While the study didn’t conclusively show evidence of why overweight kids might miss more school, the authors proposed a few theories.

The theories were:

• Fear of being bullied.
• Fear of being teased.
• Feeling embarrassed to participate in physical activities.
• Physical problems linked to obesity such as asthma or sleep apnea.

Whatever the reasons, missing school often can cause children to fall behind their peers academically. Children should never have to miss school because of something as preventable as childhood obesity. You can help your child make great steps toward improved self-confidence and healthy weight loss at a summer weight loss camp for kids.

Weight loss camp is a great opportunity for kids and teens to meet lifelong friends and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle that will keep them in shape for life!

Childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the past twenty years. Children haven’t changed but their eating habits and activity levels have undergone drastic changes. Fast food has become a way of life for many time stressed families and sugar laden drinks are no longer a treat but have become part of the daily diet. Video games and computers have replaced outdoor activities and children are delivered to and from school and activities by car even for distances of a few blocks.

The results of this lifestyle are obvious. Chubby toddlers turn into pudgy kids then become overweight teens and obese young adults. The new weight loss camps are designed to break this cycle. They reject the title “fat camps” and describe their programs as “lifestyle weight loss” or “fitness camps“.

The best weight loss camp for any child is the one where he will become engaged in the process and learn to change his eating habits and his exercise routine in a way that will benefit him long after camp is over. The goal of fitness camp is to teach kids the relationships between eating and exercise. Weight loss is about calories taken in versus calories expended and understanding that relationship is crucial to establishing a healthier lifestyle.

One big advantage of time spent in a fitness focused “fat camp” for kids is the ability to exercise with others who have the same limitations. It’s difficult for an overweight child to keep up with normal weight friends in a typical gym class and often he doesn’t try. In a group of kids with the same weight problems he lives with, the obese child is more likely to expend effort and try to do as much as he can. The fear of being ridiculed or of appearing clumsy is gone and the only competition is with others who are struggling just as he is.

Physical activities are no longer a source of fear and shame. They become real competitions when all participants are well matched. Rude comments and pitying looks are replaced with encouragement and the excitement of other kids cheering you on.

Nothing makes a child feel more self confident than knowing he tried hard and did his best – and it was good enough. A week, a month, or a summer at a weight loss camp will not undo years of overeating and sedentary behavior but it can start an obese child or teen on the path to a healthier future.

The Journal of Consumer Research shared a study that linked materialism and self-confidence and how this varies among age groups. The groups were asked to make collages of the things that bring pleasure to their lives. Tweens aged 11-12 placed more pictures of materialistic things on the collages than pictures of family or goals. The younger groups placed more emphasis on family whereas the older teens placed more emphasis on futuristic goals.

In addition, a test group of the tweens were asked to read a positive message about themselves prior to making the collages. These tweens showed less materialism in their collages. This indicates that with more self-confidence comes less materialism.

Material possessions tend to be used to make up for other areas that the tween may feel are lacking. When they don’t have the self-confidence to think that they will be popular based on their own merits, things like Gap clothes or iPhones are used to gain popularity. This isn’t necessarily ‘new’ news, but rather is some empirical evidence to support what we all thought to be true.

You can easily see that by boosting your tweens self confidence levels, you’ll be giving them the tools they need to place less value on materialistic things. Weight loss camps can help you achieve this in a number of ways.

A fitness camp can help an overweight tween start down a healthier road towards ideal body weight. Girls tend to gain weight during puberty and some of this might be avoided if they begin exercising and eating properly. Many overweight children have lower levels of self-confidence, but once they are empowered to make positive changes, their self-confidence levels soar.

Athletic children also benefit from a fitness camp by learning techniques that will enhance their natural talents. When kids do well in sports, this is a great source of self-esteem, and in fact is one of the biggest benefits of children being involved in organized sports.

