LUCKY SEVERSON: She doesn't fit the mold of a gung ho corporate executive or a wealthy entrepreneur or a preacher, diet guru, or best-selling author.
But Gwen Shamblin is all of the above. And here's the best part . . .
GWEN SHAMBLIN (author, THE WEIGH DOWN DIET): I definitely look for the saltiest chip in here.
SEVERSON: Her diet, called Weigh Down, lets you eat anything you're heart desires. She has a master's degree in nutrition, and was frustrated by the lack of success with conventional diets, until she says, she got a calling from God. Now, she scoffs at dieters who won't eat salsa and chips, sprinkled with lots of salt and religion.
MS. SHAMBLIN: They have been told that salt is evil. They have been told sour cream is evil, so they are afraid. You know, I feel like God, you know, provides a variety for everyone.
GINA GRAVES (leading a group in prayer): And, I just pray for God to guide this class ...
SEVERSON: This is one of 30,000 Weigh Down workshops sponsored by 60 different denominations, in 70 countries. Gwen Shamblin started the workshops eight years ago, and millions have signed up. The bottom line here -- gluttony is sinful.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I have lost 24 pounds total.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I've lost 12 pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: I lost 25 [pounds].
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: 30 [pounds] at one time.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #5: 20 [pounds].
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I've lost 15 pounds.
MS. GRAVES: 130 [pounds].
MS. SHAMBLIN: I am probably going to eat maybe one and a half little slices of chicken quesadilla with sour cream.
SEVERSON: That's one of the rules -- small portions. Another is not to eat until you're hungry. New Weigh Downers are told to fast for as long as 36 hours, until they feel their stomach growl.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #5: The first month, it was waiting for the growl. You know, I got that down. That was okay.
MS. SHAMBLIN: You are trying to break your will. The Bible calls for us to fast. Why? It breaks you doing what you want to do.
SEVERSON: Gwen Shamblin preaches that Americans are obsessed with food, and there is ample evidence: 60% are overweight -- 30% obese.
At the Weigh Down workshops, there's more talk of God than food.
MS. GRAVES: Instead of running to that food, you go and run to Him, and you go pray.
MS. SHAMBLIN (in talk show appearance): I've always had some extra Bibles lying around, so I'd give them a Bible and say, "Go chew on this instead."
SEVERSON: The workshop features videotapes of Gwen preaching that loving God can make you thin.
MS. SHAMBLIN: It's teaching you how to transfer this relationship with the food, and we have got one in this country, to a relationship with God. So you don't have to loose passion, you just transfer passion.
SEVERSON: Neva Coyle, a born-again Christian, started her own Christian diet program called Over-Eaters Victorious, but, after 12 years, she was not victorious and eventually abandoned her diet.
NEVA COYLE: It is not a smart thing nor an accurate thing to attach a person's spirituality to their size. I really feel that in my own case, I went through months of soul searching and wondering if I had disappointed God. [As] if I had somehow failed him, because I couldn't keep what I had considered a spiritual obligation.
MS. GRAVES: I have come too far, and He has shown me too much. And for me to turn my back on all of that -- I mean that scares me to death to think that I would do that after I have seen so much blessing.
SEVERSON: Gina Graves lost 130 pounds, and has kept it off over a year.
MS. GRAVES (showing her large-size shorts): This is what I was in, and I was packing that in pretty tight. They were pretty tight on me.
MS. COYLE: There is not one reference in the Bible to our size -- not one. I have read it from cover to cover several times; I have never found it.
Even before the fallout, she and her husband, David, started their own church called the Remnant Fellowship.
