MINNEAPOLIS - Annie Retter was so shaken by the hunger she witnessed on a recent trip to Africa that she slashed her food budget - and consumption - to send her savings there.
Her sister did the same.
Each has dropped more than 60 pounds thanks to the "Africa diet" they started in March. They now send $400 to $500 a month to a children's meal program in Namibia.
"I hope this catches on," said Retter, a St. Paul, Minn., nurse.
It has. Retter is part of a national trend helping people lose weight for good. It's the latest frontier in the battle of the bulge in America, where a full 68 percent of adults are categorized as either overweight or obese.
Weight Watchers, for example, last week ended its third annual "Lose for Good" campaign, which urges dieters to donate a pound of food to a food shelf for every pound of flesh they lose. It raised 3.5 million pounds of food during the past two years, officials said.
"Shrink-A-Thons" also are springing up across the country, including at the Fuller Center for Housing in the Twin Cities.
Participants follow a specific diet and get pledges for every pound lost, which then are donated to charity.
Independent contests also are multiplying.
Last month a Colorado appliance outlet ended a two-month weight-loss contest for employees and contributed $2,300 to a food shelf, based on total pounds shed.
There's even an "e-how" website that explains the ABCs of losing weight for charity.
Retter and her sister Linda Clute, both of St. Paul, Minn., came to the trend on their own through their volunteer work for a nonprofit called African Community Health Initiative, started by a St. Paul nurse from Namibia.
Retter has traveled to Namibia every year for the past four years to support the project and/or do research. But this year's visit with her sister really broke her heart. Sitting at the kitchen table at her sister's house last week, she opened a photo album showing children lining up in front of a corrugated tin shack offering free meals.
"These kids had just been digging through the garbage, looking for food," Retter said, pointing to a photo of a boy and girl with their hands inside open cans. "They eat whatever they find."
Both Retter and Clute weighed more than 200 pounds at the time. It was embarrassing - and humbling, they said. So they pledged to overhaul their eating habits, and their philanthropy habits. The "Africa diet" was born.
After returning to Minnesota, Clute won two of her church's "biggest loser" contests, landing $600 for the children. That was the easy cash.
Next came the task of saying "no" to fast food, restaurant meals, and any food not part of their low-fat, high-protein diet. The farmers market became their best friend.
"I don't go to the cafeteria at work: I bring my own meals," said Clute, opening her refrigerator to show a small Tupperware container of vegetable soup.
Retter does much the same. But she had an extra hurdle. Because she worked three jobs to raise money for the Africa Community Health Initiative, she ate most of her meals out, mainly at McDonald's.
"I haven't had a Big Mac, large fries and a chocolate shake for a long time," she sighed, as she dipped a spoon into a cup of fat-free yogurt.
Retter has lost 80 pounds and Clute lost 60. Both plan to drop another 30. Their humble diets now pay for groceries to feed at least 125 children one meal a day for a month, Retter said.
"We've both been on a million diets," Clute said. "But we didn't have the motivation to stay with it."
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Sue Gegen of Bloomington, Minn., shed 10 pounds during Weight Watchers' "Lose for Good" campaign this fall. She said the charity incentive motivated her to keep pushing.
"I remember the day I reached 30 pounds (lost)," said Gegan, a retired attorney. "I ... bought 25 pounds of kitty litter for someone at the food shelf who couldn't afford it.
"I brought the bag back (to Weight Watchers) and everyone picked it up. It really hit home how much weight you've been carrying around."
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Perhaps because the trend is so new, there's little research evaluating whether charity diets are more effective than others.
Simone French, a University of Minnesota public health professor, said she hasn't seen any such studies, but the personal stories sound "inspiring."
"It seems like another idea that could work with some people, especially if they are doing it with a group, which could enhance social support," French said. "But you have to sustain those changes over the long term. And that's hard."
"The durability of the weight loss is what concerns me," added Deborah Vanderhall, manager of Abbot Northwestern Hospital's Center of Bariatric Surgery. "Often people are motivated by being No. 1, but once the event is over, they slip."
Retter and Clute, however, don't doubt they'll keep off the pounds. They've got more than 100 kids relying on them in Namibia. They plan to travel there again next year to work in remote community health clinics, only this time as thinner versions of themselves. Said Retter: "This diet is different."
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(c) 2010, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.