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Losing it: The ultimate diet challenge

‘Dateline’ put six people on six diets; who will reach the goal?

NBC NEWS

April 22 — What if you needed to get into shape for a big event you really want to look good for, like bathing suit season or perhaps, your 25th high school reunion. That’s the challenge facing six members of the high school class of 1978, each using a different weight loss strategy. What worked best and who will go to the head of the class?

THINK BACK 25 years. Can you remember your high school fight song? These folk can — well, sort of.
So their fight song is a little rusty. But 25 years after high school, these middle-aged grads still have plenty of fight and are all up for an unusual challenge. What’s at stake? Their looks, their health — in other words, their weight.
Last fall, “Dateline” sent a letter to the class of 1978 at Quincy High School in Massachusetts, looking for people who might want to lose a few pounds for their 25th high school reunion this October.
They had to have at least 30 pounds to lose and get their doctor’s OK. They could pick from one of six weight loss methods, from Atkins, Weight Watchers or Slim Fast, to extreme exercise, having your own famous weight loss guru, and even hypnosis.
The idea is to see how well the diets work and who can lose the most.

'Dateline NBC' Diet Challenge

• Weight Watchers
• Slim Fast
• Atkins diet
• Extreme exercise
• Hypnotism
• Jorge Cruise weight-loss program

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A dizzying array of diets is available today, but which ones really work? “Dateline” tested six popular diets using healthy volunteers, all of whom were at least 30 pounds overweight. Above are the diet options the volunteers tried.

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Weight Watchers
The Weight Watchers diet uses a “points” system to limit food intake. Under the plan, all foods are assigned a numerical value depending on the amount of calories, fat and fiber. Dieters are given a daily range of points and allowed to eat whatever they want so long as they stick within the range. Points are also assigned to physical activity, and dieters are encouraged to exercise. There is no requirement to purchase special foods, but dieters are given suggestions for what to eat. They are also encouraged to regularly attend a support group to discuss their progress.

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Slim Fast
The Slim Fast plan requires dieters to eat a mixture of Slim Fast products and foods prepared at home. Under the diet, participants eat one Slim Fast shake or meal bar for breakfast and for lunch. They are then allowed to eat a “sensible dinner” plus three low-calorie snacks. The plan advises people to carefully count calories, watch portion sizes and get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. Slim Fast offers participants free membership to its Web site for access to meal plans and other weight-loss information.

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Atkins diet
The Atkins diet was created by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins, founder and medical director of the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York. The high-protein, low-carbohydrate plan encourages dieters to avoid sugary foods, breads, pasta, cereal and starchy vegetables. Instead, they are told to eat meat, fish, cheese, nuts, eggs, low-starch vegetables and fruit. While some Atkins dieters eat fewer calories than before, Atkins said the diet works because people have fewer food cravings, generally feel fuller and are eating less- processed, more nutritious food.

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Extreme exercise
Extreme exercise programs are modeled after military boot camps and involve long, often grueling workouts to lose weight and achieve optimum fitness levels. Evolution Sports Science, a performance training company in Massachusetts, offers various extreme exercise programs for interested clients, many of whom work in high-pressure professional careers. ESS aims to develop their clients’ physical and mental abilities using personalized plans, coaches, fitness testing and training.


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Hypnotism
Advocates of hypnotism say the practice can help people lose weight by allowing them to break out of old routines. By imprinting new patterns on the subconscious mind through hypnotism, dieters can develop healthy habits such as eating better and getting regular exercise, according to Dr. Tom Nicoli, who runs A Better You Hypnosis Center near Boston.


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Jorge Cruise weight-loss program
Jorge Cruise is diet coach who offers a three-step weight loss program online. The plan requires participants to first make a decision to lose weight, then follow a daily exercise routine to build muscle mass, and finally to include more omega fats in their diet to help decrease appetite. The diet is based on the theory that muscle mass helps control the body’s metabolism and that, with an increase in the amount of muscle tissue, more fat will be burned throughout the day whether a person is exercising or not.


Sources: Weight Watchers Inc., Slim Fast, The Atkins Center, Evolution Sports Science, A Better You Hypnosis Center, Jorge Cruise Inc.
Printable version

We ended up with six volunteers: one of the toughest guys on the football team; one of the brainier girls, who was president of the math club; a soft-spoken lady’s man whom almost everyone liked; a busy bee back in high school who was class secretary; and the homecoming queen — that’s right, the queen is also overweight.


