4beans4me
Thu, Aug-11-05, 22:22
Teens struggle daily with weight-loss at camp
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzNTkmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3NDMyNDEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
By ALINE MENDELSOHN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
LAKE WALES, Fla. - The taunting started in first grade.
Flabby Abby, Abby the cow, the other kids would call her. Abby Lewis told her mother she wanted to go to school in China, because it was the farthest place from Florida she could imagine.
Instead of China, Abby, now 16, ended up going to boarding school in Massachusetts and spending summers at a weight-loss camp in Lake Wales, Fla.
Abby, who lives near Naples, Fla., has attended the camp for eight years. She has not managed to maintain her weight loss. But Cindy Lewis says her daughter did maintain something else: friends she has known for years.
These days, shedding pounds is only one aspect of weight-loss camps for youths. Friendships play a key role in the camp experience, directors say.
"A lot of these kids don't have much of a social life at home, and (the social environment) is as important, if not more so, than the weight loss itself," says Tony Sparber, founder of New Image Weight Loss Camps.
For about $1,000 a week, New Image offers a controlled environment for boys and girls ages 7-18 at camps in Florida, Pennsylvania and California. Kids can stay up to seven weeks.
Camp Vanguard, New Image's branch in Lake Wales, attracts youths from throughout the nation and a few from other countries. Each year, the camp hosts dozens of repeat customers - some who hope to sustain their weight loss, others who want to start over completely, and still others who are there simply to be with their friends.
During a cooking class on a recent Thursday, teenage campers are learning to bake low-fat chocolate-chip cookies. At the end of the class, each camper is awarded one small cookie.
"Can I have another one?" a girl asks.
"No," the nutritionist says.
At home, many campers overeat because no one is around to tell them "no."
Here, they have no choice.
A look around the camp reveals a varied group. Some are obese and risk developing diabetes; others are here to shed some vanity pounds. A few don't seem to belong here at all, such as a 12-year-old girl who says her father sent her to camp to pare down to 93 pounds.
Although weight-loss camps were once associated with the morbidly obese, that is no longer the case. Reports of the childhood obesity epidemic have spurred more parents to send even slightly chubby kids to camp before their weight spirals out of control, Sparber says.
Some parents send their kids here with unrealistic expectations, says Maxine Spadaro, director of the Lake Wales camp. Her goal is to teach kids eating and exercise habits that can be integrated into their lives back home.
Most of the kids are overweight because they exercise too little and eat too much.
Why they overeat can be complicated. For some, it's tough to avoid school-lunch temptations, such as pizza and fries. Others eat to cope with depression, their parents' divorce, loneliness or stress.
Isabel Jimenez of Orlando, Fla., doesn't fit the profile of a lonely couch potato.
Isabel, 15, has a dizzying schedule: In addition to Advanced Placement courses, she's on six sports teams and often stays up studying until 2 a.m. Stress contributes to her overeating, she says. And she has grown up on a traditional Puerto Rican diet of rich and fried foods.
At camp last year, Isabel lost 27 pounds. She gained 10 back and returned this summer - using her own money - to lose more weight and spend time with her camp friends.
She is dropping pounds because of the camp's regimented schedule.
The kids rise at 7:45, eat three meals and two snacks at set times, and spend hours a day in physical activities, such as basketball, swimming, weightlifting and yoga classes. It's a drastic change for kids used to channel surfing and grazing from the refrigerator.
Portion-controlled meals add up to 1,600-1,800 calories a day.
When they return home, Spadaro says, about 50 percent of the kids maintain their weight loss. Their success depends largely on their home environment.
Kim Young of Clearwater, Fla., lost 16 pounds last year and 12 more this year. Kim, 15, kept the weight off with the support of her parents, who also made a commitment to healthful eating.
Derek Sanderson's parents also revamped their diet. Derek, 14, first came to New Image four years ago from St. Louis when he was 50 pounds overweight. After his first summer, Derek regained some of the 25 pounds he lost.
His parents have cut back on fatty foods.
"My goal was to definitely try to keep healthy food in the household, try to limit the soda and the sugar," says Derek's father, Randy Sanderson.
This time, Derek, who always has been athletic, hopes to maintain his weight loss by participating in even more sports - including football, basketball and baseball.
Unlike Derek, many campers have shied away from sports.
"These kids are always picked last, and their self-esteem goes down the toilet," Spadaro says. "Nobody gets picked last here."
In a dorm room strewn with clothes and cosmetics, teenage girls straighten their hair with irons, curl mascara on their lashes, swipe gloss over their lips.
As they prepare for a camp dance, the girls talk about not eating in front of others - even small amounts - because they're afraid of someone telling them, "You don't need that."
They talk about envying skinny friends who wear bikinis.
"I have no friends," a 16-year-old blurts out suddenly.
"We're your friends," another girl says.
Of course, camp is not free of the social rules that dictate kids' regular lives. The girls describe a pecking order in which the thinner kids are more popular.
And the most common insult might surprise you.
"I got called fat today," says Monica Barnhill, 15, a camper from Murfreesboro, Tenn.
