Fat Camps – Why Our Camps Are NOT Fat Camps

Determining the Effectiveness of Weight Loss Summer Camps and Weight Loss Spas

Many children and young adults in the U.S. attend “fat camps” over the summer. The goal of these programs is simple: lose weight while having fun. Most campers report weight loss resulting from a healthier diet, smaller portion sizes, and increased activity and have a positive experience at the program.

However, what differentiates quality weight loss camps from less effective weight loss camps (often called “fat camps”) is not only the facilities, food and staff, but whether the camp experience leads to long-term behavioral change. When a child is in a controlled environment for even a month or two, short-term weight loss is the easy part. Without true change, the weight will come right back in the fall.

This is why effective weight loss summer camps organize their programs around changing behavior over the long term. Sports, activities and diet are all part of an overall clinical design to teach new behaviors and habits. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is likely a core element of the clinical program. 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 after-care programs, checking in with campers and their families. Some programs even involve families towards the end of the camp experience in an attempt to change the environment to which the child is returning.

So if you’re thinking about weight loss camp this summer, think about asking 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?
4. Is counseling or behavior modification offered? 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?

Wellspring Weight Loss Camps

Wellspring Camps are the most fun, most effective and most popular summer programs for weight loss.

As at traditional weight loss or diet camps, Wellspring Campers have a fantastic time, enjoying exciting activities, losing weight, and improving confidence and self-esteem in an emotionally-safe environment.

Unlike traditional weight loss camps and fat 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 diet camp next summer, and the next, and the next, and the next. Even the New York Times has reported on this phenomenon - over half of all weight loss campers return the following summer.

At Wellspring, the Nation's leading researchers in obesity and weight loss came together to respond to the failure of traditional diet camps - and to figure out a real lasting solution to the problem. This year, over 1,000 families will chose Wellspring programs over traditional diet and weight loss camps.