Weight Loss Blog
The Weight Loss Blog offers news and information about nutrition and fitness as well as actual weight loss success stories as told by students at Wellspring Academies, formerly Academy of the Sierras, the first boarding school for overweight teens. WSA is part of Wellspring, which also runs Wellspring weight loss camps.
The Blog started with entries by 15-year-old Jahcobie who graduated from WSA after losing 176 pounds in seven months. Then Brooke, a 17-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, took over. Our latest student blogger was Melissa, a 17-year-old from Orange County, California. Melissa recently graduated and we wish her success and she continues down her path as a "long-term weight controller."
Andy D. a 17-year-old student at Wellspring Academy spent a few months sharing his adventures in weight loss, healthy eating, and fitness fun with us before he graduated the program in June.
Now we'll continue to update you with news and information about weight lose, healthy living, and childhood obesity. We'll have a new WSA student share their stories with us beginning in the Fall.
Wellspring programs are the most effective weight loss solutions for teens available today. But don't let us tell you. Let Andy, Melissa, Brooke, and Jahcobie tell you. Read about their journeys toward successful weight management in their own words.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Hi, I'm Andy
I am proud to introduce myself as the fourth blogger on our website. My name is Andy, and I am seventeen years old from California. I have struggled with obesity for many years. I was always the fat kid in class, and my life suffered substantially as a result. Since I have arrived at AOS, however, I have begun to make strides in changing my life for the better. I have begun to see myself as who I really am beyond the extra 100 pounds, as opposed to the fat kid I saw myself as in the past. At this point in my life, I feel very grateful to have gone through the challenges that I have, as I feel that it better prepares me for the rest of my life. And, I feel more ready than ever to take the bull by the horns, and start living my life the way I feel it is meant to be lived.
Over the course of the next few months, I look forward to exploring a variety of topics; everything from sharing my personal struggles to sharing some observations on the greater nuances in life. I hope that you find my entries interesting, useful, or at the very least readable. I am excited to share some of my life journey with whoever is interested in observing it.
And, Go Giants.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Study Says "Urban Sprawl" Is Bad for Your Health
Can Living in the Suburbs Make You Fat? Well, it might increase your risk of being overweight or obese.
Researcher Ross Lopez at Boston University School of Health used data from a telephone survey of 184,450 persons who answered the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Survey. About 30% of them lived in what his study calls 330 different "urban sprawl" areas. These are defined as residential areas with houses on large lots near a city.
The suburbanites had an increased risk for being overweight and an even greater one for obesity. Men, Hispanics, blacks, low income persons, less educated and older people had more risk for overweight and obesity in this study as well as in other ones.
Lopez believes that urban sprawl contributes to being overweight because suburbanites get too dependent on their automobiles and do not walk as much as city dwellers. This study appears in the December 2004 issues of the American Journal of Public Health.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Family Meal Times and Less TV Lower Risk of Overweight in Kids
Watching less television and eating meals as a family protects children against overweight, according to a new study by the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Researchers led by Professor Sara Gable also found that children who eat with their parents tend to choose healthier foods.
Dr. Gable's team followed over 8,000 children from kindergarten through third grade. Overweight children tended to watch about two hours more television per week than their normal-weight peers. However, many of the overweight children lived in neighborhoods perceived as too dangerous for outdoor play.
This study, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, appears in the February 2007 issue of the of the
American Dietetic Association Journal.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Kids Watch 11,000 TV Ads A Year: Junk Foods Are Number One Sell
A study published in the September 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found children's television shows are full of advertisements for "nutrient-poor, high sugar foods." The study, funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, concluded that the ads influence parents to buy their children snack foods that have no nutritional value. This in turn contributes to America’s obesity epidemic among children.
Dr. Kirsten Harrison and Amy Marske, working at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL, watched forty hours of television beamed at children ages 6 to 11 years old over a five-week period in 2003. The shows had over 1400 advertisements, or about 10.6 per hour. About 30% of the ads were for food. Candy, sweets, soft drinks and fast foods were the most frequent, followed distantly by ads for cereals and breads.
Most of the television ads showed thin white male children snacking rather than eating at mealtimes. While the ads often plugged "natural ingredients" and other healthful slogans, most featured foods had very little nutritional value and a high sugar content.
Dr. Harrison wrote that the average American child watches over 11,000 television ads per year. Children ages 6 to 11 years often have the money to buy the foods they see in the ads, or influence their parents to do so. She concluded that parents should limit the amount of television their children watch not only because television watching makes them less active but also because it teaches them to want junk food. She noted that groups like the American Psychological Association have called for the restriction of such ads on children's television.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
You Have to Burn Calories to Lose Weight Either by Exercise or Dieting
A new study done through Louisiana State University found that either diet or exercise works to lose weight, which is all about burning calories. You burn calories by either eating less and forcing your body to use up calories in stored fat, or by exercising more, or by combining the two methods.
"For overall health, an appropriate program of diet and exercise is still the best," according to researcher Dr. Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.
Dr. Ravussin's study challenges many common beliefs about losing weight by results that show:
- "Spot reducing" is impossible. You can't force fat off your trouble spots like thighs, belly or arms.
- Adding more muscle mass does not boost metabolism and help you take off even more weight.
- Dieting doesn't make you lose muscle mass.
Dr. Ravussin's research team employed 34 people for six months. Twelve cut back their calories by 25%. Twelve exercised five times a week to burn up their calorie intake by 12.5% while also decreasing their food calories by 12.5%. Ten people did nothing at all. At the end of the study, the ten who did nothing remained the same weight. The others lost about 10 percent of their body weights, amounting to 24% of their fat mass and 27% of abdominal visceral fat. This study appears in the February 2007 issue of the
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Can Commercials for Carrots Persuade High School Kids to Buy Them at Lunch?
How can you get high school students to choose healthy foods from their lunch cafeterias?
Researchers from the University of Minnesota tried gradually introducing more low-fat foods like fruits and vegetables along with the usual sodas, chips and burgers at ten high schools in the suburban St. Paul/Minneapolis. They paid student groups to promote the new foods through posters, videos, newspaper articles and test tastes.
Two years later, healthy foods made up 42% of the choices instead of 28%. Sales for low-fat foods increased by 10%, and overall sales and profits remained about the same. Students said they were more aware that healthy foods were available and more likely to choose them.
The Minneapolis team used ten similar suburban schools as a control. After two years, the cafeterias at the control schools were still serving only 28% healthy foods, and overall sales remained flat.
The authors of the study noted that the United States faces an epidemic of childhood obesity and yet most high school students do not study nutrition in class. This study appeared in the September 2004 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
