Teens struggle with weight-loss at camp.

Publication: The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Orlando Sentinel

Byline: Aline Mendelsohn

LAKE WALES, Fla. _ The taunting started in first grade.

Flabby Abby, Abby the cow, the other kids would call her. Abby Lewis told her mother she wanted to go to school in China, because it was the farthest place from Florida she could imagine.

Instead of China, Abby, now 16, ended up going to boarding school in Massachusetts and spending summers at a weight-loss camp in Lake Wales, Fla.

Abby, who lives near Naples, Fla., has attended the camp for eight years. She has not managed to maintain her weight loss. But Cindy Lewis says her daughter did maintain something else: friends she has known for years.

These days, shedding pounds is only one aspect of weight-loss camps for youths. Friendships play a key role in the camp experience, directors say.

"A lot of these kids don't have much of a social life at home, and (the social environment) is as important, if not more so, than the weight loss itself," says Tony Sparber, founder of New Image Weight Loss Camps.

For about $1,000 a week, New Image offers a controlled environment for boys and girls ages 7-18 at camps in Florida, Pennsylvania and California. Kids can stay up to seven weeks.

Camp Vanguard, New Image's branch in Lake Wales, attracts youths from throughout the nation and a few from other countries. Each year, the camp hosts dozens of repeat customers _ some who hope to sustain their weight loss, others who want to start over completely, and still others who are there simply to be...

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