While the story for weight loss maintenance in adults is fairly dismal, children are much more likely to maintain their weight loss. In one comparison reviewed in “Long-term maintenance of weight loss: Current status” by Jeffery et al.  (Health Psychology 19.1:2000) it was found that only 4% of adults had kept their weight off years later, whereas 10-15% of pre-adolescent children had kept off the weight they had lost up to 10 years later. Adolescence seems to be the beginning of the closing of a window in which we are more able to significantly, and permanently change the eating behaviour and weight of younger children.