5."I asked my parents to let me attend fat camp in 2000, when I was 10 years old. I was a chubby kid, but not drastically overweight, and my parents were more than happy to indulge my request.

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images More Hannah — a 28-year-old HR consultant from North Carolina — recently went viral on TikTok for sharing stories about her experience at fat camp as a teenager.

Schwartz was at Camp Pocono Trails, a weight loss camp in Pennsylvania that’s been in operation since 1992. Today, the camp bills itself as one of the top wellness and weight loss camps in the ...

The camp is by no means a spa. Nobody’s treated to mud baths or low-fat haute cuisine. Emotional tension runs high, and inevitably cliques and factions form.

Moira Dann is a former Globe and Mail editor turned author, currently living in Victoria. Her most recent book is Fat Camp Summer: Advice I Would Have Given My Parents. One early spring evening in ...