Weight loss camps, sometimes called fat camps, feature activities combined with counseling to help overweight teens learn how to achieve a healthy weight. However, for overweight teens, fat camps can have mixed success. The quality of a weight loss camp will make a difference not only in how much weight loss you experience, but whether or not that weight loss in permanent. It is important to choose a summer camp that has not only an effective approach to weight loss, but teaches a love for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Fat camps simply offer a strict menu, dieting information, and exercise. These fat camps will put all campers on the same strict diet without considering the individual teen or child. Some of these fat camps are simply summer camps where food is controlled. If your goal is long-term behavioral change and permanent healthy eating habits, you should instead choose a weight loss camp that focuses on educating participants about nutrition, teaches you why simply going on any diet doesn't work, and engenders a love for an active lfe that incorporates exercise and fitness.
Whether you are a parent looking for a weight loss camp for your teen, or a teen who has decided a summer weight loss camp will work for you, it is important to ask questions and make sure this experience will be fun, informative, and that it will keep working for you long after you have left the weight loss camp.
Overweight teens are particularly sensitive to the social stigma associated with being overweight. A good weight loss summer camp will address self-esteem and rebuilding your self-image to help the teen stay motivated to maintain weight loss. A good weight loss camp serves delicious and nutritious foods that will be easy to continue eating after the child leaves the weight loss camp. The fat camps of yesterday are not what you want - you want a fun and effective camp based on sound science and psychological principles.
The Importance of Physical Activity and Exercise: The Surgeon General of the United States has made the following recommendations for young people. All adolescents should be physically active daily, or nearly every day, as part of play, games, sports, work, transportation, recreation, physical education, or planned exercise, in the context of family, school, and community activities. Adolescents should engage in three or more sessions per week of activities that last 20 minutes or more at a time and that require moderate to vigorous levels of exertion.