The idea of a ‘fat camp,’ or a camp specifically designed to help children and teenagers lose weight through often-extreme methods, can sometimes feel like one that was made up for movies or TV shows, or something that existed a long time ago and doesn’t affect people anymore.
One TikTok user, Hannah Lysee, is opening up about her very-real experience at a fat camp she attended as a teenager that is now closed down permanent to bring awareness to these stories.
This article contains discussions of disordered eating and extreme dieting.
“I want to preface that I chose to go to fat camp willingly,” Hannah explained.
“I struggled with my weight at an early age after some traumatic things in my life, and desperately wanted to fit in with my peers, so my parents had the means to send me, and I went,” Hannah stated .
Hannah explained they were all given journals to track what they ate and pedometers around their wrists.
Hannah revealed that their diet was “less than 1200 calories a day and less than 20 grams of fat. Literally what is that? For a toddler?”
“Pretty much you were active all day, every day,” she added. “We were all expected to do our exercises as they were prescribed to us. We didn’t get much wiggle room with saying no unless we were injured or sick.”
“Breakfast would often be egg whites, fat-free/low-fat yogurts, bagels, and fruits,” Hannah revealed.
“Lunch and dinner were mostly chicken or buffalo meat — things that were high in protein and low in fat. We’d snack on things like those little 100-calorie SnackWell’s or Fig Newtons two times a day, in addition to our three meals. Sometimes we’d get diet soda as a ‘treat,'” she went on.
While Hannah stated she did lose weight at the camp, she wouldn’t call it a success.
“I gained back the 40 pounds I lost in 10 weeks, and more, and I just never could figure out how to ‘eat right’ and remained on diets for 10 more years after camp,” she explained.
“I think the experience engrained in me the restrictive, rapid weight-loss diet mindset, and I had to finally learn that it’s OK to eat more than 1,200 calories and actually fuel my body with all three food groups, and not eliminate one,” she went on .
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We’re glad to hear that Hannah’s comfortable sharing this journey and is in a better place!
h/t: Buzzfeed
