Fat Camps – Why Wellspring is NOT a Fat Camp

While our campers do lose a remarkable amount of weight at camp (in fact, the most ever reported by any weight loss camp), Wellspring is NOT a fat camp for kids, teen diet camp, or weight loss boot camp.

Traditional "Fat Camps" for kids and teens are associated with:

• Strict food and calorie limits
• Weight loss during camp—but weight regain as soon as camp ends
• A camp culture that encourages campers to return year after year, without a focus on teaching campers to maintain weight loss on their own

Many children and young adults in the U.S. attend "fat camps". Over the summer, campers may lose weight at fat camps due to smaller portion sizes and increased activity. However, the campers do not gain any skills to continue success at home, often leading to rapid weight regain after camp ends, leaving overweight teens and young adults feeling helpless and like failures. Even the New York Times has reported on this phenomenon - over half of all fat camp attendees return the following summer.

To view an excerpt of this New York Times article by Abby Ellin, click here.

The difference between fat camps or traditional weight loss camps and EFFECTIVE weight loss camps is clear—effective weight loss camps like Wellspring offer a comprehensive approach that leads to long-term behavioral change.

This is why Wellspring weight loss camps for kids and teens focus on changing behavior over the long term rather than focusing only on short-term results, as fat camps do. Sports, activities and diet are all part of an overall clinical design to teach new behaviors and habits. Cognitive-behavioral therapy should also be a core element of the clinical program.

Simply put, Wellspring Camps are the leading fitness and weight loss camps because they’re the most fun, most effective and most popular summer programs for weight loss. In fact, Consumer’s Digest rated weight loss camps and found Wellspring's approach most effective. Click here to read Consumer's Digest article on weight loss camps.

Wellspring is a fitness and weight loss camp based on decades of scientific research. While our program is simple and sustainable, Wellspring is NOT a fat camp or diet camp or boot camp.

Unlike fat camps, weight loss boot camps, or diet camps, Wellspring Camps WORK. At old-fashioned fat camps, campers lose weight over the summer, quickly gain much or all of it back over the fall and winter, and then land right back at the same fat camp next summer—and the next, and the next, and the next. Wellspring is a fitness and weight loss camp for kids & teens based on decades of scientific research.

This year, over 1,000 families will chose Wellspring programs over traditional diet and weight loss camps.

For more information on what makes Wellspring unique, click here.

Considering a Fat Camp or Weight Loss Camp?

And because it is unlikely that a child's behavior will change completely over the course of a summer, let alone one month in the summer, weight loss camps should provide follow-up or Continuing Care programs, checking in with campers and their families. Some programs even involve families towards the end of the camp experience to teach families the most effective ways to support their camper's weight loss.

So if you’re thinking about weight loss camp this summer, ask these questions to make sure it is more than just a fat camp:

1. What was last year’s average weekly weight loss at camp?
2. What are the camp’s long-term results? What percentage of campers maintain or continue weight loss at home?
3. Who designed the weight loss program? What are their credentials? Is the program design scientifically based, or is it a diet camp or fat camp?
4. Is counseling or behavior modification offered as an integrated part of the program? By credentialed therapists?
5. If so, do the therapists work full time at the camp during the summer? Does each camper have an individual therapist assigned to him or her? Do therapists continue to work with campers after campers return home?
6. How are families involved?
7. How many campers return each year? Did they regain weight? Will new campers feel left out because of cliques from prior years?
8. How large is the Camp? Is it a manageable size where the Camp Director knows each and every camper?
9. Can we talk to several families of campers who have maintained or continued weight loss from last summer?
10. Does the camp demonstrate improvements in self-esteem and overall well-being?