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Weight Loss Camp: Prevent Childhood Obesity Consequences

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Almost one third of children in America are overweight or obese. Some parents not only take no action to get their child’s weight under control, by sending them to weight loss camps for example, but go to further measures to reassure the child that being overweight is ok. If your child is “fluffy” or “has more to love,” there are some things you should know about their future, potentially dangerous, health outcomes.

First of all, the psychological effects of teasing, bullying, and self esteem can be so extreme for children. Depression is usually a side effect of childhood obesity. You can build your child up as much as you can, but you cannot control what other children say. This is most likely the reason for parents that praise their children who are overweight, but there are much healthier and effective solutions.

Think about your child’s heart. Younger and younger people are having problems with cholesterol and hypertension, due to the decreasing age of obesity onset. Problems like insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are more likely to occur in people who were obese as children, even if they lose weight and adapt a healthy lifestyle later in life. That being said, if you have an obese child, they are far more likely to continue this unhealthy lifestyle into adulthood and may be set up for weight-management failure at a young age.

Breathing problems occur too. Many children have issues developmentally due to obesity and inactivity that result in sleep apnea and asthma. Children with sleep apnea can awaken up to 15 times an hour! There is no way your child can get the recommended amount of sleep waking up that many times. Another rising problem associated with childhood obesity is non alcoholic cirrhosis. Children develop a fatty liver due to overconsumption of calories, mainly fructose (High- fructose corn syrup). It is a phenomenon that doctors were baffled by when young children were developing diseases associated with aged alcoholics!

Another negative side effect of childhood obesity that is normally not recognized as such is skeletal problems. When a child is extremely overweight, growth and development of the skeletal structure is compromised and there is a chance of deformations. Joint pain is also more prevalent with all the weight on their joints. Overweight kids also have more of an issue with balance, so they tend to break bones more. This is a problem, because healing is complicated. Splints and casts are less effective and can cause skin problems due to abnormally large limbs. Treatment usually involves surgery (rods, pins, etc.), which leaves room for post-surgery infection.

It may be hard to approach the situation of childhood obesity, since we all love our children and don’t want them to feel like there is something wrong with them. But if you don’t help them combat this problem now, it will only escalate into worse problems. So get some help if diet and exercise don’t work- perhaps they would benefit from a structured weight loss camp, such as Camp Shane for children and teens. It is not ok for your child to be morbidly obese at a young age.

Childhood obesity can lead to a variety of health complications. Prevent these health problems by sending your child to a fun summer weight loss camp.

Written by Amanda Yazbek, Nutritionist at Camp Shane weight loss camp for kids

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Tags: Childhood Obesity, healthy lifestyle, obese children, overweight children, overweight kids, weight loss camp for kids, weight loss program
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Healthy Lifestyle During Heart Health Month

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Healthy Lifestyle with Nutritious Family Meals

Enjoy nutritious meals as a family to encourage a healthy lifestyle and fight childhood obesity.

A Gallup poll released in January reported that the percentage of obese Americans has decreased slightly for the first time in three years (down to 26.1% from 26.6%). This is good step in the long-term effort toward reducing obesity, an effort we are a part of with our friends at the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. HWCF is made up of organizations with a shared desire to educate the public on the concept of “energy balance” – that a healthy weight is a result of balancing “calories in” (what we eat) with “calories-out” (what we burn through exercise). There are many reasons people struggle with weight, and all kinds of ways those issues get complicated. But by simplifying it down to this balance, hopefully we can encourage our friends, families and communities to make changes.

At Shane Weight Loss Camps & Resorts we offer weight loss programs for children, teenagers and adults to encourage our community to live active, healthy lifestyles.

