Dr. Goutham Rao, clinical director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh said, I wasn't especially surprised by the study's findings. Other research has also shown that weight during adolescence is very predictive of weight in adulthood. He said habits do not change. If you have a 3-year-old, it ™s relatively easy to influence that child's eating habits because you provide all the food. With adolescents, it's much more complicated because they ™re often making their own food and drink choices and their habits are more entrenched, he added. He said an important way to curb obesity is to limit junk food. It is also important to try to have at least one parent eat dinner with your teenager most days of the week he added.

Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital Boston also commended the findings saying, This underscores the importance of addressing childhood obesity as an urgent issue and not a condition that kids can be expected to grow out of.

The, the study co-authors were Chirayath Suchindran, professor of biostatistics, Kari North, associate professor of epidemiology, and Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition, all of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.