Have to read this--why MFP works!
shorerider
Posts: 3,817 Member
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW NOT TO LOSE WEIGHT
Washington Post is continuing their week long stories about overweight kids. Today was an incredible and very sad article about a “fat school” in North Carolina. It costs $6250 a month to send your kid there!
What saddened me was what they do to the kids at the school. They should be investigated—I really feel what they’re doing is child abuse.
They limit them to 1200 calories a day—not enough for growing children!—and only 12 grams of fat a day, which the article notes is 1/3 what even Weight Watchers suggest!
As if the diet restrictions weren’t enough, the kids have to wear pedometers from the moment they get up to verify that they walk the equivalent of about 5 miles a day. So they’re walking 5 miles a day, plus other cardio exercise they make them do in the morning (or they get punished) for about 3 hours of exercise day and only giving them 1200 calories a day. Yet they offer them unlimited diet sodas, cottage cheese, and fat-free yogurt.
Several children have suffered from gall bladder problems, which the school admits might be related to the low fat diet. Eight in a year came down with issues--seven had to have surgery!!
Many children have gone home only to gain weight—one boy gained 260 pounds the year after he left the school!!!!
And, it’s no wonder, they children have not really learned how to eat—they’ve only learned how to starve.
Yet another example of what MFP helps us learn—a life time change to a healthy way of eating along with exercise is the way go! Drastic cut backs in calories does not do it--starvation mode does not do it!
Here are some quotes from the article—links follow if anyone wants to read the whole stories and see the photos. Makes me sad for these kids.
"Uncontrolleds," which are supposed to teach portion control, may be eaten in any quantity and are available at all meals. Choices include fresh fruit and salad bar items as well as fat-free yogurt and cottage cheese. Juice is banned, but skim milk is available, as is Crystal Light soda, which many students guzzle at breakfast and throughout the day.
By far the most popular item is Splenda, the no-calorie sweetener students consume in quantities food service director Chris Holroyd calls "worrying." Students, some of whom call themselves "Splendaholics," go through more than 500 servings per day. One boy dumps 14 lemon-colored packets into a small bowl of yogurt.
A month's stay at the school, which has a maximum enrollment of 50, costs $6,250, making a year at Wellspring more expensive than a year at Harvard. "We know that moderation has not been successful for these kids," said Wellspring president Ryan Craig, a graduate of Yale and its law school, who characterizes measures like improving school lunches as too little, too late.
"Overall, our success rate is excellent," Craig said. The average weight loss for students who stay eight months (twice the required minimum) is 81 pounds, he said, and the first class of 15 students on average maintained their weight loss 10 months after leaving -- the only results Wellspring has published. Among them is Terry Henry of Exeter, N.H., who enrolled in September 2004 at 15 weighing 558 pounds. He left 15 months later weighing 253 pounds and today weighs about 278 pounds, school officials say.
Henry's success contrasts with the experience of Jahcobie Cosom, 18, of Dorchester, Mass. Cosom, who lost 167 pounds at the school and 30 during his first month home, gained 260 pounds in less than a year, his weight rocketing to 562. He is scheduled to undergo gastric bypass surgery this summer.
"If their families don't change, [students] are going to be back to their old ways of doing things" when they get home, said Anjali Jain, a pediatrician at Children's National Medical Center who specializes in treating obesity.
Santee Wells, 15, who lives on an Indian reservation in Red Wing, Minn., ceaselessly paces the perimeter of the room, iPod ear buds jammed in his ears, accumulating steps on the "pedo" that all students are required to wear from the time they get up until they fall into bed. Wells, whose jeans hang off his newly thin frame, has been at Wellspring the longest and is about to leave. He has lost 106 pounds in seven months and grimaces occasionally.
He will soon discover he has gallbladder disease, the eighth student to suffer the painful ailment so far this year; six, Santee included, have undergone surgery. Rapid weight loss is a risk factor for gallbladder problems, and Wellspring officials have told parents that the school's very-low-fat diet -- fewer than 12 grams per day (about one quarter the amount recommended by Weight Watchers) -- may play a role.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/19/ST2008051901576.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603576.html?sid=ST2008051901576
Washington Post is continuing their week long stories about overweight kids. Today was an incredible and very sad article about a “fat school” in North Carolina. It costs $6250 a month to send your kid there!
