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Risks of Being Overweight
The risks of being overweight are well-known. Health issues that are likely to develop over time include diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and joint pain, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma.

Recent research has demonstrated that even a relatively small level of weight loss can have a big impact on health and well-being. 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

While there are many differences between Wellspring Wisconsin and traditional weight loss camps, diet camps or fat camps, CBT is the most important difference that distinguishes Wellspring Wisconsin from fat camps.

Scientific research is very clear that long-term weight control is not a result of going on a diet – or even a special “teen diet” – picking up a sport or committing to a teen fitness program, 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 management, 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 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, these weight-controlling behaviors 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 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.

Individual sessions focus on the details of each camper's self-monitoring, barriers to success and short- and long-term goals and how to achieve them. Group therapy helps reinforce the Wellspring Plan and allows campers to support each other in their efforts.

CBT employs research-based techniques such as goal-setting, rational emotive therapy (RET), 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 loss and weight control. To read more about his work, click here