EASTON, CT (March 10, 2003) - It seemed so innocent at the time - a weight loss program that used Scripture to support weight loss theories.

Amity Alicea of The Covenant Church of Easton was 5-feet-2 inches tall and weighed 210 pounds. She had tried for years to lose weight, but nothing seemed to work. When she heard about a weight loss program that claimed to incorporate Christian principles, she thought she had found the answer to her problem.

In the late 1990s, Alicea, her husband, Jorge, and their son moved from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Florida. It was at a Florida church they attended that she heard a speaker share her positive experience with the weight loss program. The family later moved back to Bridgeport where Alicea discovered The Covenant Church in Easton was hosting that same weight loss program.

"I had asked God to help me out with my weight," said Alicea. "I've been on diets since I was nine. I was really at the end of my rope; I was ready to give up. I was really depressed and I cried out to God. The next week I heard this lady and when I heard that my home church (in Connecticut) was running a workshop, I thought God had set this all up for me."

According to Alicea, the Connecticut sessions opened in prayer followed by a video that ran 45 minutes to one hour in length - the program's national director was the speaker. After watching the video, the group discussed issues and delved into a workbook that coincided with 12 audiocassette tapes that individuals listened to during the week.

"After I joined I was hearing things like 'start eating when you're hungry, when you hear a growl, and stop when you're satisfied.' When you're hungry at other times (called head hunger), 'that's the time to pray, read your Bible and ask God to fill up other areas of your life that you fill with food.' I could relate to that. For my whole life I had that struggle. Right away, I gave it my all because I believed this was the way, even to the point where if all that satisfied me was a quarter of a sandwich and a chip for lunch."

Twelve weeks after starting the program, Alicea had dropped 38 pounds. "But it was not only the weight," Alicea said. "I believed eating was interfering with my relationship with God. I was reading the Bible more and praying - I thought this was the answer."

Alicea became coordinator of her church's weight loss program in February 2000. It wasn't long before she began struggling with eating. "I became pregnant with my daughter in April 2000 and thought a lot of things were related to that," she said. "But it was a mind battle. I began to think that God was unhappy with me. I think how I felt had a lot to do with the fact I was under nourishing my body."

Because she was so concerned with being right with God, Alicea kept her food intake to dangerously low levels. She only gained 12 pounds during her pregnancy and began to feel the effects of the weight loss, even if no one else could perceive it. By the time her daughter, Sara, was born in December 2000, Alice weighed around 130 pounds. "People would say that I looked great and I would tell them I felt horrible," said Alicea.

Once Sara was born, Alicea began a cycle of binge eating and starving, although her weight stayed fairly constant. She would eat half a bag of chips, half a bag of cookies and a candy bar at a sitting and then not eat for a day or more until her stomach growled again. Many who suffer from bulimia throw up after such binges, but Alicea wasn't able to purge the food. That would increase her guilt. She prayed often, but would not share with anyone what was happening to her.

"Sometimes I would go for days in this stage - feeling yucky, reading the Bible and trying to make a fresh start," she said. "My husband wasn't aware of how I was feeling. He thought I was fine. He knew that I would wait for hunger pains before I ate. If he thought I was harming myself he would've stopped me, but he saw that I was losing weight and he thought I must be healthier."

In early 2002, the national weight loss program introduced a new eight-week advanced tape cassette session. The tapes stated that weight problems were more directly affected by one's faith - you're hungry for a relationship with God, but you're feeding it with food. Alicea and three others began attending an eight-week session that was being held at a friend's home.

"This was a lifelong struggle and I believe God had sent me an answer," said Alicea in explaining why she continued to participate in the weight loss program. "There were chapters and chapters of scripture in every tape. It may not have been stuff you wanted to hear, but it was something I wanted to believe."

In April 2002, Alicea attended a regional weight loss conference and says she became more convinced than ever that her sins could not be forgiven if she continued to overeat, which she considered a sin. She decided shortly thereafter to leave her church.

"When I came home from that conference, I decided to really read the Bible and ask God to tell me if I should leave my church. I had read all of the scriptures she (national director) had talked about - scriptures that said if you don't obey Him you couldn't be forgiven . . . after a while I believed what she said. At church you hear that Jesus will forgive you even if you've sinned over and over. But now I wasn't so sure.

"I read entire chapters of the Bible and everything I saw pointed out to me that she was right," Alicea continued. "At first I decided to leave after I finished my Sunday school teaching (responsibilities). Then I decided to call the Sunday school superintendent and tell her I was leaving."

Alicea's husband was skeptical of his wife's decision, but her aunt, Bobbie Morgan, began to enlist the help of others in the church to pray for her. Tiffany Morgan, Bobbie's daughter, began speaking to Alicea about the program. Bobbie told Alicea she thought the workshop's overall program could be destructive.

On the way home, Alicea began to sense that the Holy Spirit was convicting her to research the Bible further. After reviewing the weight loss program's national web site information, she decided that God's forgiveness was available, even for her. She decided to completely cut off her involvement with the program.

Alicea told her story to her church, especially those involved with the church's weight loss program group. The church immediately stopped the program and supported Alicea during the weeks that followed. Alicea is now working with her church's preschool and believes she has her normal life back. She lost more than 90 pounds, but she's more relieved to be unburdened with the guilt she once felt about her spiritual walk.