THE ALUMNI
First up, weighing in at 174 pounds, is former class secretary Lynne Frank. Her goal is to drop about 35 pounds. Lynne is the mother of seven children, four girls and three boys. She has never ever been an athlete of any kind, yet she agreed to see if extreme exercise — running a 26-mile marathon — would be enough to get her weight down. To make sure this was safe to do, we sent Lynne to Evolution Sports Science, a high-tech consultant for endurance athletes to evaluate her and to oversee Lynne’s training.
In January, Lynne can half-walk, half-jog two miles. To make running easier, she put herself on a daily 1,300-calorie diet, 500 calories less than what she should normally eat. And she focuses on “Dateline’s” incentive: to send her to run in the Maui Marathon in Hawaii this September. But despite all her exercise, her weight doesn’t change.
Next up, weighing in at 230, is the gifted athlete, Mark Giordani. He also wants to lose 35 pounds. “Gio” had stayed in shape throughout his life. In fact he never knew what it’s like to be heavy until a back injury more than a year ago cost him his job and all but immobilized him.
Gio: “It’s been terrible. To have your kids come home and see you on the couch and not provide for your family is just — I can’t take it no more.”
To kill time while he waits for approval for surgery from workman’s comp, Gio started eating more. To his family’s horror, his weight went as high as 250.
Gio picked the well-known Slim Fast diet, for its simplicity. He’s recently been in so much pain with his back he hasn’t been eating much at all. His wife predicts that by adding Slim Fast, he may actually first gain some weight.
Sure enough, one week on Slim Fast and Gio is up three pounds.
Next is the homecoming queen. She’d love to take off 40 pounds. Today Kathy Wynters sits on the school board, works as a major event planner, has a busy weekend social schedule, and is an active mother of two. Kathy agreed to try Weight Watchers, the one diet she’s had some success with before. Here the food is given point values and the goal is to stay within a daily range of points. Also, Weight Watchers offers support, a place to share the daily struggles of dieting.
The first week Kathy kept herself at the minimum of 20 points, hoping for big results. But she’s not happy.
Kathy: “I lost 4.8 pounds, and I was disappointed because I starved all week.”
Meanwhile, the lady’s man back in school, Marc Merlis, tips the scales at 245 pounds. His task is even greater, to lose 50 pounds — which might be tough, given his occupation. He’s a pastry chef with a major weakness for good food.
What’s happened to Marc is that around the time he had kids, his exercise fell off and he developed poor eating habits. Today his cholesterol is 322 and according to his doctor, dangerously high.
Marc agreed to let Boston hypnotist Tom Nicoli help him. At his first session, the hypnotist takes Marc up an imaginary flight of stairs. The journey lasts a half an hour. The goal is to revisit his thinner days and envision a healthy lifestyle.
The next day back at work, Marc is reeling from the experience.
Marc: “And the strangest thing, I see this big belly — the belly button was a big red hole with fire coming out of it.”
Don’t laugh. After one week under hypnosis, are you ready? Marc lost 13 pounds.
Next, at 300 pounds is math whiz Eleanor Talbot. Eleanor has an even more daunting goal, to lose 120 pounds. Married with no children, Eleanor is a meteorologist who says she has never known what it’s like to be thin. So we got her the author of the best seller “Eight Minutes in the Morning,” weight loss coach Jorge Cruise, to be a personal guide.
At the heart of Cruise’s weight loss programs is eight minutes of strength training every day, and attacking what he calls emotional eating.
Jorge: “For you, I know, up until now, food has been, a good friend.”
Eleanor: “Oh, yes, right, definitely.”
Jorge: “It’s been there whenever you were happy or sad.”
Eleanor: “Upset, stressed, right exactly.”
Cruise leads a weekly conference call with Eleanor and others battling their weight in which he encourages the group to turn to each other, not food, to get through the day. And Cruise says lose weight slowly. The target: two pounds a week. But Eleanor does even better.
Eleanor: “I have some news to report. I lost three pounds this week. Yeah.”
Finally, at 328 pounds, is high school football tough guy Rick Burnes. His goal is the most ambitious of all: to lose 150 pounds. Under Rick’s yearbook picture it says, “Hey you want your face busted?” No one messed with Rick in high school, and no one messes with him now, except his doctor.
Rick: “He just crucifies me, you know? He’s blunt. Just stop eating.”
Sound easy? Not for Rick, which is why he chose the Atkins diet, The controversial high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.
On Atkins Rick does have to give up one of his loves, beer, but still eats large portions of his favorite food.
Rick: “My breakfast consisted of pepperoni and cheese.... Lunch was six cheeseburgers.”
And by the way, he’s not kidding. Meat, cheese and eggs got him through the two-week induction phase, and his ferocious appetite calmed down..
Rick: “Instead of a 10-egg omelet, I’m down to three eggs.”
On top of that, he started exercising. But he has had some diet-related problems, including headaches and severe constipation.
Rick: “I’m just not getting enough vegetables and salad.”
But for now the diet is working. Rick’s lost 13 pounds on Atkins.
As for the others: 13 pounds lost under hypnosis, 4.5 pounds lost on Weight Watchers, three pounds lost with a personal coach, no change with extreme exercise and three pounds up, back on regular meals with Slim Fast. But soon each will face their own food demons and one may even have to quit.

