---

Faith-Based Fitness
Religion is used to market everything from books to politicians. But diets and exercise programs? Of course.

...Like church-run AA groups or grief counseling, many faith-based weight-loss programs started off as support groups in church basements, or self-improvement projects through congregation-based buddy systems. Tapping into faith provides the motivation, support, and willpower to tackle the slow and difficult process of weight loss and to maintain determination when results are less than dramatic. As recent trends in politics and culture indicate Americans are a religious people, open to applying religious principles to all aspects of their lives, the market has thrown open its doors for faith-based diet regimes and fitness programs. Religion and weight loss already rule the self-help shelves, so why not bring the two together?...