And The Lord Said Unto Abraham...

Hit the gym and lay off the fries? It never occurred to me that faith-based exercise programs might exist, but if they help people, that's great. Being healthy can be a real challenge.

Somehow though, I doubt the baby Jesus cries over a super-size. From AM New York:

Boxing and church may be an uncommon pairing, but Rev. Steve Reynolds was making a point that God and exercise do go together. Both are part of Bod4God, the weight-loss program based on Christian principles that Reynolds developed as he lost more than 100 pounds over the last two years.

"Jesus Christ was not obese," Reynolds told the audience, pointing to passages in the Bible that describe Jesus walking 40 miles in one day. "I believe the heart of God is so sad today when it comes to our physical shape."

And a sociologist quoted in the article has some ideas and findings:

Obesity is a growing problem in America — more than 72 million adults are considered obese.

And Kenneth Ferraro, a sociology professor at Purdue University, has studied religion and obesity and found that religion is related to the prevalence of obesity. His research in the U.S. has found, for example, that Baptist and fundamentalist Protestants had higher rates of obesity than other Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Jews and other non-Christians, including Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

Ferraro believes Baptists' and fundamentalists' absolutist views on alcohol and smoking may contribute to the rate of obesity, because they're not learning to practice moderation.

"When you teach people it's all or nothing, it works for some things but doesn't transfer over to food, because you have to eat," Ferraro said.