By spending the money now on a summer weight loss camp, you might be able to avoid some of those materialistic expenses in the future. Sure, your tween might still want that iPhone or pair of $100 Nike’s, but they’ll be easier to persuade towards less expensive items because they aren’t relying so heavily on the materialistic purchase as they will have the self-confidence to build relationships with peers on their own.

Not only that, but teaching your child to incorporate healthy habits now is a gift that will last a lifetime.

Food Costs for Your Overweight or Obese Child

It’s difficult enough to keep up with the rising costs of groceries, but when your child has eating issues, they may literally eat you out of house and home. In this regard, a weight loss camp can help your child control his or her eating.

A parent once told me how her grocery bill went down after her daughter attended our weight loss and fitness camp last summer. The daughter had been sneaking food and the weight loss camp empowered her to make better choices. Instead of filling your pantry with inexpensive food to keep up, you’ll be able to buy less, save and even make healthier purchases.

Medical Bills

It’s hard to say exactly when your child’s weight troubles will begin to cost you or your child (if it happens when they are older) money in the medical department. Rest assured, it will eventually. Type II diabetes is affecting more and more children and adolescents. The medical expenses for diabetes are outrageous!

Your child will learn how to get their weight under control at our weight loss camp. With every step they take, their risks for developing heart disease and other weight related health issues will diminish. Besides, we all want our children to be healthy!

Entertainment Costs

Trying to find things to occupy your child can be quite expensive, especially if your child enjoys sedentary activities such as gaming or computers. Games are extremely pricey and trying to keep up with these costs can be crazy! Summer weight loss camps can help your child learn to enjoy activities that involve more exercise and less cost such as riding their bikes, swimming, or just playing around outside.  They’ll also get to try some new activities that they haven’t experienced – like hitting golf balls on our driving range or climbing on our ropes course.

When you consider these costs and also account for the fact that your child will have an opportunity to make some great strides in their struggle to live at a healthy weight for the rest of their life – a summer weight loss camp doesn’t sound like a bad investment after all, does it?

Will poor self-esteem lead your child to avoid risks and opportunities out of fear? If they would love to act, will they try out for the school play or shy away because of their weight? Your teen may not participate in classroom discussions or become a leader if they don’t feel confident.

When you try to help your teen lose weight on your own, you might make common mistakes such as over-pressuring your teen. Making eating a constant issue is also a constant reminder of their perceived inadequacies. This can spiral out of control and actually cause your child to gain more weight when they eat for comfort and consolation…and lose self-esteem.

Trained professionals at our weight loss camp use well-documented techniques to help empower your teen to make healthy choices. Through education and training, your child will develop the skills necessary to take control of their weight loss issues.

These skills will come home with your teen. Eventually, this may lead to a much healthier home environment all together. Once your teen begins to make healthier choices on their own, the whole family may get involved. Your teen will be the one who leads this effort, which will also make them feel good!

In addition, your teen will meet other teens at weight loss camps that may be able to better relate to their weight issues. We all want to feel accepted and you might not be able to truly offer this to your teen the way other overweight or obese teens can.

Once they begin down the path to weight loss, the improvements they begin to see will improve their self-confidence and self-esteem. This will spin off in so many directions, you’ll be amazed at what your teen becomes capable of accomplishing.

Now, trying out for a play might not seem as daunting. Participating in sports becomes more of a possibility. Improved self-confidence will allow them to focus less on how they appear when it comes to popularity and acceptance.

When your teen is empowered to lose weight, the empowerment translates to nearly everything they attempt.

As the saying goes, “children learn what they live” so if Mom or Dad do not approach fitness as a daily necessity, chance are the children do not either. It’s probably hard for some people to picture a child “working out,” and we rely on the exercise they get while playing to counteract all the sweets and otherwise sedentary activities.

The older our children get, the less they “play hard” especially if they are girls. This certainly isn’t always true, especially for athletically active kids. However, if you are relying on a few games and an occasional sports practice to offer your child all the exercise he or she needs, this may not be enough.

