The New York Times reports that strapped consumers and tightfisted insurance companies are making weight-loss camps for plump children increasingly out of reach this year.

Given that 32% of American kids are overweight or obese, this is a major health crisis that will have great repercussions down the road. Any stumbling blocks placed before parents and children looking to confront childhood obesity are a serious problem for everyone, because of the huge health care costs associated with obesity.

But as public health problems go, the lack of affordable weight-loss camps for kids is a pretty lame one. To begin with, it may not be the most effective way for kids to lose weight.

To wit: a Stanford University School of Medicine study found that 64 percent of children with obese parents became overweight, compared with 16 percent
of children with normal-weight parents.

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

Wal-Mart giving away a book? Has the Grinch found religion? But if you click here and then click on "get the book free", you can get started on the "alli" program today. Here's the PR on it:

Losing weight is easier with support. That's why the alli program includes an individually tailored online plan called myalliplan. It was developed by nutritional and weight-management experts who understand the struggle to lose weight. When you register with myalliplan, you receive a customized online action plan, online tools to record your progress, connection to a network of other alli users and more.

The "alli" program is based i part on a diet bill which consumers should, as always, be skeptical of. But the free book can't hurt.

If you're looking for a weight-loss program, what could be better than one that we got to see the results of on a reality television show? Amazon.com has The Biggest Loser: The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health, and Life--Adapted from NBC's Hit Show!, a paperback on sale for $4.99, discounted from $18.95. Here's the product description:

A month ago, on a trip to Arizona with my newly college-graduated son, I noticed the rear aspect of myself in the reflection of a store window. When had THAT arrived? As if I didn't know. It had arrived over the winter when in a fit of "poor me without a husband" depression, I had tossed the gym and then pilates overboard. I looked, I had to admit with a shudder, like an old lady.

"I wish I had the figure that I had last summer," I allowed myself to say, although, of course, mothers are not supposed to say such things to their sons. My son promptly manifested how well he had been raised by his reply.

"You will, Mom," he said.

Having tried a few diets, it seems logical to me that, the more repulsive and flavorless one's food is, the less likely one is to actually eat a lot of it. In that context, I can completely understand why cabbage diets, kasha diets, grapefruit diets and the like are so successful: after a few days of eating cabbage stew, starvation seems like a reasonably pleasant alternative.

Recently, however, a Chicago scientist made the bold assertion that foods with clearer, stronger flavors signal consumption to the brain more clearly. As the brain processes the amount of food that someone eats, it decides when to release feelings of fullness. With stronger flavors, those feelings are released more quickly. Consequently, when one eats more flavorful food, one eats less, buys less, loses weight, and generally all is well with the world.

To test his hypothesis, Dr. Alan Hirsch used what he calls "tastant crystals," which are calorie-free sweet and savory flavorings that can be sprinkled atop foods. In a study of 1,436 subjects, Hirsh claims that the crystals led to an average 15% weight loss over a period of six months. A control group of 100 subjects lost less than a tenth as much weight.

Dr. Hirsch's "tastant crystals" aren't on the market yet, but this ever-so-much-more-so approach to weight loss is interesting. In the meantime, I'm keeping a heavy hand on the balsamic vinegar!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He's got another word for Dr. Hirsch's magic crystals. It's called "seasonings."

MSNBC took a look into the effectiveness of diet pills recently and found that, on their own, diet pills won't make you thin. Despite the reality that diet pills aren't magic bullets, the drug industry is set to roll out almost 15 new diet pills in the next few years! Many experts agree that diet pills can be used in tandem with exercise to make a difference, but taking them alone is only an exercise in futility.

I think deep down a lot of people who purchase diet pills know they don't work, but at the same time they rationalize that this one is new and maybe, just maybe, it will be the one. I know I have been tempted by the snake-skin oil hucksters pitching these bowel loosing magic pills before, but I never bought in so to speak. I dropped about 40 pounds towards the end of my high school career the cheap way, running and more running, and for dessert, more running.

Now as I think about how to lose some weight I gained over the winter, I would love to be able to pop a pill in the morning for 6 weeks and drop 12 pounds. The problem is I don't want to be popping pills for the rest of my life to keep 12 pounds off, as this would get pricey real quick. For many people a diet pill could be a good tool to add to their weight loss arsenal, but relying on a pill without changing any habits is ridiculous. Save your money, in many cases a lot of money, and combine working out with eating less to lose weight.

I have purchased an iPod, numerous shoes, another mp3 player, new shorts and countless other electronics and apparel all in the guise of getting in shape. None of these purchases had a significant effect on my willingness to work out or get in shape. No matter how much I imagined myself working out with a new iPod in hand or how much more comfortable these new fast looking shoes would be for running I was never motivated enough to stick with it.

Despite the past, it is still really easy for me to try and justify an extra expenditure by convincing myself that --this time -- it will help me stay committed to losing weight. If you have fallen into this trap, next time, stick it out for 2-4 weeks before pulling the trigger. Once you get going consider making the object you lusted for a reward for your hard work, that way at least you can feel like you earned it. That's better than feeling guilty because you only use your iPod at your desk and your gym shorts for nap time.

That New Year's resolution you made to lose weight is looming over you. You've tried to put it off, but each day, you feel guilty for not "starting" on that diet yet. You've got plenty of clever excuses. You need to sign up for the gym. You haven't gone to the grocery store to stock up on healthy food yet. You don't want to do "points" so you need something else to help you track your calories.

Well here's an online calorie counter that is easy and free. I know... you've tried these before. And they were horrible. The free ones are hard to use or offer almost no menu items or have some other fatal flaw.

The Daily Plate, however, is a different meal altogether. It offers a huge library of food items, helps you calculate your ideal daily calories depending upon your desired weight loss, and also lets you track your exercise. All of this is free. You can upgrade to a "gold" account for $45 a year. I don't really see a need to upgrade -- all you really get is the ability to track your body measurements, a cute little weight loss graphic that you can use on social networking sites, and some technical support.

This is a great free tool... much better than any of the other free tools I've seen out there. And it's no longer necessary to pay a site to track your meals and weight loss progress. So skip eDiets.com. Skip weightwatchers.com. Save yourself some money and try The Daily Plate.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.