What saddened me was what they do to the kids at the school. They should be investigated—I really feel what they’re doing is child abuse.
They limit them to 1200 calories a day—not enough for growing children!—and only 12 grams of fat a day, which the article notes is 1/3 what even Weight Watchers suggest!
As if the diet restrictions weren’t enough, the kids have to wear pedometers from the moment they get up to verify that they walk the equivalent of about 5 miles a day. So they’re walking 5 miles a day, plus other cardio exercise they make them do in the morning (or they get punished) for about 3 hours of exercise day and only giving them 1200 calories a day. Yet they offer them unlimited diet sodas, cottage cheese, and fat-free yogurt.
Several children have suffered from gall bladder problems, which the school admits might be related to the low fat diet. Eight in a year came down with issues--seven had to have surgery!!
Many children have gone home only to gain weight—one boy gained 260 pounds the year after he left the school!!!!
And, it’s no wonder, they children have not really learned how to eat—they’ve only learned how to starve.
Yet another example of what MFP helps us learn—a life time change to a healthy way of eating along with exercise is the way go! Drastic cut backs in calories does not do it--starvation mode does not do it!
Here are some quotes from the article—links follow if anyone wants to read the whole stories and see the photos. Makes me sad for these kids.
"Uncontrolleds," which are supposed to teach portion control, may be eaten in any quantity and are available at all meals. Choices include fresh fruit and salad bar items as well as fat-free yogurt and cottage cheese. Juice is banned, but skim milk is available, as is Crystal Light soda, which many students guzzle at breakfast and throughout the day.
By far the most popular item is Splenda, the no-calorie sweetener students consume in quantities food service director Chris Holroyd calls "worrying." Students, some of whom call themselves "Splendaholics," go through more than 500 servings per day. One boy dumps 14 lemon-colored packets into a small bowl of yogurt.
A month's stay at the school, which has a maximum enrollment of 50, costs $6,250, making a year at Wellspring more expensive than a year at Harvard. "We know that moderation has not been successful for these kids," said Wellspring president Ryan Craig, a graduate of Yale and its law school, who characterizes measures like improving school lunches as too little, too late.
"Overall, our success rate is excellent," Craig said. The average weight loss for students who stay eight months (twice the required minimum) is 81 pounds, he said, and the first class of 15 students on average maintained their weight loss 10 months after leaving -- the only results Wellspring has published. Among them is Terry Henry of Exeter, N.H., who enrolled in September 2004 at 15 weighing 558 pounds. He left 15 months later weighing 253 pounds and today weighs about 278 pounds, school officials say.
Henry's success contrasts with the experience of Jahcobie Cosom, 18, of Dorchester, Mass. Cosom, who lost 167 pounds at the school and 30 during his first month home, gained 260 pounds in less than a year, his weight rocketing to 562. He is scheduled to undergo gastric bypass surgery this summer.
"If their families don't change, [students] are going to be back to their old ways of doing things" when they get home, said Anjali Jain, a pediatrician at Children's National Medical Center who specializes in treating obesity.
Santee Wells, 15, who lives on an Indian reservation in Red Wing, Minn., ceaselessly paces the perimeter of the room, iPod ear buds jammed in his ears, accumulating steps on the "pedo" that all students are required to wear from the time they get up until they fall into bed. Wells, whose jeans hang off his newly thin frame, has been at Wellspring the longest and is about to leave. He has lost 106 pounds in seven months and grimaces occasionally.
