Leeds Metropolitan University is next week to host a weight loss camp for overweight teenagers for the eighth consecutive summer.
About 150 young people aged between 11 and 17 will attend the camp for at least two weeks of its two-month duration.
Kacy Mackreth, the marketing coordinator of Carnegie Weight Management, the unit of Leeds Metropolitan University that devised the camp, said some parents viewed the residential programme as a last resort when other attempts to reduce their child's weight had failed.
The non-profit residential camp costs around £60 a day, which Ms Mackreth said represented good value for money compared with childcare averaging about £45.
She said the camp also worked out as considerably less expensive than the typical £8,000 cost of weight reduction surgery, which was now being recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for children as young as 15.
However, the cost of the camp would still put it out of reach of many families, she said. The organisers intend to lobby the government to provide subsidies for children from low incomes to attend.
"One mother told me that, if her son was addicted to drugs, that there would be services available to help him, but there is very little for someone who is obese," Ms Mackreth explained.
The camps aim for immediate but safe weight loss through physical activity and healthy eating programmes. The goal, the organisers say, is to change eating habits and lifestyle at home, after a child has returned from the camp.
This year Carnegie Weight Management is launching a one-week family camp to encourage parents to improve their own and their children's eating habits. As well as physical activities such as yoga, kickboxing and tennis, there will be sessions on basic nutrition, recipe makeovers, cooking classes and a supermarket outing for tips on healthier shopping.
The public health minister, Caroline Flint, said last month that 15% of Britain's 5 million children aged two to 11 years old were obese, and a similar number overweight.
