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Wellspring Camps were a group of children's weight loss camps located in La Jolla, California, and Melbourne, Florida. The camps focused on changing behavior and eating patterns to create long-term healthy lifestyles for participants. Wellspring Camps are not currently operating.[ citation needed ]
Wellspring opened their first two summer camps in June 2004 under the corporate name Healthy Living Academies. [1] Camp Wellspring, located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, accepted women ages 16 to 23. Wellspring Adventure Camp, in the mountains of North Carolina, admitted boys and girls ages 10 to 17. Ryan Craig, a former member of the Aspen Education Board of Directors, was appointed president of Healthy Living Academies. [1]
Healthy Living Academies' clinical program was headed up by Daniel S. Kirschenbaum, PhD. Kirschenbaum was chosen because of his experience in developing successful weight loss programs for hospitals across the country. He was a past president of the Division of Exercise and Sport Psychology of the American Psychological Association and had authored over 100 scientific articles and eight books, including Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity and The 9 Truths About Weight Loss.
For the launch of its camp program, Healthy Living Academies assembled an advisory board consisting of experts in pediatric obesity. These board members included Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Psychology at Yale University and Director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders; Georgia Kostas, MPH, RD, Director of Nutrition at the Cooper Clinic, Dallas and author of The Cooper Clinic Solution to the Diet Revolution; Melinda Sothern, PhD, of Louisiana State University Health Sciences and Pennington Centers, and author of Trim Kids, The Proven 12-Week Plan That Has Helped Thousands of Children Achieve a Healthier Weight; and Dennis Styne, MD, Rumsey Chair of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, Davis, a pediatric endocrinologist who specializes in pediatric obesity and its complications. [1]
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Wellspring Camps were based on the Wellspring Plan, a fitness and weight loss plan which aimed to be simple and sustainable. The goal of the Wellspring Plan was to help campers gain skills and motivation for lifelong healthy living. [2]
Typically, the only doctors on staff at the Wellspring camp were clinical psychologists that had been personally trained by Dr. Kirschenbaum. [3]
The Wellspring Plan was based on the belief that simple, clear, and easily measured goals helped clients stay focused. [4] The plan involved 10,000 steps of activity, on the premise that this increases a person's metabolic rate and accelerate the metabolism of fat.
Wellspring's nutrition plan was based on a low-fat, low-calorie diet: specifically, campers ate a strictly regulated diet of around 1,200 calories per day with fewer than 12 grams of fat. [5] Wellspring claimed that this was achieved by teaching campers to cook, order, and identify healthy food choices.[ citation needed ] Wellspring campers were permitted to have as much "uncontrolled" food as they wished, as long as they measured and self-monitored their eating. [6] [ clarification needed ]
Wellspring's fitness and weight loss camps provided cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for campers due to CBT's effectiveness in help children, teens, and adults change diet and activity behaviors. [7] Wellspring employed Masters- and Doctoral-level therapists (called behavioral coaches) to provide both one-on-one and group therapy sessions for campers. [8] Behavioral Coaches also stayed in regular contact with families and campers for the year following camp as part of Wellspring's Continuing Care Program. [9]
Two-day family workshops were scheduled at the end of each camp session. Attending families participated in all aspects of the program and learned the details of the Wellspring Plan and how they could be supported at home. [9]
Wellspring's long-term outcomes and approach were brought into question by the medical community. Many physicians and dietitians, including the director of the obesity program at Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Robert Ludwig, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist, criticized their low to zero fat approach and questioned how successful Wellspring was in creating long term weight loss results. The American Academy of Pediatrics stated that children and adolescents must have a minimum of 20 grams of fat per day, but not to exceed 30 grams of fat, to maintain healthy brain growth. Wellspring teaches its campers and families that this is not necessary. [5] Additionally, Ludwig said that he was particularly worried about the effect on vulnerable teenagers who regain weight after their families have sacrificed so much financially to send them to Wellspring. [5]
One of the more high-profile cases for Wellspring was Georgia Davis, who gained more than 500 pounds after leaving Wellspring. [10] [11] [12] [13]
Wellspring disputed these findings. The New York Times reported in 2005 that 70 percent of Wellspring campers had maintained their weight or continued to lose weight in the six to nine months after camp ended; the weight loss afterward averaged 7.4 pounds. [14] Similarly, research conducted by Dr. Daniel Kirschenbaum, Wellspring's former clinical director, found that campers consistently demonstrated an average weight loss of four pounds per week and a total of 30 pounds in eight weeks. In 6-12 months of follow-up studies, the average camper lost an additional 5-8 pounds. [15]
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.