February brings Valentine’s Day and Heart Health Month, so it’s a perfect opportunity to plan nutritious meals and activities with your loved ones to encourage “energy balance” in everyday life. Themed meals can be a fun way to introduce new and nutritious options into your family’s menu. Explore all the great winter activities available right outside the door. Throw a neighborhood snowball fight, go sledding or build a snowman. On the days you are stuck inside, take advantage of online resources. Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics (and fellow HWCF associate member) has great videos that demonstrate exercises you can do right at home!

HWCF has developed an online community dedicated to helping families keep track of their energy balance. The Together Counts ™ campaign was created to provide encouragement, accountability, and new ideas for families looking to build active, healthy lifestyles. Go to www.togethercounts.com and join today!

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Tags: healthy lifestyle, healthy weight commitment foundation, together counts, weight loss programs for adults, weight loss programs for children, weight loss programs for teenagers
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Weight Loss Surgery for Teens

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Childhood obesity continues to be an epidemic in the United States, and some overweight teens are turning to more extreme measures for quick weight loss. Rather than the traditional healthy eating and exercise routine, more and more young adults and teenagers are opting for weight loss surgery, especially stomach banding. A recent article in the New York Times by Anemona Hartocollis follows one young woman who went under the knife for the sake of losing weight.

There has been an explosion of weight loss surgeries recently, with about 220,000 operations per year, at the cost of over $6 billion. More young people are also being operated on, which is met with some skepticism by doctors who argue that their bodies are still in the process of going through changes. Also, long-term effectiveness is still in question.

“I think it’s pretty extreme to change the anatomy of a child when you haven’t even tackled the other elements,” said Dr. Wendy M. Scinta, a family practitioner in Manlius, a suburb of Syracuse, who specializes in pediatric weight loss. Unlike with older patients, she said, “there is not a huge rush to fix it or they will die.”

One to two percent of all weight-loss, or bariatric, operations are on patients under 21, but studies are under way to gauge the outcomes of surgery on children as young as 12. Allergan, the maker of Lap-Band, is seeking permission from the Food and Drug Administration to market to children as young as 14, four years younger than what is currently allowed.

Gastric banding, a form of weight loss surgery, restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time.

Stomach banding, or laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, constitutes about 39 percent of all bariatric surgeries. The risks of all the operations have declined, partly because surgeons are now more experienced and are using less-invasive techniques, but also because they are operating on thinner, healthier patients. But long-term results are still being studied.

A Belgian study of adult patients found that nearly half had their bands removed within 12 years for various reasons. Some of these reasons included not losing much weight, regaining what they had lost, frequent heartburn or vomiting, or the band slipped or perforated the stomach.

A German study found that 30 percent of patients needed new operations within 14 years, some because they wanted bands removed, and others because of complications like slippage.

Another study in Australia found that one-third of operations on teenagers required follow-up surgeries within two years, often because of “pouch dilation,” when the stomach above the band becomes enlarged, which can happen if the patient does not follow the regimen and tries to eat too much.

Diana Zuckerman, a psychologist and president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, believes that teenagers are bad candidates for gastric banding surgery as they are often immature, rebellious, and uninterested in long-term consequences.

Some experts also question the possibility of malnutrition because the patients’ shortened digestive tracts absorb fewer nutrients, which could affect development.

Shani Gofman, a teenager from Brooklyn, first learned about weight loss surgery from her pediatrician when she was 17 years old. Coming in at over 250 pounds at just 5-foot-1, she insisted that she could lose weight on her own through diet and exercise. Unfortunately, her pediatrician didn’t believe in her. After her doctor proposed weight loss surgery, she did attempt to lose weight on her own, but failed miserably and actually gained 30 pounds instead.

When Shani met with the bariatric surgeon, he informed her that post-surgery, she should expect to lose about 40 percent of her excess weight, or 70 to 80 pounds. That, of course, was if she followed the regimen.

After Shani had her surgery done, she did end up losing 20 pounds in the first 13 days, but complained of constant hunger. She said she also had to resist the temptations of unhealthy foods readily available all around her. When her surgeon advised food in moderation above all else, she told him that she is not good at moderation.