At the same time, without a trace of irony, the girls call their setting a "fat farm."
One group of teenage girls has named its basketball team "The Hunger Squad." One camper wears a "WWJD for a Klondike Bar" T-shirt.
At dinner, as kids munch on veggie burgers, salads and watermelon, a boy and girl quietly let their fingertips touch.
Puppy love proliferates at Camp Vanguard, even if only for weeklong relationships.
Alex Griffin's relationship has lasted for weeks - eons in the camp dating scene. The 14-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., girl beams when she talks about her boyfriend.
The couple will have to say goodbye soon, though, because camp days are dwindling down.
Some campers are happy about that.
Deborah Immel, 16, is counting the days until she can return to her New York home. She is frustrated that she has lost only 12 pounds in five weeks. She finds the constant activity too demanding.
"I can't wait to go home," she tells anyone who will listen. Fellow campers usually accuse her of having a bad attitude.
She doesn't care. She won't be back.
Kim, the Clearwater girl, already knows she will return. She stayed in touch with the friends she made last summer. Throughout the year, they helped each other stay on track with phone calls and e-mail.
This summer, the friends reunited and formed the Hunger Squad basketball team.
On Kim's last day of camp, she heads to the office to meet her family. The squad trails her.
Kim cries, burying her face in a University of Florida sweatshirt she is holding. Her family loads the SUV with her luggage as Kim and her friends embrace. Her dad starts the engine. Finally, she lets go, climbs into the car and pulls away.
The girls have hatched a plan to get together in December - next summer is too far away.
"I made the best friends of my life here," Kim says.
Weight-loss camps have been around for years.
The first weight-loss camps appeared in the '60s, says Abby Ellin, author of Teenage Waist- land: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help.
Today, about a dozen weight-loss camps are scattered throughout the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 16 percent of American children ages 6-19 are overweight. Forty years ago that number was between 4 percent and 5 percent.
Kids often do slim down at weight-loss camps, experts say. But many struggle to keep the weight off once they return to normal life.
"Losing weight while they're away from home doesn't necessarily translate into improved health in the long run," says Marc S. Jacobson, professor of pediatrics at Schneider Children's Hospital in New York. "Much of the problem of childhood obesity is related to the child's environment. The real issue is how do we bring that environment with them and change the home environment so it is weight friendly?"
Weight-loss camp may give kids a break and a chance to be around kids with similar problems, says Cynthia Sass, registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
Still, Sass says, kids may resent being shipped off to camp.
Some of her young clients, she says, tell her they felt "they were being punished, like they were being sent away," Sass says.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzNTkmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3NDMyNDEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
By ALINE MENDELSOHN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
LAKE WALES, Fla. - The taunting started in first grade.
Flabby Abby, Abby the cow, the other kids would call her. Abby Lewis told her mother she wanted to go to school in China, because it was the farthest place from Florida she could imagine.
Instead of China, Abby, now 16, ended up going to boarding school in Massachusetts and spending summers at a weight-loss camp in Lake Wales, Fla.
Abby, who lives near Naples, Fla., has attended the camp for eight years. She has not managed to maintain her weight loss. But Cindy Lewis says her daughter did maintain something else: friends she has known for years.
These days, shedding pounds is only one aspect of weight-loss camps for youths. Friendships play a key role in the camp experience, directors say.
"A lot of these kids don't have much of a social life at home, and (the social environment) is as important, if not more so, than the weight loss itself," says Tony Sparber, founder of New Image Weight Loss Camps.
For about $1,000 a week, New Image offers a controlled environment for boys and girls ages 7-18 at camps in Florida, Pennsylvania and California. Kids can stay up to seven weeks.
Camp Vanguard, New Image's branch in Lake Wales, attracts youths from throughout the nation and a few from other countries. Each year, the camp hosts dozens of repeat customers - some who hope to sustain their weight loss, others who want to start over completely, and still others who are there simply to be with their friends.
During a cooking class on a recent Thursday, teenage campers are learning to bake low-fat chocolate-chip cookies. At the end of the class, each camper is awarded one small cookie.
"Can I have another one?" a girl asks.
"No," the nutritionist says.
At home, many campers overeat because no one is around to tell them "no."
Here, they have no choice.
A look around the camp reveals a varied group. Some are obese and risk developing diabetes; others are here to shed some vanity pounds. A few don't seem to belong here at all, such as a 12-year-old girl who says her father sent her to camp to pare down to 93 pounds.
Although weight-loss camps were once associated with the morbidly obese, that is no longer the case. Reports of the childhood obesity epidemic have spurred more parents to send even slightly chubby kids to camp before their weight spirals out of control, Sparber says.
Some parents send their kids here with unrealistic expectations, says Maxine Spadaro, director of the Lake Wales camp. Her goal is to teach kids eating and exercise habits that can be integrated into their lives back home.
Most of the kids are overweight because they exercise too little and eat too much.
Why they overeat can be complicated. For some, it's tough to avoid school-lunch temptations, such as pizza and fries. Others eat to cope with depression, their parents' divorce, loneliness or stress.