He will soon discover he has gallbladder disease, the eighth student to suffer the painful ailment so far this year; six, Santee included, have undergone surgery. Rapid weight loss is a risk factor for gallbladder problems, and Wellspring officials have told parents that the school's very-low-fat diet -- fewer than 12 grams per day (about one quarter the amount recommended by Weight Watchers) -- may play a role.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/19/ST2008051901576.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603576.html?sid=ST2008051901576
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Replies
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ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW NOT TO LOSE WEIGHT
Washington Post is continuing their week long stories about overweight kids. Today was an incredible and very sad article about a “fat school” in North Carolina. It costs $6250 a month to send your kid there!
What saddened me was what they do to the kids at the school. They should be investigated—I really feel what they’re doing is child abuse.
They limit them to 1200 calories a day—not enough for growing children!—and only 12 grams of fat a day, which the article notes is 1/3 what even Weight Watchers suggest!
As if the diet restrictions weren’t enough, the kids have to wear pedometers from the moment they get up to verify that they walk the equivalent of about 5 miles a day. So they’re walking 5 miles a day, plus other cardio exercise they make them do in the morning (or they get punished) for about 3 hours of exercise day and only giving them 1200 calories a day. Yet they offer them unlimited diet sodas, cottage cheese, and fat-free yogurt.
Several children have suffered from gall bladder problems, which the school admits might be related to the low fat diet. Eight in a year came down with issues--seven had to have surgery!!
Many children have gone home only to gain weight—one boy gained 260 pounds the year after he left the school!!!!
And, it’s no wonder, they children have not really learned how to eat—they’ve only learned how to starve.
Yet another example of what MFP helps us learn—a life time change to a healthy way of eating along with exercise is the way go! Drastic cut backs in calories does not do it--starvation mode does not do it!
Here are some quotes from the article—links follow if anyone wants to read the whole stories and see the photos. Makes me sad for these kids.
"Uncontrolleds," which are supposed to teach portion control, may be eaten in any quantity and are available at all meals. Choices include fresh fruit and salad bar items as well as fat-free yogurt and cottage cheese. Juice is banned, but skim milk is available, as is Crystal Light soda, which many students guzzle at breakfast and throughout the day.
By far the most popular item is Splenda, the no-calorie sweetener students consume in quantities food service director Chris Holroyd calls "worrying." Students, some of whom call themselves "Splendaholics," go through more than 500 servings per day. One boy dumps 14 lemon-colored packets into a small bowl of yogurt.
A month's stay at the school, which has a maximum enrollment of 50, costs $6,250, making a year at Wellspring more expensive than a year at Harvard. "We know that moderation has not been successful for these kids," said Wellspring president Ryan Craig, a graduate of Yale and its law school, who characterizes measures like improving school lunches as too little, too late.
"Overall, our success rate is excellent," Craig said. The average weight loss for students who stay eight months (twice the required minimum) is 81 pounds, he said, and the first class of 15 students on average maintained their weight loss 10 months after leaving -- the only results Wellspring has published. Among them is Terry Henry of Exeter, N.H., who enrolled in September 2004 at 15 weighing 558 pounds. He left 15 months later weighing 253 pounds and today weighs about 278 pounds, school officials say.
Henry's success contrasts with the experience of Jahcobie Cosom, 18, of Dorchester, Mass. Cosom, who lost 167 pounds at the school and 30 during his first month home, gained 260 pounds in less than a year, his weight rocketing to 562. He is scheduled to undergo gastric bypass surgery this summer.
"If their families don't change, [students] are going to be back to their old ways of doing things" when they get home, said Anjali Jain, a pediatrician at Children's National Medical Center who specializes in treating obesity.
Santee Wells, 15, who lives on an Indian reservation in Red Wing, Minn., ceaselessly paces the perimeter of the room, iPod ear buds jammed in his ears, accumulating steps on the "pedo" that all students are required to wear from the time they get up until they fall into bed. Wells, whose jeans hang off his newly thin frame, has been at Wellspring the longest and is about to leave. He has lost 106 pounds in seven months and grimaces occasionally.
