More than 61 percent of Texas is overweight or obese.
Obesity in children has reached crisis proportions in Texas. More than 35 percent of Texas schoolchildren are overweight or obese. The number of overweight and obese children has doubled over the last 20 years, and it continues to rise.
The American Obesity Society lists Houston, Dallas and San Antonio in their "Top 10 Overweight Cities", with Houston ranking number one. In Houston, 36.2 percent of children ages 6 to 17 are overweight. Within this population, 19.2 percent are obese.
A child who is obese by age 12 has more than a 75 percent chance of becoming an obese adult.
Studies show that overweight children miss three or four times as much school as children who are not overweight and often struggle with social problems, such as depression and low self-esteem. They also increase their risk for Type 2 diabetes and for adult long-term illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, asthma and certain cancers. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the diseases associated with obesity are increasing at the same rate as obesity itself.
In response to these astounding statistics, Healthy Living Academies, the leading organization of weight loss camps and residential treatment programs for overweight and obese children and adolescents has opened Wellspring Texas - a weight-loss camp designed to allow young people who are struggling with their weight to lose weight and change their lives for the better.
Set on the sprawling 200-acre campus of San Marcos Baptist Academy outside of Austin, at Wellspring Texas, boys and girls, ages 12-17 join with an experienced and highly motivated staff to become long-term weight controllers while having an amazing summer.
Campers who attend Wellspring Camps average a weekly weight loss of 4.25 pounds a week. Further, as found in two follow-up studies Wellspring Campers also continue to lose weight after the summer is over.