Behavioral Change

Risks from Being Overweight

The risks of being overweight are well-known. Some health issues that are likely to evolve, over time, are metabolic such as diabetes.  Others are cardiovascular, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, and respiratory. 

Recent research has demonstrated that even a relatively small level of weight loss can have a big impact on health and well-bring.  Even if you’re not seriously considering Wellspring Wisconsin for the summer, if your child is significantly overweight or obese, please review our BMI calculator for ideas on how you can help. 

The Solution: Behavioral Change

Scientific research is very clear that long-term weight control is not a result of going on a diet, picking up a sport, or hiring a personal trainer.  Rather, it’s a result of a complex series of actions that lead to lifestyle or behavioral change.  The Wellspring clinical program uses cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) dietary therapy, and physical activity to create a new focus on and commitment to the behaviors necessary to become successful long-term weight controllers (LTWC’s).

Clinical Program

Long-term weight control is a manageable athletic challenge. In other words, serious athletes need to consistently stick to certain behaviors. A serious athlete keeps a log of activity, thinks about what to eat, sets goals, discusses progress and strategies with others, and adjusts routines as a result. He or she is probably very focused on health in order to perform at the highest possible level. Successful weight control requires exactly this level of focus. Clearly, if weight control were as simple as going on a diet for a month or two, 2/3 of American adults and 1/3 of American kids would not be overweight or obese.  It’s a lot more complicated than that.

That’s why Wellspring campers are trained on a set of behaviors that have been proven necessary and sufficient for successful long-term weight control. These behaviors include such core self-regulatory behaviors as self-monitoring, journaling, goal-setting, and contracting.  In time, they become habits, and when combined with nutrition and culinary training, success is within reach

This training is led by each camper’s Behavioral Coach (Masters- or Doctoral- level psychologists or social workers). Behavioral Coaches (BC’s) lead the camper along the journey to success while working to overcome any barriers to mastering the behaviors necessary for successful long-term weight control.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions are provided in both individual and group settings for a total of 4 sessions per week.  CBT is used to reinforce the training on the self-regulatory behaviors. Campers also learn to apply the knowledge and skills gained to challenges in their own lives, and improve frustration tolerance and stress management skills.

In these ways, CBT helps Wellspring campers manage their weight and overcome any obstacles to long-term success. Campers develop habits of self-regulating their food intake, and managing their activity.  They learn to set realistic, achievable goals while remaining committed to their health and long-term weight control regardless of what stressors or barriers they may encounter over the course of a day, a week or a school year.

Wellspring group CBT sessions generally run as follows:

  • Summary of each camper’s progress since the last meeting
  • Discussion of a CBT/weight control topic such as coping mechanisms
  • Reading Assignment
  • Goal setting and behavioral contracts

Individual sessions are similar in that they review progress, but individual sessions also focus on the details of each camper’s self-monitoring, barriers to success and short- and long-term goals and how to achieve them.

CBT employs research-based techniques such as goal-setting, rational emotive therapy, improving frustration tolerance, stimulus control decision counseling, positive focusing, improving stress management, and relapse prevention training. Some campers take to these new behaviors like fish to water, while others must overcome emotional issues before they can be entirely successful. (Obese people are 25-44% more likely to suffer from clinical depression than people of a normal weight- Archives of General Psychiatry, July 2006.) However, for all campers, CBT is the key to long-term success, which in turn leads to improved self-esteem, mood and outlook, more energy and better academic performance.

Wellspring Wisconsin Behavioral Coaches are Masters- or Doctoral-level therapists under the supervision of Daniel Kirschenbaum, Ph.D. A professor at Northwestern University Medical School, Dr. Kirschenbaum is a leading expert on weight control. To read more about his work, click here