Losing weight does not involve some sort of "secret formula" to success. The factors that contribute to weight loss haven't changed since mankind first evolved - you need a good diet and adequate exercise. Children especially can struggle with making the right changes - partly because they don't know exactly what to change and partly because their parents or care-takers have taught them or tolerated so many bad habits that the cycle is hard to break. This is where weight loss camps can be highly beneficial. Here, trained professionals work with kids and teens to teach them how to eat healthy as well as how to enjoy exercising.

One of the hotter topics in dieting these days is carbohydrates. The popular diets that told people to eliminate all carbs from their diet to lose weight has led to many people wrongfully believing that reducing or eliminating carbohydrates is a healthy way to live and lose weight. While it may provide some short term results, this kind of diet is not really sustainable and is not all that 'good' for you. The truth is that we need carbs to be healthy. More specifically - we need healthy carbs to be healthy.

First, a little education. Carbohydrates are one of the three macro-nutrients essential for a healthy diet. These are protein, fat, and carbs. Proteins are things like meat, nuts, dairy products, soy and seeds. Fats come from meat (animal fat) and also from oils that are derived from plants. Additionally, they are present in things like butter and cooking oil and some fruits and veggies, like avocados.

A good daily diet should consist of roughly 20-25% protein, 20-30% fats and 50-60% carbohydrates. You can see where it's important that we choose the right types of carbohydrates given that they make up more than half of our daily foods.

So where do we find healthy carbohydrates? For the most part, carbs come from plants and some fruits and vegetables. The problem with they typical American's diet, however, is that they get the majority of their carbs from processed foods like flour, crackers, and cookies.

That is not to say that we cannot eat cookies. In fact, a cookie every once in a while isn't going to make anyone obese. The problem with things like cookies and other mass produced "sources" of carbohydrates is that the healthy part of the food, the wheat, loses a lot of its healthy-ness during the production of the food. Many common parts of today's diets consists of foods that are processed and then processed again, sugars are added to make things taste better, and in the end we have a "source" of carbohydrates that has been transformed from something that is essential to a healthy diet to something that is full of unhealthy carbs that our body doesn't really need.

A good general rule to follow is that if you have a difficult time tracing back that carbohydrate choice to Mother Nature, then the product likely has minimal nutritional value. So, which are healthy choices?

1. Vegetables
2. Fruits
3. Whole Grain breads, rice and pasta (made with the whole grain kernel and not entirely out of flour) without a lot of added sugar or fat
4. Nuts & seeds such as almonds, sunflower seeds and pistachios

Keep the list above in mind the next time you go shopping for the family. Additionally, if you're in the process of investigating "fat camp" for your child, keep the list in mind as you look at samples of the food that they serve. If you don't see menus that are based on healthy carbs, you are probably better off looking elsewhere. Most weight loss camp for teens employ or consult with a professional nutritionist, however, so most, if not all, should serve meals that are healthier than most kids eat at home.

The buzz word around town today is carbohydrates and much debate has ensued over whether they are all that good for you or not. In fact there are diets which even forbid their inclusion in a diet. Getting a complete list of all carbohydrates is very helpful when planning a diet. Made up of carbons, hydrogen, and oxygen, these often misunderstood essential nutrients help to provide energy to the body and are an important part of any diet, but to make an entire list would take many pages.

There are two basic categories for carbs; good and bad. It sounds simplistic, but it is really that easy. They are called simple (bad) and complex (good) because of their structure and the way the body processes them. Regardless of which they are, they should not be totally avoided, as some diets advocate, but complex food sources should be selected over simple ones if given the option.

Complex carbohydrates are foods such as whole grains and edible parts of plants like stalks and leaves. Because they contain longer chains of sugar molecules as well as a lower "glycemic load, " they take longer for the body to process. In turn this provides energy for a longer period of time while lacking the substance that turns sugar to fat.

Simple carbohydrates, on the other hand, are made up of high sugar foods that are processed very quickly. When fiber is low and sugar is high, the food is processed before it can be burned off turning most of it into fat. These would include foods such as cakes and cookies.

Many think that any fruit and vegetable is good for you; however, many are actually simple carbs as they are high in sugar. They differ from traditional simple foods in that they do contain fiber which is processed more slowly by the body which makes them react more like complex carbs.

Simple compounds which should be avoided include foods such as soda, candy, sugar, potatoes, pastries, desserts, and rice, bread, and pasta that is white. Although they can be included in a diet occasionally in limitation, it's important that better choices be made whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Most products today require labels indicating whether the carbs they contain are simple or complex. Additionally, the "glycemic index" explains how quickly these foods will be processed by the body. Both are extremely important when making better choices in a diet. Although trying to find a list of all carbohydrates can be extremely difficult, knowing the categories and researching the ones that help the body maintain an adequate energy level and reduce fat should be the focus.