Determining the Effectiveness of Teen Weight Loss Camps
Many children and young adults in the U.S. attend weight loss camps over the summer. Sometimes known as a fat camp the goal of these programs is simple: lose weight while having fun. Most campers report significant weight loss and having had a positive experience.
However, what differentiates good teen weight loss camps from less effective teen weight loss camps is not only the quality of the facilities, the food and the staff, but whether the camp experience leads to long-term behavioral change.
If your teen is more than 30 pounds overweight and has struggled with his or her weight for more than 2 years, Wellspring Academies and Wellspring Camps offer the most effective program for long-term weight management for overweight teens.
Wellspring Academies is the first and only year-round residential program in a boarding school setting teaching overweight teens not only how to lose weight, but the skills they were need to keep their weight off in an obesogenic world!
Good teen weight loss camps, like Wellspring Camps direct their entire program at changing behavior over the long term. Sports, activities, education and clinical programs 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, a good teen weight loss camp will provide a follow-up or after-care program, checking in with kids and their families. An exceptional teen weight loss camp may try to involve families towards the end of the program experience in an attempt to change the environment into which the child is returning to. Some new teen weight loss camps are acting as feeders into residential schools, which enroll students for 6 months or longer - a length of time that is likely to allow for substantial behavioral change.
Other teen weight loss camps are more oriented towards short-term teen weight loss. Portion sizes are reduced. Diet is changed. The activity level is high. But there is effectively no overall clinical model that will effect long-term behavioral change. Frequent weighing is a hallmark of less effective programs. While weighing can be a boost to morale over the summer, it will not be a constructive habit for a child whose behavior has not otherwise changed once he or she returns home.
So if you're thinking about a teen weight loss camp this summer, think about asking the camp these questions to make sure it is more then just a fat camp:
- Do you have a clinical program? If so, how would you describe the clinical program?
- Does it engender long-term behavioral change? Is so, how?
- Who designed the clinical program?
- Who is the clinical director monitoring the effectiveness of the program?
- Can I see outcomes data? (Blinded data is fine.)
- Is there an after-care or follow up program?
- Are families involved? Is so how are families involved?
- Do you refer campers to residential school programs if they are at a high risk?
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