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Researchers have found that like adults, when children are put on a weight loss program they fail to keep off the weight, and need a program that maintains their weight loss. As if you need to be told, prevention has to be better than cure in childhood obesity. And a study has reinforced that. Researchers have found that like adults, when children are put on a weight loss program, they fail to keep off the weight and need a program that maintains their weight loss. Children aged on average about nine, who were up to 100 per cent overweight and had an overweight or obese parent, were put into a family weight loss program that increased exercise, decreased television viewing, taught food monitoring skills and changed to a lower calorie diet. After five months of this, many had lost weight. They were then were randomly allocated to either a control group or one of two 16-week maintenance programm, one of which emphasised social skills and friend support while the other focussed on behavioural changes and skills oriented to eating and exercise habits and motivation. Both programs did better at weight maintenance than nothing, although children with social problems didn't do as well. Follow up at two years, though, showed things were slipping. So if you are going to put kids in a weight loss program, the questions are: when can you stop and what produces a long-lasting effect?
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