With an increase in awareness in health due to scary statistics regarding obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, the desire for people to become more healthy has been on the rise. Weight loss retreats from Killington, Vermont’s New Life Hiking Spa educate guests about health enhancement, enabling them to continue the healthy habits picked up at the retreat once they are back in their daily lives. A far cry from old-fashioned adult fat camps, hiking is an important part of the retreat program at New Life, a great way to get over the initial hump of beginning a fitness campaign. For almost 40 years, New Life Hiking Spa has been helping people lose weight and get healthy. For more than a decade, New Life Hiking Spa has been offering an eleven day weight loss retreat with special pricing to allow guests to have an extended stay and still be able to afford the program. In the past, when people wanted to drop quick pounds they would go to “fat farms” and old-fashioned adult fat camps for knocking off weight in a short period of time through intense exercise and near starvation at a premium price.

New Life Hiking Spa’s alternative is designed not for quick losses but for a holistic lifestyle change, which leads to healthier habits and better eating, for a gradual but steady increase in feeling and looking better. New Life is renowned for being an affordable destination spa with some of the nation’s best fitness programming. Celebrating thirty eight years in business, its weight loss retreats have been regarded by the industry as some of the best in the world. New Life Hiking Spa was selected by Health Magazine as one of “Four Great Weight Loss Spas” in the United States and New Life has been regarded as one of the top spas for it’s healthy food, hiking program and weight loss retreat by numerous other major publications. New Life Hiking Spa is the original, authentic wellness retreat. Say goodbye to old fashioned fat farms and say hello to a New Life.Lose weight, have fun, gain self-esteem! The world famous New Image Camps makes this and more possible at its two spectacular private lakefront weight loss camps Camp Pocono Trails in Pennsylvania and Camp Vanguard in Florida – one of the only weight loss camps accredited by the American Camp Association.

Enjoy loads of fabulous activities in serene, beautiful settings, all aimed to promote long-term health, wellness, integrity and learning in a fun, mainstream manner. The world's best weight loss camps For kids, teens, young adults, male and female, ages 7 to 25. We even offer a fun and innovative “Mom’s Camp” and “Family Camp”, so everyone goes home in the best physical and mental shape of their lives! Camp Pocono Trailssets the standard for weight loss camps with its beautiful lakefront, multitude of indoor and outdoor activities and the friendliest staff around. 2 swimming pools (1 for boys, 1 for girls), basketball courts, full theater, odyssey course, trips to Broadway, driving range, lake, gymnasium, rope course & more. We even have a FREE AIRFARE offer! Camp VanguardLife is better on the water! From boating and canoeing to pontoon boat rides… The excitement never ends. There’s a paintball course, ropes course, aerobics studio, bike trails, basketball courts, beach volleyball courts and much more!

Campers can even take advantage of proximity to places like the Disney Parks and Universal Studios. We don't believe in fad diets, deprivation, or clinical treatments in a school atmosphere. Outdoor Hot Tub SurroundsRather, we teach you how to live a healthier life by making smarter choices, being conscious of portion sizes, and engaging in physical activities while enjoying our beautiful, private camp setting. Wooden Flooring In Chennai We are one of the only weight loss camps in the country to have earned this distinction. Reviews On Arizona Discount MoversIn order to gain ACA accreditation, our New Image Camps have met or exceeded expectations with more than 25 prerequisite health and safety standards, in addition to more than 40 other standards in 10 operational areas that prove our camp is a safe and wonderful place for our campers.

Get answers to questions, receive a 2016 brochure and DVD or set up a tour. Book Summer of 2016 View rates & dates, get info on financing and learn about our free airfare offer. Work at Our Camps We attract the best of the best with the most attractive benefits package in the industry. Ways to Have Fun With so many activities to choose from and 5 activity periods per day (one of which you can select your favorite activity for), there is an endless amount of fun to be had at New Image Camps! We invite you to compare. See why New Image Camps are the best... What's New at New Image Camps: Males and females, ages 18 to 25, get in the best physical and mental shape of their lives, completely separated from the younger campers. Here you will form a strong support system for when you return home. Family Camp & Moms Camp A big advantage of these programs is that parents are taught first hand how to prepare for their children when they come home from camp.

Learn more about these innovative programs that benefit the whole family! Family Camp Moms Camp New Image Camps' Essay Contest The winners haven been chosen! Meet our four winners of the “Imagine Me! I’m Up for the Challenge at New Image Camp” essay contest. They've each won a nine-week sleep-away camp experience this summer! At New Image Camps we treat each camper with compassion and respect, and we hand pick the best staff there is; all with the aim to provide a beautiful, supportive environment for fun, healthy weight loss.() -- Five years ago, Juli Ackerman never thought she'd be able to buy an off-the-rack wedding dress. At 5 feet 10 inches, the software-company executive from Newport, California, then 40, was 280 pounds. Her weight had always fluctuated, but she decided that she wanted to slim down once and for all. She stumbled upon the Web site of the Hilton Head Health Institute, a self-billed "weight loss spa retreat center" in South Carolina, and signed up.

