Have muffin top, will travel. Forget Paris — many overweight adults are choosing to spend their summer vacations (and ample savings) shedding unwanted pounds at pricey retreats throughout Canada and the U.S.

Call it a fitness vacation, wellness retreat or simply "fat camp" — however you put it, it's an alternative to the traditional vacation that's growing in popularity, says personal trainer Deb Leblanc, who runs a deluxe weight-loss camp on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia.

"People are combining vacations with the fact that they know they need to lose weight," says Leblanc, whose clients come to her to lose a minimum of 50 pounds, and in some cases, as much as double that. (According to Leblanc, who runs 30-, 60- and 90-day camps, the average weight loss is about 5 pounds a week.)

"I'm getting more and more inquiries about [the program]," Leblanc says. "They are asking a lot of questions and have obviously investigated other fit camps."

Leblanc, a personal trainer for nearly two decades, started her weight loss camp a few years ago, after her clients repeatedly requested daily training sessions.

"I started thinking there was a need for this type of one-on-one program," she explains.

But one-on-one attention in the form of daily personal training, fitness classes, food, counselling, cooking classes, massage and a personal nutritionist — plus first-class accommodations — don't come cheap. A 30-day stay at Leblanc's Salt Spring Island camp costs $10,175. Ninety days runs roughly $30,000.

Leblanc, who limits the program to three or four people at one time, sees the program as an investment that pays itself off over time — almost like an education. "I think of it as school. They are going to fitness school, or weight loss school — transform your life school. I teach them everything possible about how to lose weight, get fit and live a better lifestyle."

At Leblanc's camp, there's a kind of "you broke it, now you fix it" methodology at play. That means no personal chef or meals delivered to the cabin. Guests shop for food alongside a personal shopper and are asked to make their own meals under the supervision of a nutritionist. The intention is to foster individual skills that endure after the retreat ends.

Inspired by interest in get-fit TV shows like The Biggest Loser, and troubled by a report about the dangers of gastric bypass surgery and its growing appeal to those desperate to shed weight, Whistler, B.C.-based trainer Cat Smiley began putting together Cat Smiley's Fat Camp about four years ago.

Smiley doesn't like the word "retreat," preferring the frankness of fat camp. "The terminology should not be retreat. It's definitely not a retreat. It's a camp, a fat camp. It's work. It's 40 hours a week.… I'm not going to say you're big-boned, voluptuous, heavy — you're just fat and that's not a permanent state."

Smiley's camp is another full immersion program geared toward those looking to shed a lot of weight rapidly. The cost covers food, personal training, life coaching, food, cooking classes and nutrition counselling for guests (no more than four at a time)..

The duration of a stay depends on the amount of weight guests want to lose and perhaps how much they have to spend: 30 days costs $13,595; 12 weeks is $37,743.

"People who come for 30 days are about 40 pounds overweight and will lose about 20 pounds in the month," Smiley says. "In 16 weeks, you'll lose 100 pounds and it won't come back."

Like Leblanc, Smiley demands that guests prepare their own meals with the aid of a nutritionist. "It's part of the deal that you learn how to feed yourself and make your own healthy meals," she says.

Sensitive to the question of cost, Smiley argues that many will spend $60,000 on a car yet balk at investing in their long-term health.

For those who can't swing two months off work and haven't got $10,000 to $20,000 to spend, Wellspring Retreats in the U.S. offers eight-day weight loss "adventure vacations" in North Carolina and California for about $4,000. Known for its weight loss summer camps for kids and teens, the company added an adult program this year to satisfy demand from parents interested in a similar experience.

More of a slow burn than a quick fix, Wellspring Retreats offers a crash course in eating well and exercising daily. Weight is lost during the course of the week due to the program's high activity level (white water rafting, hiking and horseback riding are a few options listed on its website), but the main focus is on learning how to substitute healthy habits for unhealthy ones.

"The goal … is to really focus on behaviour and changing behaviour as far as diet and activity," says John Gordon, Wellspring's chief marketing and business development officer. "We teach a low-fat diet and easy ways to remove fat from the diet. Everyone wears a pedometer and tries to get up to 10,000 steps a day."

Post-retreat followup via e-mail is also part of the Wellspring package. For three months after the retreat, you may post an online food diary, record physical activity levels and e-mail back and forth with a counsellor for input and support.

According to Gordon, the appeal of a fitness vacation lies in the change of scenery, which isn't that unlike the burst of joie de vivre you get from a regular vacation — only there's no baguette or pain au chocolat as reward after a day of sightseeing.

For Leblanc, it's more about finding support for a struggle that can feel insurmountable. "I think people are realizing that they need help losing weight and sometimes they have to go outside of their backyard to do it."

The author is a Canadian freelance writer.

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