He will soon discover he has gallbladder disease, the eighth student to suffer the painful ailment so far this year; six, Santee included, have undergone surgery. Rapid weight loss is a risk factor for gallbladder problems, and Wellspring officials have told parents that the school's very-low-fat diet -- fewer than 12 grams per day (about one quarter the amount recommended by Weight Watchers) -- may play a role.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/19/ST2008051901576.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603576.html?sid=ST20080519015760 -
Oh my goodness, that's horrible. Poor kiddies
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That is sad! Does anyone have any good suggestions on weight loss for kids??
I'm worried about my 12 year old son, he is overweight and i think he gained more this past year. He doesn't eat too bad, he plays soccer spring and fall and he goes with me to walk at the track when i go.
I'm kind of concerned he may have a thyroid problem and maybe thats why he isn't losing any weight and why he seems to have no energy or motivation.
Anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks0 -
That is sad! Does anyone have any good suggestions on weight loss for kids??
I'm worried about my 12 year old son, he is overweight and i think he gained more this past year. He doesn't eat too bad, he plays soccer spring and fall and he goes with me to walk at the track when i go.
I'm kind of concerned he may have a thyroid problem and maybe thats why he isn't losing any weight and why he seems to have no energy or motivation.
Anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks
I would most definitely consult your pediatrician first and foremost. They, of all people, will have the best advice.
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JUST MY OPINION!
Whatever you decide to do (see a doctor, specialist, nutritionist, etc) do not make him completely aware of what's going on. My mother put me in Weight Watchers when I was 10! The only lesson I learned was that there was something terribly wrong with me that I would have to go to this weird place once a week surrounded by older and larger women! It devastated me and it really hurt when I was never able to fully satisfy her with any permanent progress. I would discuss options and make the changes so that it seems natural for the FAMILY! I always had a different dinner than everyone else at the table and had a packed lunch of "weight watchers" snacks and foods. I learned at an early age that I was odd! Just some input from your child's perspective. DOn't tell him he's got to lose weight! Tell him the family needs to be healthy at home and away from home. This will help him at school and at friends' houses.0 -
That's so sad, those poor kids! I'm sure their parents can find better and safer ways in spending that $6250 to help their child lose weight. :grumble:0
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That is sad! Does anyone have any good suggestions on weight loss for kids??
I'm worried about my 12 year old son, he is overweight and i think he gained more this past year. He doesn't eat too bad, he plays soccer spring and fall and he goes with me to walk at the track when i go.
I'm kind of concerned he may have a thyroid problem and maybe thats why he isn't losing any weight and why he seems to have no energy or motivation.
Anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks
Here's a suggestion: Make it a family effort so it doesn't make him feel like there's something wrong with him. Make a goal as a family to exercise together (walks after dinner, frisbee throwing, bike riding), eat a certain number of vegetables/fruits a day, have like a point system, and then if as a family you reach your goal for the week, go celebrate a non-food way (bowling, skating, new DVD). Plan all this in the beginning of the week and really talk it up throughout the week. Visual charts help to remind everyone of how they're doing. And if he thinks he's helping you, it might make him less self-conscious and willing to be helpful. Everyone benefits!!!0 -
That is sad! Does anyone have any good suggestions on weight loss for kids??
I'm worried about my 12 year old son, he is overweight and i think he gained more this past year. He doesn't eat too bad, he plays soccer spring and fall and he goes with me to walk at the track when i go.
I'm kind of concerned he may have a thyroid problem and maybe thats why he isn't losing any weight and why he seems to have no energy or motivation.
Anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks
Check with your doctor--the no energy could point towards some medical issues.0 -
thanks for all of the input!! He knows he needs to lose weight, He went to put on a pair of blue jeans the other day and they didn't fit, he had to wear a pair of my husbands! Thats when it really hit me that we needed to do something. I guess when you are with someone everyday you don't see the changes.
He has been going walking with us and we have all been eating healthier since i have joined MFP, in fact my husband has lost 12 pounds!!
I think over the summer i will bring him to see his doctor just for a "checkup" and see what she reccomends.
I will never send him to a "fat camp" for someone else to deal with his weight problem. We will do it together as a family! :happy:
Thanks to all of you for listening and all of your input.
:flowerforyou:0
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