Three weeks later, Shani was down another eight pounds and had gone from a size 26 to a size 20. She also joined a gym and bought a swimsuit.

Shani did hit an obstacle when she took a trip to Israel with other teenagers. She found herself either getting sick or sitting in pain after every meal, as she was often eating on the run. She also found that junk food went down easier for her than healthier alternatives.

As it turned out, Shani gained back nearly half of what she had lost and is fighting constant hunger and slow progress. Her surgeon tightened her band to make food go down even slower. never actually revealed her current weight at the end of the article – not a promising sign.

Weight loss surgery for young people can be a very controversial topic of discussion and many believe that it is too extreme, compared to other methods such as weight loss camp. Do you believe weight loss surgery is a permanent solution? Should teenagers be allowed to have surgery done? We’d love to hear what you think about this topic.

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Tags: Childhood Obesity, losing weight, overweight teens, quick weight loss, weight loss camp, weight loss surgery for teens
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Childhood Obesity News: School Lunches Get a Makeover

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

School lunches and snacks have been in the news often lately, as many parents and nutritionists point to these junk foods as a reason behind the childhood obesity epidemic. For a while, there has been talk of making over school lunches to meet higher nutrition standards for a healthy diet. The government has announced today that they are releasing new nutrition standards for schools, as per an article in USA Today by Nanci Hellmich.

New Nutrition Standards for School Lunches

Today the government announced new nutrition standards for healthier school lunches.

Today the government is releasing new nutrition standards for school meals that spell out dramatic changes, including slashing sodium, limiting calories and offering students a wider variety and larger portions of fruits and vegetables. These changes will raise the nutrition standards for meals for the first time in more than 15 years.

“When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement. She is announcing the new standards today along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack..

Vilsack says this is a historic opportunity “to improve the quality and quantity of the school meal programs.”

The quality of school meals has been hotly debated for years because one-third of children in the USA are overweight or obese. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to set new nutrition standards for all food served in schools. The rules released today apply to school meals; regulations for other foods such those served in à la carte lines, vending machines and stores will come later.

The changes are designed to improve the health of nearly 32 million children who eat lunch at school every day and almost 11 million who eat breakfast. Overall, kids consume about 30% to 50% of their calories while at school. The new standards for school lunch:

•Establish maximum calorie and sodium limits for meals. The sodium limits are phased in over 10 years.

•Require schools to serve a fruit and vegetable every day at lunch and in larger portions than offered before. Portion sizes vary by age group. For instance, high school students will have to be offered one cup of vegetables and one cup of fruit a day. Right now they have to be offered a total of three-quarters cup of fruit and vegetables.

•Require schools to offer a minimum number of leafy green vegetables, red-orange vegetables, starchy vegetables and legumes each week. The amount varies by age group. For example, high school students have to be offered at least a half-cup of green leafy vegetables a week.

New Nutrition Guidelines for School Lunches

New nutrition guidelines include more vegetables and low-fat or fat-free milk.

•Require that after the two years of implementation, all grains offered to students must be rich in whole grains such as brown rice. Breads, buns, cereals and pastas must list whole grain as the first ingredient.

•Require milk to be either low-fat (1%) or fat-free. (That is already in effect.) Flavored milk, such as chocolate, must now be fat-free.

•Require that foods that are served contain no trans fats.

The new standards for lunch take effect the next school year. Changes for breakfast will be phased in.

Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says the changes “are landmark. These are the first-ever standards for sodium, trans fat and whole grains and the first time ever they’ve had an upper limit for calories.”

Congress blocked the proposal to restrict starchy vegetables, and it required that pizza continue to count as a vegetable, she says.

The federal government will give schools an additional 6 cents a lunch to meet the standards. When the rules are fully implemented, the cost of preparing a healthier lunch that meets the new rules is estimated to rise by about 11 cents, and the cost of preparing a breakfast is estimated to increase by 28 cents, the USDA says. The agency estimates that the increased cost of producing meals that meet the standard will be $3.2 billion over five years.

