by Meredith St John
Summer camp season is upon us. Canoeing, campfires, and singing are all part of traditional camp lore, where leaving mom and dad for a few weeks helps children gain independence, develop new skills, and forge new friendships.
There has been a growing movement towards more specialized summer camps. From languages and performance art, to computers and SAT prep, there seems to be a camp to suit everyone’s needs.
With increasing rates of childhood obesity, weight loss camps have become particularly popular. Such camps were immortalized in the 1995 film Heavyweights, and more recently in the MTV documentary Fat Camp.
While there are a variety of weight loss summer camps to choose from both in the U.S. and abroad, Wellspring Camps are an industry leader. Wellspring Camps have garnered national media attention for their scientific approach to weight management and dietary intake. “Amazingly fun and remarkably effective,” they advertise. Effective indeed. Most children and adolescents have achieved their weight loss goals at Wellspring, and 70 percent maintain or continue losing weight at home.
Wellspring President, Ryan D. Craig, met with leading obesity researchers and clinicians when creating this program in 2004, including Rudd Center Director Kelly Brownell, PhD. Wellspring summer camps are offered in 14 different locations, but they all use the same multi-prong cognitive behavioral approach. “Obesity is such a complex issue, it needs to be addressed comprehensively,” Craig said. “Unless you address the diet, the behavior, the activity, fundamentally, you won’t make any lasting changes.”
Children and adolescents who attend Wellspring Camps learn how to control their own dietary intake and self-monitor physical activity levels. The focus is behavior change that will lead to the adoption of long-term healthy lifestyle habits, not short-term rapid weight loss.
During a typical day at Wellspring, campers will track food intake in a journal, participate in a various activities like hiking, swimming, yoga, and tennis, and learn culinary skills. Part of the Wellspring program involves cognitive behavioral therapy sessions led by professional clinicians. This interaction with behavioral coaches helps campers with goal-setting, stress management, body-image, and self-esteem.
We know that weight bias is amplified in the high school setting, and many overweight and obese teenagers experience serious psychosocial issues. The cognitive behavioral therapy sessions and camp’s supportive environment seem to attenuate some of these problems. Carmen, a 17-year-old who attended Wellspring Academy, the residential program offered throughout the school year, engaged in self-mutilation and had suicidal thoughts before her mother sent her to Wellspring. I read about Carmen in an article last year where she described how her weight was a source of extreme distress in her life. Carmen was honest about the Wellspring program, saying how hard it was at times. “I did do my best, but I had setbacks,” she said. Carmen’s weight has fluctuated since leaving Wellspring, but she is determined to live a healthier lifestyle and now has the skills to do so.
Carmen’s story is not all that unique. Jule, another Wellspring Academy student, lost 130 pounds during her stay. The weight loss was symptomatic of a greater change that Jule articulated best: “It’s not just the outside I’m proud of. I’m a totally different person on the inside.”
It’s nice to see that weight loss camps with a comprehensive approach, like Wellspring, have been able to create positive change, not solely through weight loss, but in helping children and adolescents feel good about themselves.
At the Rudd Center we work to stop weight bias and discrimination, a serious problem in our society, especially among youth. Weight stigmatization has a major impact on our psychological, physical, and social health. When we feel good about ourselves we’re better equipped to deal with a world that can at times seem unforgiving.
Some say we learn life’s most important lessons at summer camp. I couldn’t agree more.
by Meredith St John
There has been a growing movement towards more specialized summer camps. From languages and performance art, to computers and SAT prep, there seems to be a camp to suit everyone’s needs.
With increasing rates of childhood obesity, weight loss camps have become particularly popular. Such camps were immortalized in the 1995 film Heavyweights, and more recently in the MTV documentary Fat Camp.
While there are a variety of weight loss summer camps to choose from both in the U.S. and abroad, Wellspring Camps are an industry leader. Wellspring Camps have garnered national media attention for their scientific approach to weight management and dietary intake. “Amazingly fun and remarkably effective,” they advertise. Effective indeed. Most children and adolescents have achieved their weight loss goals at Wellspring, and 70 percent maintain or continue losing weight at home.
Wellspring President, Ryan D. Craig, met with leading obesity researchers and clinicians when creating this program in 2004, including Rudd Center Director Kelly Brownell, PhD. Wellspring summer camps are offered in 14 different locations, but they all use the same multi-prong cognitive behavioral approach. “Obesity is such a complex issue, it needs to be addressed comprehensively,” Craig said. “Unless you address the diet, the behavior, the activity, fundamentally, you won’t make any lasting changes.”
Children and adolescents who attend Wellspring Camps learn how to control their own dietary intake and self-monitor physical activity levels. The focus is behavior change that will lead to the adoption of long-term healthy lifestyle habits, not short-term rapid weight loss.
During a typical day at Wellspring, campers will track food intake in a journal, participate in a various activities like hiking, swimming, yoga, and tennis, and learn culinary skills. Part of the Wellspring program involves cognitive behavioral therapy sessions led by professional clinicians. This interaction with behavioral coaches helps campers with goal-setting, stress management, body-image, and self-esteem.
We know that weight bias is amplified in the high school setting, and many overweight and obese teenagers experience serious psychosocial issues. The cognitive behavioral therapy sessions and camp’s supportive environment seem to attenuate some of these problems. Carmen, a 17-year-old who attended Wellspring Academy, the residential program offered throughout the school year, engaged in self-mutilation and had suicidal thoughts before her mother sent her to Wellspring. I read about Carmen in an article last year where she described how her weight was a source of extreme distress in her life. Carmen was honest about the Wellspring program, saying how hard it was at times. “I did do my best, but I had setbacks,” she said. Carmen’s weight has fluctuated since leaving Wellspring, but she is determined to live a healthier lifestyle and now has the skills to do so.
Carmen’s story is not all that unique. Jule, another Wellspring Academy student, lost 130 pounds during her stay. The weight loss was symptomatic of a greater change that Jule articulated best: “It’s not just the outside I’m proud of. I’m a totally different person on the inside.”
It’s nice to see that weight loss camps with a comprehensive approach, like Wellspring, have been able to create positive change, not solely through weight loss, but in helping children and adolescents feel good about themselves.
At the Rudd Center we work to stop weight bias and discrimination, a serious problem in our society, especially among youth. Weight stigmatization has a major impact on our psychological, physical, and social health. When we feel good about ourselves we’re better equipped to deal with a world that can at times seem unforgiving.
Some say we learn life’s most important lessons at summer camp. I couldn’t agree more.