Loveable foods that love you back
Campers love the food at Wellspring! Wellspring's low-fat, low calorie-density diet is simple to understand and easy to sustain long after camp ends. For most people, much of the excess fat consumed every day comes from preparing foods in unhealthy ways. So at Wellspring, campers learn how to cook, order, and identify food that is nutritious, delicious, and low in fat. Campers learn that they can eat food that is familiar and full of flavor—such as pizza, chicken nuggets, and brownies—and still become effective long-term weight controllers.
What Will I Eat at Wellspring?
Daily menus include three delicious meals and two healthy snacks and have been developed by registered dietitians using beloved low-fat recipes. No typical "diet food" here for the simple reason that we can't expect campers to change their lifestyle permanently unless the food we're serving is at least as appealing as the food they're used to eating.
The food plan we follow at camp is exactly the same as that followed at our weight loss boarding schools, where students are satisfied and active year-round. In other words, the diet at Wellspring is sustainable and kid-friendly. We also train families how to adapt their home kitchen to the Wellspring way of cooking and eating during the nutrition and culinary portions of our Family Workshops.
A typical day of controlled foods will include 1,200 calories, 10 g of fat, 50 g of protein, and 30 g of fiber. Unlimited access to uncontrolled foods will add to these totals - often significantly. At Wellspring, there is no caloric goal. If campers are hungry, they will have as much uncontrolled food as they like, until they are satisfied. All we ask is that they self-monitor everything, so that it can be processed and discussed with their Behavioral Coach.
Weight Loss Without Hunger
Wellspring allows campers to significantly cut calories and reduce fat without feeling deprived. Last summer we had exactly zero complaints about hunger, which is consistent with our research demonstrating that campers are not reporting any significant hunger. This is due to the fact that the low-fat diet at Wellspring programs is so satisfying, and also because we allow campers an unlimited amount of "uncontrolled" foods, such as soups, fresh fruit and salad, as well as items such as fat-free yogurts, fat-free tuna salad, fat-free egg salad, and fat-free cottage cheese.
To see more pictures of the food at Wellspring, click here.