Vilsack says companies that supply commodities to the USDA already are responding to the standards by offering foods that are lower in fat, sugar and sodium. Frozen fried potatoes are being replaced with potatoes that have been roasted or baked, he says.

Many schools already have made improvements. “These are all goals school nutrition professionals have been working toward, and these national nutrition standards will ensure that every student has access to a healthy meal in the cafeteria,” says Diane Pratt-Heavner of the School Nutrition Association.

Schools must meet the standards to get federal reimbursements for meals, she says. They now receive $2.77 from the federal government for every child who is on the free-lunch program. “Healthy food costs more, so school programs will have to find ways to meet the standards while staying within their budget.”

Here’s how elementary school lunch menus will change on two sample days:

DAY 1

Before regulation:
Hot dog on bun (3 oz.) with ketchup (4 Tbs.)
Canned pears (¼ cup)
Raw celery and carrots (1/8 cup each) with ranch dressing (1.75 Tbs.)
Low-fat (1%) chocolate milk (8 oz.)

After the regulation:
Whole-wheat spaghetti with meat sauce (½ cup) Whole-wheat roll with soft margarine (5 grams)
Green beans, cooked (½ cup)
Broccoli (½ cup) Cauliflower (½ cup)
Low-fat ranch dip (1 oz.)
Kiwi halves, raw (½ cup)
Low-fat (1%) milk (8 oz.)

DAY 2

Before the regulation:
Cheese pizza (4.8 oz)
Canned pineapple (¼ cup)
Tater Tots (½ cup) with ketchup (2 Tbs.)
Low-fat (1%) chocolate milk (8 oz)

After the regulation:
Whole-wheat cheese pizza (1 slice)
Baked sweet potato fries (½ cup)
Grape tomatoes, raw (¼ cup)
Low-fat ranch dip (1 oz.)
Applesauce (½ cup)
Low-fat (1%) milk (8 oz.)

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Tags: Childhood Obesity, healthy diet, overweight or obese
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Kids & Fast Weight Loss Diets: A Bad Combination

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Kids & Fast Weight Loss Diets: A Bad Combination

Sensible eating can be fun!

We live in an instant gratification society where everything we want is as close as a click on computer’s keyboard or a drive to the mall. So it is to be expected that we’d like to believe a problem that took quite a while to develop–like our child or teen’s weight gain–can be solved in an instant.

Ads on TV and the internet inundate us (and our kids) with “magic diets” and “miracle weight loss“ products touting everything from pomegranates to maple syrup as the ingredient that will serve as the key that unlocks the fast weight loss.

The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” should be applied here. Not only are the diets not workable, they are flat-out not safe–particularly for growing children.

Pills may in fact raise a child’s metabolism causing weight loss (along with causing sleeplessness, inattentiveness, possible heart palpitations or worse). Diuretics may effect a loss of water weight (while putting the kidneys at risk). Reducing the diet to one ingredient or abandoning carbohydrates or relying on protein shakes for all one’s nutrition certainly doesn’t supply the necessary nutrition to the still-growing body of a child or teen and, what’s worse, the moment regular eating habits are reverted to again, all the weight lost will return–and more.

At a reputable weight loss camp, the emphasis isn’t on miracle dieting (or constant exercise plus starvation as is shown on such TV shows like “The Biggest Loser“) rather it is on healthy nutrition, teaching our campers how to have a new relationship with food, and exercise that serves the body in the short and long-term and that overweight children and teens find fun (multiplying the chance they will continue exercising their whole life long.)

As a parent of an overweight child or teen, it is understandable that you’d like fast results. No one wants to see their child suffer and, make no mistake, the overweight child is suffering. But have patience and encourage your child to have patience. Investigate weight loss programs like those at Camp Shane and you’ll see that, when it comes to child and teen weight loss