Weight gain is an increase in body weight. This can involve an increase in muscle mass, fat deposits, excess fluids such as water or other factors. Weight gain can be a symptom of a serious medical condition.
A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.
A fat camp, weight loss camp, or fat farm is a type of residential program where people who are overweight or obese go to attempt to lose weight through exercise and lifestyle changes.
An underweight person is a person whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. A person who is underweight is malnourished.
Wellspring Academies was a pair of therapeutic boarding schools for overweight and obese children, teens, and young adults, both operated by Wellspring, a division of Aspen Education Group. It is said to be the first weight loss boarding school in the United States.
Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects it is being recognized as a serious public health concern. The term overweight rather than obese is often used when discussing childhood obesity, as it is less stigmatizing, although the term overweight can also refer to a different BMI category. The prevalence of childhood obesity is known to differ by sex and gender.
Health at Every Size (HAES) is a public health framework that emphasizes all bodies have the right to seek out health, regardless of size, without bias, and reduce stigma towards people who are in larger bodies. Proponents argue that traditional interventions focused on weight loss, such as dieting, do not reliably produce positive health outcomes, and that health is a result of lifestyle behaviors that can be performed independently of body weight. However, many criticize the approach and argue that weight loss should sometimes be an explicit goal of healthcare interventions, because of the negative health outcomes associated with obesity.
Aspen Education Group is an American company that provides controversial therapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults, including wilderness therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, and weight loss programs, which have been accused of torture and abuse. Since November 2006, Aspen Education Group, with corporate offices located in Cerritos, California has been a division of Bain Capital's CRC Health.
Obesity is common in the United States and is a major health issue associated with numerous diseases, specifically an increased risk of certain types of cancer, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease, as well as significant increases in early mortality and economic costs.
Health Management Resources, also known as HMR, offers weight management programs that combine a structured diet, physical activity, and often some types of life-coaching. As of December 30, 2022 - HMR was purchased by Profile Plan.
Obesity in Germany has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent years. The federal government has declared this to be a major issue.
Obesity in the Middle East and North Africa is a notable health issue. Out of the 15 fattest nations in the world as of 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), five were located in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The term "Freshman 15" is an expression commonly used in the United States and Canada to refer to weight gain during a student's first year in college. Although the 15 refers to a 15 lb weight gain, the expression can apply more generally. In Australia and New Zealand, it is sometimes referred to as "First Year Fatties", "Fresher Spread", or "Fresher Five", the latter referring to a gain of 5 kg (11 lb).
Coaches are professional tutors who have expertise in their preferred area of study. Weight loss coaches, specifically, have clientele within the health and fitness industry.
Criticism of fast food includes claims of negative health effects, animal cruelty, cases of worker exploitation, children-targeted marketing and claims of cultural degradation via shifts in people's eating patterns away from traditional foods. Fast food chains have come under fire from consumer groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a longtime fast food critic over issues such as caloric content, trans fats and portion sizes. Social scientists have highlighted how the prominence of fast food narratives in popular urban legends suggests that modern consumers have an ambivalent relationship with fast food, particularly in relation to children.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is derived from both the cognitive and behavioral schools of psychology and focuses on the alteration of thoughts and actions with the goal of treating various disorders. The cognitive behavioral treatment of eating disorders emphasizes on the minimization of negative thoughts about body image and the act of eating, and attempts to alter negative and harmful behaviors that are involved in and perpetuate eating disorders. It also encourages the ability to tolerate negative thoughts and feelings as well as the ability to think about food and body perception in a multi-dimensional way. The emphasis is not only placed on altering cognition, but also on tangible practices like making goals and being rewarded for meeting those goals. CBT is a "time-limited and focused approach" which means that it is important for the patients of this type of therapy to have particular issues that they want to address when they begin treatment. CBT has also proven to be one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders.
Jean Harvey, PhD, RDN, is currently the Robert L. Bickford, Jr. Endowed Professor, the Associate Dean for Research, and the Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont. Her specialty is behavioral weight management with a specific focus on technology-based programs.
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer is a University of Minnesota Regents Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the School of Public Health. She is a scholar on adolescent and young adult eating and weight-related health.
Kurbo is a digital therapeutics program focused on sustainable healthy eating for children and teenagers. The program tracks and manages nutrition, exercise and weight of adolescents. It operates through a mobile application and a website, providing health coaching from weight loss and behavior change professionals to tackle childhood obesity.
