New Zealand has a long way to go in addressing its major obesity problem, but there's optimism for the upcoming generation of youth. 

Alarming figures show a 16-year-old is among hundreds of Aucklanders who've had bariatric weight-loss surgery. 

But Starship Hospital paediatric endocrinologist Wayne Cutfield says over the last 7 to 8 years, pre-school obesity rates have fallen. 

He told Tim Dower New Zealand is the only country where that's the case across all ethnic groups and the social-economic divide.  

But on the flipside, obesity rates older children and teenagers haven't dropped.   

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