Live Chat Transcript We spoke to Dave tonge, Camp Director, Carnegie International Weight Loss Camp, on April 21, 2004, about child obesity and weight-loss camps for children. Read the transcript of the chat below...

Dan: Dave, how did you get started in all of this?

Dave Tonge: They started in 1999. They were developed by Dr Paul Gately who had been in America and seen the US style weight-loss camps and realised we needed to modify those, to make them more fun and enjoyable and to incorporate more educational components to make the camp more successful.

Ellie - How much does your fat camp cost?

Dave Tonge: For a 6 week stay it costs just over £2000. We provide a full residential camp including a range of physical activities - sports and games, with strong educational components, based around lifestyle, nutrition and physical activity and other activities in the evening which are fun activities. The main ethos of the camp is fun and enjoyment of activity.

Del - How much weight could I expect to lose at your camp? I'm 15yrs old, am about 5'7 and weigh nearly 14 stone.

Dave Tonge: The amount of weight-loss varies between 2 - 8lbs, roughly, a week. On average it's around 5lb a week, which is within the recommended guidelines for this kind of weight-loss.

Yvonne - My daughter is becoming quite big for her age. Her grandmother was obese, is there anything I can do now or is this just a genetic thing? I watch what she eats carefully.

Dave Tonge: Genetics plays a role in some children but the main factor is lifestyle and specifically activity level and diet. The main thing I would suggest, would be to eat a healthy balanced diet and increase physical activity, e.g. walk to school, walk the dog - even doing housework... as well as joining in PE at school etc

CJ - What is portion control and what if you feel hungry all the time?

Dave Tonge: Portion control is where you are aware of the amount of food that is going into your body. We on the camp, actually look at portions and the sizes of various meals and try to give the children some education and experience of how to understand portions and portion sizes and servings. If you feel hungry then snacking on fruit would be the main thing to do - this increases your fruit intake which is always a good thing, you should also decrease snack and junk foods.

James - Do kids come back to the camps?

Dave Tonge: We have around a 50% returning rate. We do get kids who have lost considerable amounts of weight who come back for the experience and the fun.

Sam - I hate exercise at school. It's hard if you're not good at games! What else can I do to get fit?

Dave Tonge: The first thing would be to walk to school. One of the problems with school PE is that it is heavily focused on sport and this can turn off a lot of children. I would suggest seeking other non-sport related activities instead.

Martin - Do you have anyone you just can't help?

Dave Tonge: We have never come across anyone that we have not had an impact on their lifestyle.

Danny - I read Darren's story on your website. Do you have lots of other success stories like him?

Dave Tonge: We do, we have around 10, 20, 30 every year and if anyone wants to contact me about any of our success stories I can tell them about them.

Karen L - How long do you have to stay at the camp? And is it hard?!

Dave Tonge: Minimum stay is 2 weeks. It's not hard - it's fun and nothing like a boot camp!

Dawn - How do you make exercise fun for a child who hates games?

Dave Tonge: The main thing is to put the activity in the correct context. This means that the focus of the activity might not necessarily be being active or running around, but it might be something that engages the child on a different level, but then incorporates an activity. For example a treasure hunt type game or any game not directly related to a sport.

adam_ peachy - Can I lose weight quickly within a matter of weeks or is it dangerous on the body?

Dave Tonge: It is better to lose it slowly because the cells in the body are more adapted to the physiological changes that occur with weight-loss.

Will - What's the heaviest person you've helped and are they still sticking to it?

Dave Tonge: The heaviest was a 35 stone boy aged 15, that was 2 years ago. He has lost 9 and a half stone and now weights just over 25. Some kids keep in touch - others who have done really well we don't hear from and we would like to as they are obviously our success stories.

Aled - How do you get the confidence to get started with exercise?

Dave Tonge: One of the main problems is that overweight children are excluded from taking part in various activities and games in school or indeed in general, this ultimately means that there is a lack of practice and a lack of development of basic motor skills. So automatically overweight or obese children are more behind than their normal weight peers.

kai - What's the best advice you give to kids?

Dave Tonge: The best advice really - and one of the camps slogans is to "take every opportunity to be active" and related to food - "everything in moderation".