A new study reports many overweight moms and children think they're slimmer than they actually are, according to researchers at Columbia University Medical Center.

Separate groups of over a hundred women and a hundred children in New York were asked a series of questions about their age, income and body size. Their height and weight were measured. About 80% of participants were Hispanic. The rest were black, Asian or white, according to USA Today.

Findings reported at a recent American Heart Association meeting in Atlanta concluded:

•66% of the moms were overweight or obese, and 39% of kids were too heavy. Both numbers are close to the national trend.

•Most obese women (82%) underestimated their weight when looking at the silhouettes; 42.5% of overweight women did the same. About 13% of normal-weight women thought of themselves as thinner than they were.

•Most overweight or obese children (86%) underestimated their weight, compared with 15% of normal-weight kids.

•47.5% of moms with overweight or obese children thought their kids were at a healthy weight.

•41% of the children thought their moms should lose weight.

"Parents come in and say that their child is too thin, but on the growth charts, he's a normal weight or even slightly overweight," she says. "There are so many overweight children out there that a normal-weight child looks thin. The norm has become overweight," says Pediatrician Claire McCarthy of Children's Hospital Boston.

Continue reading the full story on USA Today.com.