Let’s Go To The Farm – Fat Farm That Is!

The term Fat Farm seems a crude way of describing an establishment involved in weight loss. Ironically enough the title came from those that have weight problems themselves. As far back as 50 years ago, places like fat camps, fat farms and boot camps for weight loss were extremely popular. Mainly because they were a great place to go and lose weight quickly. No one who attended the majority of these places promoted them as being vacation resorts as the food intakes bordered on starvation. The norm caloric intake was restricted to between 400-900 per day. In addition, there were extensive exercise programs and a selection of nutritional supplements added to the regimen. In some places, alternative measures such as colonics were also used to promote weight loss.

For those who had the stamina to stay the course and finish the program at the fat farm, they did in fact lose weight. Many left with the look and feel of real accomplishment. Only there was a major problem. They may have lost weight, but they couldn’t keep it off. Once integrated back into realistic day-to-day living, the fat farm regime just couldn’t work, and back came the unwanted pounds.

Eventually the fat farm was no longer popular. People just couldn’t get over the hurdle of putting the weight back on. So other weight loss methods were sought such as long term “low cal” diets and nutritional drinks and supplements. The acceptable weight loss calorie range by the 1970’s was about 1200 per day. However, these methods also failed because the emphasis was put on dietary restrictions and participants just found them too difficult for long term adherence.

The quest for successful weight loss continued into the 1980’s, where the fat farm was a thing of the past. In this era, higher calorie intake was married with healthier lifestyles with the goal to provide more long term weight management. The trend had now become to teach people how to eat rather than what to eat. The strategy was to teach behavior patterns in choosing the right foods, coupled with proper exercise.

Weight loss spas began to spring up and added the new modern concepts of behavior therapy.