Sports are great and playing outside is great; but if you want to foster daily fitness that your child will take with them long into their adult years, then you need to make it as much of a habit as brushing their teeth. This might be difficult if you don’t already exercise, but now might be a good time to get the whole family in shape. You might consider one of our weight loss camps for kids this summer or over the next break to help, but you can get started right now!

Make it fun, but make it purposeful. If you can keep up a game of tag or football at the park for 30 minutes, then that might be an idea. Keep in mind that your child needs to develop the skills necessary to perform exercise without having others around. If your child is old enough, you might consider purchasing a used treadmill. If that’s not in the budget, then buy a $3.00 jump rope. A trampoline is rather expensive, but it might be a good family gift for the next holiday.

A fitness camp for kids is a great way to foster a healthy lifestyle. Your child will have loads of fun and will bring home tons of new activities and exercises; some of which you might just enjoy doing!

Denying our children sweets may lead them to sneak or hoard snacks and desserts. Even though we don’t mean to, we may end up making them feel very badly about themselves leading them to turn to their favorite comfort food for consolation.

As well, it’s easy to make common dieting mistakes such as denying food in between meals or skipping meals. This not only lowers your child’s metabolism, but it also encourages the opportunity to overeat at the next meal. There’s a lot to know about weight loss for adults and children, but there are even more weight loss challenges when it comes to children.

A weight loss camp would allow your child an environment that fosters their weight loss needs with the training and expertise that we lack. Children are usually more responsive to other adults. They behave better for other parents when spending time at a friend’s house. They tend to listen to teachers and wouldn’t dream of throwing a fit for an instructor the way they would for you. You can stop the food battles in your home by allowing trained professionals to help. The support that a weight loss camp can offer you and your child is truly priceless.

As well, your child will be surrounded by other kids who have similar issues. Whether you are heavy or thin, your child may feel like you don’t really understand their problems. If you are thin, your child may be embarrassed about their weight issues and feel as though you couldn’t possibly understand what they are going through. If you are heavy, your child might feel as though you can relate, but can you help?

These are all issues that can be very frustrating, but they can’t be ignored. It’s imperative that we help our children now so they won’t face all of the problems that obesity has in store for them down the road. Obesity can lead to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, joint problems and even some forms of cancer. Mentally and emotionally, your child faces an uphill battle in gaining acceptance and forming a good sense of self-esteem and self-confidence.

A teen weight loss camp can set things right and give you and your child the tools you both need to overcome this obstacle.

Teenagers are especially succeptable to getting too caught up in issues of personal image.  As a result, many teenagers these days regularly resort to restrictive diets and strive to maintain a “perfect” body.  We’re all aware that in a few years they will more than likey give up their pursuit for a perfect body as there is not really such a thing, yet more and more teens each year turn to dieting as a short term way to obtain a desired look.  (NOTE:  by “dieting” I am referring to restrictive ‘diets’ that should not be confused with healthy eating habits or a healthy ‘diet.’)

There are a number of reasons that strict diets typically fail in the short term and rarely, if ever, work in the long term for teenagers.  Even children that are overweight will not achieve long-term success from a restrictive diet.  Here’s why:

First, making abrupt changes to food intake by restricting how much food is eaten will disrupt a child’s energy balance and their natural ability to regulate food intake, leading to problems down the road.

Second, studies show that a majority of overweight adults who used dieting as their only weight control method in their teenage years gained that weight back.

Instead of restrictive dieting, kids and teens will be much more successful by eating healthy diets and exercising regularly

Third, many “hot” diets that teens are drawn to are quick weight loss diets that limit the intake of certain food groups, nutrients, etc.  For a growing body, these restictions can be bad and can stunt growth or cause imbalances in their development which can affect their performance in school or other areas of life.  Bigger problems can develop later as a result.

Finally, some teenagers suffer from more serious conditions (e.g. depression) and use their weight issues and dieting as a means to hide or supress the true issues that the child feels they cannot control.  Since the true problem is never addressed with a diet, it never goes away and continues to cause problems for the child later in life.

