Fat camp
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A fat camp is a slang term for a type of program where overweight and obese children and teenagers are sent during the summer to lose weight. They are more gently referred to as a fitness and weight-loss camp. What sets apart a fat camp from any other ordinary camp is that it typically provides nutrition classes, weekly weigh-ins, and many more aerobic-based classes. The goal of the camps is to enhance the health of the campers and raise their self confidence as well as teach them about how to live out of camp. These camps provide weight-loss results of one to three kilograms per week on average. However the more overweight the camper, the more they generally lose in these programs. The effectiveness of these summer camps varies widely and usually depends on the quality of the individual program and biochemistry of the attending campers. Newer programs not only focus on weight loss, but also on changing behavior through a combination of training on self-regulatory behaviors and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to ensure that weight loss persists long after campers return home. Most experts believe these are key elements of an effective program.
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[edit] In pop culture
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There have been a number of recent mainstream media pieces regarding fat camp.
- Television
- Several fictional television shows, such as The Simpsons and South Park have episodes involving fat camp.
- In Friends, Monica is known to have attended fat camp as a child. Her brother Ross accuses her of having tried to escape, but Monica maintains that she simply became entangled in the barbed wire fence trying to rescue a squirrel. Ross suggests that she was trying to eat it.
- Several fat camps have been featured on reality television, including New Image Camp, Camp Shane, and Camp La Jolla.
- MTV has a documentary titled Fat Camp which follows five teens at an eight week summer weight loss camp.
- Recently, MTV aired a sequel documentary titled "Return to Fat Camp".
- On Drake and Josh's TV movie Really Big Shrimp "Crazy" Steve wants to provoke himself to get mad, and he thinks about his father. One time he exclaimed, "This is for sending me to Fat Camp!"
- In What I Like About You, Val's best friend, Lauren, usually comments that she used to be fat and took part in a fat camp.
- Other
- In 1995 a film called Heavyweights was released, starring Ben Stiller, about a summer adventure at fat camp.
- Deborah Blumenthal wrote a teen novel titled Fat Camp
- There are a handful of music groups called Fat Camp.
- There is a fictional fat camp called "Gallons of Fat" in an episode of Family Guy. Another episode features a doubly fictional fat camp called "Camp Putdownadaforka".
- There are several books that deal with fat camp as a theme-most notably Abby Ellin's "Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs in on Living Large, Losing Weight and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help" (Public Affairs 2005).
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Parents turn to fat camps for obesity solution ABC.
- America's Growing Waistline WireTap Magazine.
- Getting Physical: A different kind of summer camp aims to shape winners for life Seattle Times
[edit] References
Fat camp is also for people who feel bad about their weight. Fat camp not only helps them lose weight but helps them have self-confidence in themselves when they actually see progress in themselves. Fat camp is suggested by many people to lose weight.
