One Day at a Time

Schools of Last Resort

In this video and narrated gallery, students who attend campuses of a boarding academy for overweight kids describe their fight to lose weight.

All food is dubbed "HOP friendly" because it meets the low-fat, high-fiber requirements of the Healthy Obsession Program devised by Chicago psychologist Daniel Kirschenbaum, Wellspring's clinical director. Three meals are supplemented by an afternoon and evening snack and total about 1,200 calories of foods called "controlleds," which are rationed; there are no second helpings.

"Uncontrolleds," which are supposed to teach portion control, may be eaten in any quantity and are available at all meals. Choices include fresh fruit and salad bar items as well as fat-free yogurt and cottage cheese. Juice is banned, but skim milk is available, as is Crystal Light soda, which many students guzzle at breakfast and throughout the day.

By far the most popular item is Splenda, the no-calorie sweetener students consume in quantities food service director Chris Holroyd calls "worrying." Students, some of whom call themselves "Splendaholics," go through more than 500 servings per day. One boy dumps 14 lemon-colored packets into a small bowl of yogurt.

Other strange food practices abound. Some kids drench scrambled Egg Beaters with ketchup, douse baby carrots with mustard or squeeze gobs of no-fat mayonnaise onto tiny pretzels.

Some obesity experts say that binging on artificial sweeteners and ketchup may stimulate a desire for sugar. School officials disagree, characterizing it as harmless adolescent experimentation; they note that the Food and Drug Administration has found Splenda to be safe.

Periodically students are given a chance to test what they have learned through an "off-campus challenge" at a local restaurant.

One-third "will do great, one-third will make mistakes and one-third will gorge" on chocolate cake, Bishop said. "That's fine, too, because these kids have been on such a low-fat diet they come back and throw up. We want to let people try and succeed and try and fail" so they can learn from experience before leaving.

Many students worry about going home for a visit, or for good, and regaining all the weight they worked so hard to lose. Some confess that the notion of permanently forsaking pizza or ice cream the way a recovering alcoholic is supposed to forever swear off vodka seems overwhelming.

"If you go out and have pizza with your friends, there's nothing healthy about that," said social worker Susan Borgman, the school's clinical director. She and the other staff tell students they can have pizza made with low-fat sauce and low-fat cheese instead.

2:40 p.m. NUTRITION CLASS

Four girls discuss how they will cope when they return home.

Sarah Grace Beaty, 15, of Charleston, S.C., muses about what to do when her family goes to a favorite festival where fried food is a main attraction.