Then she had a "heart change."

"I used to go to the food, now I go to God to get those needs filled," said the O'ahu mother of three.

It's been 4 1/2 years, and she's 85 pounds lighter than her highest weight of nearly 200 pounds.

These days, more people are turning to higher powers when their will power isn't cutting it. Faith-based approaches to fighting fat have gained followers, and the number of books and programs have proliferated. New titles like "Lose It For Life: A Spiritual Guide for Permanent Weight Loss" by Stephen Arterburn join the bookstore shelves next to regulars "Weigh Down Diet" by Gwen Shamblin and "Faithfully Fit" by Claire Cloninger.

Some find the way on their own, too. Pastor Robb Kojima of Wailuku Union Church on Maui wrote about the Lenten Effect: He gave up sugar for Lent.

"The hunger pains remind me to pray," Kojima wrote in his May newsletter to the congregation.

He managed to take off about five pounds.

For some, these mostly Christian takes on dealing with their flock's rapidly increasing weight problem are really a matter of substituting faith for their addiction to excess food.

Author Shamblin of Nashville, Tenn., creator of the Weigh Down Diet, said the key is moving your focus away from the food.

"I stopped dieting," the dietitian said. "That's the No. 1 thing."

Shamblin stopped believing that the food was at fault.

"The Weigh Down principles are transferring a relationship with the world — food, smoking, filth, money, porn — to a relationship with God," she said.

She used the example of people who come home after work to their lover, the fridge:

"They've thought about it all day, what they're going to have, where they're going to have this relationship," she said, her unmistakable Tennessee twang taking a seductive edge. "They don't want to be judged. They put on bathrobes, stretch clothes — they dress for food — they like a little TV going. (The refrigerator is the) main focal point, getting it all around them, going after it. They don't want any interruption."

What Shamblin attempts to do is switch their loyalties to God — specifically, a monotheistic version of God. (She gives atheists and agnostics who attend her workshops a copy of the Bible to start them on their way to Jesus.)

Shamblin herself stopped loving the food, trying to make it behave, and lost the 25 pounds that during college had found their way to her former cheerleader frame.

That's true, too, for Hertz, who had been a Christian very involved in church even before Weigh Down. But, she said, she needed something more.

"The majority of church-going people never address the weight issue," Hertz said. "Eating too much food gets swept under the rug in most churches."

She quotes Mark 7:14: "It's not what goes into man that makes him unclean."

"That taught me to look inward to my own heart," said Hertz. "It wasn't my mom's fault; it's not heredity, it's not food. Nobody else addressed that eating too much food, we're greedy about what our bodies are calling for."

Hertz decided to give complete control of her life to God: "Life used to be about me, what I wanted. Now, it's about God and what he wants me to do."

Amy Tousman, a registered dietitian who also writes a regular column for The Advertiser, agrees that prayer can be a powerful tool for those who eat for emotional reasons.

"People often use food as a coping mechanism or a way to fill a void in their lives," she said. "Food often provides comfort. It's similar to using exercise or relaxation techniques to distract yourself from eating."

But, Tousman added, people attempting to lose weight also need to exercise and choose the right foods. For those who eat to numb their pain, she said, "prayer would be a more healthy way."

"There is no solid research on whether religiously based weight loss programs are more effective than secular ones, however there is some research regarding the physiological effects of stress on our weight," Tousman said. "When we are under stress on a regular basis, our bodies produce hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which make our bodies crave sugars and fats. Prayer can help us relax and focus, which may result in less stress hormone being produced in the body, which in turn would make you eat less. You have to look at it all together, you can't take one piece of puzzle. You need to eat right and exercise."

There are some other key questions that faith-based weight loss problems haven't addressed fully, such as whether someone who either regains weight or doesn't lose weight becomes disillusioned and blames God. And there's the growing obesity problem in America. Can it be immortal retribution?

Shamblin suspects as much.

The basic principles of Weigh Down have morphed into a new ministry, Remnant Fellowship, a church that Shamblin founded recently. She's not shy about saying she believes the increasing obesity problem in America may have some otherworldly source, namely Satan, behind it.

"I've warned people that America was going to come under judgment," she said. "My job's been harder in last decade. I attribute it to the subtle but very strong anti-authority movement going on. ... If Americans can be honest with ourselves, we can reverse the obesity problem."