week.

"While physical education was not a good weight-loss mechanism over time, it appears to have a positive impact in helping teenagers maintain a healthy weight into young adulthood," Blum said in a statement.