THE FIRST REPORT
When our dieters agreed to our “challenge,” they did want to look good for their 25th high school reunion, but that’s not really why they’re doing this.
It’s about health for Gio, the injured athlete, who’s battling his weight and his bad back. Three weeks into his Slim Fast diet, he admits he’s starving.
Gio: “I’m hungry. I’m hungry most of the day.... I’m still going to bed hungry and waking up hungry.”
He is so hungry that he calls Slim Fast. It turns out, given his size, they feel he is not eating enough. And the athlete decides to go back to the gym — pain or no pain.
Gio: “Just walking into this place the last two weeks, my spirits have been uplifted immensely.”
After three months, it begins to pay off. Gio has dropped 10 pounds.
With her marathon training in full swing and consuming 1,300 calories a day, Lynne’s not losing weight. So she contacts the nutrition captain for the New York City Marathon for advice.
She tells Lynne that given all her exercise she, too, should eat more, 1,600 calories a day, and she puts her on the low-fat USDA food pyramid diet with an emphasis on portion size. And sure enough, her weight begins dropping. After three months of heavy exercise, she can now run 12 miles without stopping and Lynne is down 14 pounds.
In February, homecoming queen Kathy is up to her usual speed, running the annual school fund-raiser and thinking about her Weight Watcher points. Dinner tonight is to be Chinese food.
Kathy: “But to be honest with you, I’m saving most of my points today on wine.”
Exhausted from weeks of planning, she wants a reward.
Kathy: “So I still have 20 points left, so I can still have four glasses of wine, five glasses of wine. All right.... That’s what’s important.”
But points are points. And it must be working — her old cheerleading jacket fits.
After three months Kathy has lost even more, 18 pounds.
Eleanor: “I must be honest, this journey may not be easy and may be painful at times.”
Within a few weeks math whiz Eleanor Talbot’s life is transformed by her new support group.
Eleanor: “The e-mails have been just so uplifting.”
And while on a business trip in California, Eleanor gets to meet her weight loss coach, who continues the loving support. Jorge gives Eleanor a day she’ll never forget. Everything that’s happened has left Eleanor giddy.
And right on target at two pounds a week. After three months, Eleanor has lost exactly 24 pounds.
Over at the Merlis household, someone’s happy with the hypnotist.
Cheryl Merlis: “Did you tell him your wife’s all excited ’cause now she can run up, she can actually jump on you and wrap her legs right around you?”
Now, the man who couldn’t get motivated can’t be held back. Marc’s got himself a fitness trainer, religiously listens to tapes made by the hypnotist, and all he wants is healthy food. For lunch he’s having a black bean burger, asparagus and a salad.
In January, Marc couldn’t even get into his varsity jacket. Now his wife has a nickname for him: Droopy Drawers. After only three months under hypnosis, Droopy Drawers has lost the most so far, a staggering 40 pounds.
And then there’s Rick on the Atkins diet. Two weeks in, we found him limping, suffering from a painful case of gout.
Rick: “This particular attack is probably the worst one I’ve had in a few years.”
It turns out that Rick has a medical condition he did not reveal to “Dateline” until now.
Rick: “It’s bothering me, that’s for sure.”
Gout is a buildup of uric acid, that Rick suspects is caused by all the red meat he’s been eating. In fact, Rick’s gout is so bad, he lost two weeks of work and wound up at the doctor.
Rick: “Doctor told me the diet wouldn’t be good for me, cause of my history with the gout.”
But Rick refused to abandon the Atkins diet. Instead he decides to cut back on meat and load up on medication.
“Dateline” was so concerned we put Rick in touch with a top Atkins researcher who adjusts Rick’s diet and sends him specially made “Atkins at home” meals.
All of it seems to help. He says his gout is gone, and are you ready? After three months on Atkins, the former football tough guy has lost more than anyone — 50 pounds, a third of the way toward his goal.


RECAP
The pastry chef lost the second-most — 40 of his 50-pound goal — with the help of hypnosis.
Our math whiz, Eleanor, likes these numbers. She’s third, losing 24 of her 120-pound goal with the help of her own personal coach. And our homecoming queen Kathy is next, almost halfway home, down 18 pounds on Weight Watchers.
Maybe the only surprise is that Lynne Frank, training hard for the marathon, has almost lost the least — only 14 of her 35-pound goal. But remember, Lynne is replacing fat with heavier muscle.
And finally, there is Gio, the injured athlete, who of all six, can exercise the least. On Slim Fast, he’s lost 10 of the 35 pounds he wants to shed.
That’s progress all around, but remember, their reunion is six months away. That’s plenty of time to lose more weight — or gain it all back. “Dateline” has been with these dieters since January, and we’ll continue to check in with them over the next few months. We’ll also take you to their 25th reunion in October, to see the results of the Ultimate Diet Challenge.