Isabel Jimenez of Orlando, Fla., doesn't fit the profile of a lonely couch potato.
Isabel, 15, has a dizzying schedule: In addition to Advanced Placement courses, she's on six sports teams and often stays up studying until 2 a.m. Stress contributes to her overeating, she says. And she has grown up on a traditional Puerto Rican diet of rich and fried foods.
At camp last year, Isabel lost 27 pounds. She gained 10 back and returned this summer - using her own money - to lose more weight and spend time with her camp friends.
She is dropping pounds because of the camp's regimented schedule.
The kids rise at 7:45, eat three meals and two snacks at set times, and spend hours a day in physical activities, such as basketball, swimming, weightlifting and yoga classes. It's a drastic change for kids used to channel surfing and grazing from the refrigerator.
Portion-controlled meals add up to 1,600-1,800 calories a day.
When they return home, Spadaro says, about 50 percent of the kids maintain their weight loss. Their success depends largely on their home environment.
Kim Young of Clearwater, Fla., lost 16 pounds last year and 12 more this year. Kim, 15, kept the weight off with the support of her parents, who also made a commitment to healthful eating.
Derek Sanderson's parents also revamped their diet. Derek, 14, first came to New Image four years ago from St. Louis when he was 50 pounds overweight. After his first summer, Derek regained some of the 25 pounds he lost.
His parents have cut back on fatty foods.
"My goal was to definitely try to keep healthy food in the household, try to limit the soda and the sugar," says Derek's father, Randy Sanderson.
This time, Derek, who always has been athletic, hopes to maintain his weight loss by participating in even more sports - including football, basketball and baseball.
Unlike Derek, many campers have shied away from sports.
"These kids are always picked last, and their self-esteem goes down the toilet," Spadaro says. "Nobody gets picked last here."
In a dorm room strewn with clothes and cosmetics, teenage girls straighten their hair with irons, curl mascara on their lashes, swipe gloss over their lips.
As they prepare for a camp dance, the girls talk about not eating in front of others - even small amounts - because they're afraid of someone telling them, "You don't need that."
They talk about envying skinny friends who wear bikinis.
"I have no friends," a 16-year-old blurts out suddenly.
"We're your friends," another girl says.
Of course, camp is not free of the social rules that dictate kids' regular lives. The girls describe a pecking order in which the thinner kids are more popular.
And the most common insult might surprise you.
"I got called fat today," says Monica Barnhill, 15, a camper from Murfreesboro, Tenn.
At the same time, without a trace of irony, the girls call their setting a "fat farm."
One group of teenage girls has named its basketball team "The Hunger Squad." One camper wears a "WWJD for a Klondike Bar" T-shirt.
At dinner, as kids munch on veggie burgers, salads and watermelon, a boy and girl quietly let their fingertips touch.
Puppy love proliferates at Camp Vanguard, even if only for weeklong relationships.
Alex Griffin's relationship has lasted for weeks - eons in the camp dating scene. The 14-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., girl beams when she talks about her boyfriend.
The couple will have to say goodbye soon, though, because camp days are dwindling down.
Some campers are happy about that.
Deborah Immel, 16, is counting the days until she can return to her New York home. She is frustrated that she has lost only 12 pounds in five weeks. She finds the constant activity too demanding.
"I can't wait to go home," she tells anyone who will listen. Fellow campers usually accuse her of having a bad attitude.
She doesn't care. She won't be back.
Kim, the Clearwater girl, already knows she will return. She stayed in touch with the friends she made last summer. Throughout the year, they helped each other stay on track with phone calls and e-mail.
This summer, the friends reunited and formed the Hunger Squad basketball team.
On Kim's last day of camp, she heads to the office to meet her family. The squad trails her.
Kim cries, burying her face in a University of Florida sweatshirt she is holding. Her family loads the SUV with her luggage as Kim and her friends embrace. Her dad starts the engine. Finally, she lets go, climbs into the car and pulls away.
The girls have hatched a plan to get together in December - next summer is too far away.
"I made the best friends of my life here," Kim says.
Weight-loss camps have been around for years.
The first weight-loss camps appeared in the '60s, says Abby Ellin, author of Teenage Waist- land: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help.
Today, about a dozen weight-loss camps are scattered throughout the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 16 percent of American children ages 6-19 are overweight. Forty years ago that number was between 4 percent and 5 percent.
Kids often do slim down at weight-loss camps, experts say. But many struggle to keep the weight off once they return to normal life.
"Losing weight while they're away from home doesn't necessarily translate into improved health in the long run," says Marc S. Jacobson, professor of pediatrics at Schneider Children's Hospital in New York. "Much of the problem of childhood obesity is related to the child's environment. The real issue is how do we bring that environment with them and change the home environment so it is weight friendly?"
Weight-loss camp may give kids a break and a chance to be around kids with similar problems, says Cynthia Sass, registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
Still, Sass says, kids may resent being shipped off to camp.
Some of her young clients, she says, tell her they felt "they were being punished, like they were being sent away," Sass says.