For these reasons, parents should be wary if/when their child tells them they want to go on a diet.  The bottom line is that restrictive diets as a means to lose weight in teenagers are never worth it.  Their chances for short term success are slim and it is more likely that they are actually doing something that is worse for their body.

If the child needs to lose weight, parents should consider a weight loss program similar to those used at teen weight loss camps where healthy eating is combined with exercise via fun activities.  These fitness camps remove kids and teens from their regular lives and free them from having to deal with the extra pressures that teenagers struggle with.  At the weight loss camp, kids are able to focus on learning healthy living habits while not having to worry about everything else that they struggle with at home.  Once the good habits are developed at camp, they return home where the new habits become a part of their daily lives.

In a child’s mind, especially younger children, it is difficult for them to understand that a fitness camp is something that is going to benefit them for the rest of their lives.  Instead, they may view it as “punishment” for being overweight.

Therefore, it is your responsibility as a parent to explain to your child why they will be attending.  You will know better than anyone else how well your child will be able to comprehend the potential health risks that are associated with obesity in children and whether or not it is even worth it to try and explain these things to your child.

In some cases, it is best to focus on the fun that your child will have when “selling” them on the idea.  Focusing on the fun will help to ease your child’s apprehension about the fitness camp.  And, of course, the less apprehensive your child is about going, the less you’ll be concerned about their success and less likely you will be to put unnecessary pressure on them.

The most important part about having this conversation with your child is making sure that your child does not feel like they’re being sent off as a form of punishment.  Yes, they are going because they need help getting the weight loss process started, but who was the parent that let them get overweight in the first place?  Frame the experience as an opportunity to spend a lot of time outside, meet new friends, and learn new fun games and activities that they enjoy.  Answer any questions that they have about the weight loss camp honestly and positively and work to build a sense of excitement about the program.  The bottom line is that the more excited and comfortable your child is, the more successful they will be.

The fact is that obesity is a disease like any other disease and we need to start perceiving it that way.  When we make it a superficial problem, we end up breaking down a child’s self image and self esteem.  The key is to understand the health issues that surround obesity and why it’s so important that you find adequate help and support in fostering your child’s weight loss efforts.  Our fitness camps are great ways to get started, but ultimately the problem must be addressed in daily life.

Cardiovascular health is by far the primary concern when it comes to obesity.  The heart and its ability to function is affected largely by our diets and activity levels.  Study after study proves a link between obesity and many contributing factors to poor heart health.

Arteriosclerosis (clogged arteries) results from a diet high in saturated fat.  The prevalance of high blood pressure in people who are obese is high.  Cholesterol levels can usually be decreased when adequate weight is lost.  Excessive weight in the abdominal region is a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, as is a high body mass index or BMI.

The risk of developing type II diabetes is also very high in children and adolescents who are obese or overweight.  As a matter of fact, it’s been estimated that nearly 25% of kids born today will eventually develop type II diabetes as adolescents or adults.  Type II diabetes poses a huge threat to developing cardiovascular disease because of the sticky consistency of the blood in diabetic patients.

All of this is scary stuff, I know.  But the good news is that it can all be reversed!  This isn’t something that is a life sentence written in stone for your child.  Weight loss, even moderate weight loss, can reduce all of these risk factors.

Through your own efforts and your child’s as well as the advice and guidance of counselors at a summer weight loss camp, dieticians and physicians, you can help your child lose weight and reduce this risk.

Not only that, but consider this a learning opportunity for you and your child.  Take comfort in the idea that you’ll not only be helping your child lose weight, but with the knowledge he or she will gain through the weight loss program, chances are that your child will learn to eat and live healthier than most of his peers.

It all goes along with that image problem.  We tend to think that people who are thin or even at a normal weight are healthy just based on their appearance.  The fact is that if they are not eating right or exercising, then they may be very unhealthy.  Your child will have the benefit of learning about a healthy lifestyle while they are still young leading to a lifetime of good health!