Why are weight-loss camps so popular in China? This one promises beauty and refinement too

China’s growing obesity crisis sparks the popularity of strict camps aimed at fat loss for those who ‘can’t control their diet outside’

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Yang Chi’ao exercising at a weight loss camp in Chengdu, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. China’s growing obesity crisis has made popular strict camps aimed at fat loss for those who “can’t control their diet outside”. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:15pm, 5 Nov 2024Updated: 7:52am, 7 Nov 2024

Taking her place next to some gym equipment, Yang Chi’ao waits to be called by an instructor at a weight-loss camp in China, where over half of adults are overweight.

These facilities – boasting strict daily exercise regimens, mandatory trips to the scales and rigid surveillance to guard against snacking – have popped up across China as it grapples with a growing obesity crisis.

They have also sparked controversy. Last year, an influencer died while attending a facility in northern China as part of efforts to shed more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds), Chinese media said.

Yang, 23, quit her teaching job earlier this year and signed up for a weight-loss camp on the outskirts of southwestern megacity Chengdu.

There will definitely be people who secretly want to buy food. I’ve had the idea but never succeeded because the coaches keep following me.

Yang Chi’ao

She has since followed a rigorous regime of diet and exercise.

She was one of around 60 people who turned out early to train, a large poster looming overhead extolling their goal: “Become thin! Become beautiful! Become refined!”