"I went there not knowing much about what I was in for," she says. "I didn't want to get pampered; I wanted to get healthy." Weight-loss retreats, spas, and resorts for adults -- the grown-up version of fat camps -- have been around for decades. But now, fueled by growing awareness of the health risks of obesity and the popularity of weight-loss shows such as The Biggest Loser, they seem to be on the rise. But do they work? Yes, according to Ackerman. After two weeks of swimming and fitness classes, she lost 11 pounds. "It was a great jump start for me," says Ackerman, who returned to the institute twice and went on to lose more than 100 pounds. Last year, she was married on the beach; she weighed 165 pounds and was a trim and confident size 12. But as they say in Jenny Craig ads, "Results not typical." Experts caution that these retreats aren't for everyone and don't always work. The weight loss may not last, and it may not be worth the cost, which can be as high as several thousand dollars a week.

Nicole McLaren, a 26-year-old student from Washington, D.C., signed up for a monthlong stay at Hilton Head, hoping to shed 30 pounds. She lasted just two weeks before throwing in the towel in July 2007. "I had this whole concept in my head of The Biggest Loser," she says, referring to the intense (and compulsory) training the contestants get. That wasn't what she found when she arrived. "Everything was optional, so a lot of people just sat around and talked about losing weight," she says. "The only thing you had to stick to was [that] they portioned your food to about 1,200 calories a day." : 25 diet-busting foods you should never eat The structured environment, exercise classes, and prepared meals had sounded promising, but the $2,400-a-week price tag seemed too high when she found meals were limited to one option, she had to share a room with strangers, and the exercise classes were geared toward the resort's older clients. "I think I lost eight pounds, but that's only because they starve you," McLaren says.

"When I left, all I wanted to do was eat!" "Weight-loss camps are not an easy or quick fix," says Jennifer Hester, a sports exercise and education researcher at Leeds Metropolitan University, in the U.K. "The short-term investment of time and money does not automatically equate to healthy weight management in the long term." A new generation of weight-loss resorts Between 2000 and 2005, the number of accredited youth weight-loss camps in the U.S. nearly doubled. TV shows such as MTV's True Life: I'm Going to Fat Camp -- filmed at Camp Shane in Ferndale, N.Y., which opened its doors in 1968 -- helped bring weight-loss programs for kids and teens into the spotlight. Similar programs for adults are now widely available. Instead of stressing extreme weight loss in a short period of time, these programs tend to focus on sustainable lifestyle changes. These weight-loss retreats market their services in a variety of ways. Some, such as the nationwide chain of Wellspring Retreats, emphasize outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting, surfing, and mountain climbing, while others, such as Duke University's Diet and Fitness Center, feature a clinic-like atmosphere.

For a more relaxed approach, there's Green Mountain, a "non-diet" weight-loss program in Vermont exclusively for women. There's even a Biggest Loser resort in Utah. While the theme and day-to-day schedule varies at each retreat, most programs are structured around exercise, healthy meals, and lifestyle education. At the Hilton Head Health Institute, Ackerman ate three restricted-calorie meals a day (followed by 20-minute walks), and had exercise sessions, nutrition lectures, cooking classes, and behavior modification seminars. : Lost the weight? Here's how to keep it off Features such as these don't come cheap. The cost of attending an adult weight-loss retreat ranges from about $2,000 to $7,000 per week. Contestants on The Biggest Loser experience dramatic weight loss, but the show has come under fire because its results are sometimes temporary. In 2009, for instance, season-three winner Erik Chopin -- who lost 214 pounds on the show -- told Oprah Winfrey that he had gained most of the weight back.

Do people who attend weight-loss retreats also lose a significant amount of weight, and are they likely to see a similar rebound effect? The research on residential weight-loss programs is limited, and the results have been mixed. Studies of the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa, in Aventura, Florida -- the most researched program of its kind -- have found that guests lose between 4 percent and 5 percent of their body weight. (Other measures of health, such as their cholesterol levels and blood pressure, also tend to improve measurably.) : Skinny up your weekend As for the permanence of the weight loss, a study conducted by researchers from the University of South Carolina found that one year after their stay, just 22 percent of Hilton Head Health guests weighed 10 percent less than they did when they entered the retreat. Similarly, in a 2006 study of people who attended a weight-loss camp in Europe for more than five months, just over one-quarter maintained a 10 percent weight loss after four years.

Hester says that weight-loss camps are more likely to be effective if they are designed and administered by qualified health and fitness professionals, and if the program teaches people how to adopt healthy behaviors over the long term. "Unfortunately," she says, "some weight-loss camps promote rapid weight loss through very low calorie diets and/or a punishing exercise regimen. Both are unlikely to be sustained in the long-term and are not relevant for healthy weight maintenance." Paul J. Gately, a professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University (where he has conducted research with Hester), says that very few camps have a sufficiently comprehensive approach to weight loss. Programs should incorporate "not just the physical experience but the emotional, psychological, and social experience both during and following the intervention," he says. "All are critical in achieving strong outcomes." The weight-loss regimens used in clinical research are created using the best available scientific evidence, Gately adds.

By contrast, "there's almost no evidence whatsoever" for commercial weight-loss retreats, he says. "If you know your intervention works, you [would] have a huge amount of evidence of it, because it would be a very strong selling point. [Instead] it becomes about who markets these services the best way." : Walk a little, lose a lot Is a weight-loss retreat for you? Attending a weight-loss retreat is not a decision to be made lightly. The expense can be considerable, and you'll need to take days -- if not weeks -- off from work or other commitments. Ackerman says that for her, the Hilton Head Health Institute was a good investment of time and money, since she has applied the principles she learned to her everyday life. She now works out twice a week with a personal trainer, practices Pilates, and takes regular walks. "I would have written any check to get healthy," she says. "What it cost was minimal compared to what I feel like I got back." Not everyone walks away with such a rosy opinion, however.