Although the Bible does not address the topic of weight loss specifically, you will find dozens of references to food, eating, self-control, gluttony, discipline, and dietary practices.
There are passages on eating clean food, buying food, cooking food, permitted food, forbidden food, and passages on specific foods such as bread, cream, stews, drinks, honey, cheese, and butter.
Given that the Bible has so much to say about food, many wonderful ministries, have used these passages to develop christian diets, programs, and meal plans, basing them on the biblical principles found in these passages to help others lose weight and incorporate a Christian way of life to enhance their spiritual well-being, as well as, their physical well-being.
Here is a brief summary of the top ten Christian weight loss programs. They are not in any specific order.
Weight Loss, God’s Way – www.weightlossgodsway.com
Weight Loss, God’s Way programs have impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of women to date. While they offer workouts, recipes and meal plans like other programs, that’s not the focus, as they maintain that until you address the emotional, spiritual and habitual patterns that underlay why you do, what you do, you will remain stuck in a pattern of yo-yo dieting and unhealthy weight. That’s why they put an emphasis on permanent weight loss through partnering with the Holy Spirit and developing an understanding that it’s ‘faith, not food’ that you’re really craving. Weight Loss, God’s Way offers a wide range of programs covering all aspects of weight loss from healthy eating and exercise to dealing with emotional eating, sugar-detoxes, courses on stress, fear, boundaries, and even effective prayer-life. Every month a different course is offered and women go through the daily devotional lessons together and meet live with a certified WLGW coach twice a month.
Three times a year, January, May and September, they also open their signature, all-inclusive, Academy program which is, by far, the most extensive, in-depth and ultimately life-transforming Christian weight loss offering on the market today. Despite being one of the most expensive options, they consistently sell out whenever a new semester starts.
10-Day Challenge – 10daysgodsway.com
Perhaps the best known and most popular program on this list is best-selling author Cathy Morenzie’s 10-Day Challenge.
The author of seven books (at time of print, I’m prolific so there may be more now) covering various aspects of weight loss, all from a Christ-centered perspective (christianweightlossbooks.com). I offer an amazing ten days of live coaching, as I teach about the ‘Five Steps to Christian Weight Loss plans‘ for absolutely no charge. You read that right, I do this it completely free, no credit card required, no obligations, just a small upsell, and not until I’ve already delivered an amazing amount of solid-gold content. It’s no wonder why thousands of women sign up for this whenever it’s offered.
The Daniel Plan – www.danielplan.com
This popular Christian weight loss program focuses on what they call “The Essentials,” which is Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus, and Friends. Each of these areas is connected to each other, and it is necessary for a participant to be active in these areas in order to succeed in creating a healthy lifestyle. You can eat any kind of food in this program as long as it is a natural whole food, not a man-made, processed food. The key to success is Friends and Faith based weight loss because people benefit more when they are making healthy lifestyle changes with a supportive group of friends and fellow Christian believers.
The Daniel Fast – www.daniel-fast.com
This program is much different than the Daniel Plan in that it is a 21-day vegan detox diet. The Daniel Fast is not necessarily a weight loss program, although you will lose some weight, nor is it a lifestyle changing program. The goal of this program is for you to feel a deeper spiritual commitment to God as you cleanse your mind, body, and soul through sacrifice, prayer, and daily Bible reading.
Take Back Your Temple – www.takebackyourtemple.com
The focus of TBYT is more on the spiritual and emotional side of Christian weight loss. This program centers around God, or the Great Physician, to heal emotional hurts that may have a negative impact on your diet. TBYT offers classes on prayer and eliminating binge-eating. The program also offers small group study where you can get together with other TBYT participants and help each other develop healthy eating habits, help with your weight loss, and grow in your faith.
First Place 4 Health – www.firstplace4health.com
First Place 4 Health focuses almost entirely on the spiritual and emotional side of weight loss. This program addresses the emotional needs of the whole person which includes Bible study, prayer, weight loss scriptures memory, and small group support and accountability. There is a lot of information on healthy eating along with recipes, but it doesn’t say much about fitness or exercise.
Faithful Finish Lines – 5-Day Challenge – faithful-
Faithful Finish Lines focuses on exercise with biblical teachings. Their 5-Day Challenge is a free introductory course so people can see if their programs are a good fit for them. They recognize that not everyone is in shape and all exercises are shown for all levels of fitness, so whether your 17 or 77 you’ll be able to follow along.
Faithful Finish Lines 2 – www.faithfulfinishlines.lpages.co
Faithful Finish Lines’ membership program which focuses on healthy eating, exercise and using biblical principles to overcome emotional eating. This is a monthly membership offer as you go through their 10-Step System towards a healthy, sustainable life.
One of the more comprehensive, and expensive options available.
Treasures of Healthy Living – www.biblicalnutritionacademy.com
Author Annette Reeder offers a small selection of bible-based courses focused primarily on healthy eating. Her main course includes her books (digitally) and some exercise components.
Faithful Workouts – faithfulworkouts.com
Faithful Workouts provides exercise and healthy eating content, aimed at Christians but without incorporated biblical teachings. A fantastic resource with over 500 workout videos, plus recipes and meal plans all available to download for free from the website or access via an app for a low monthly fee.
Overcomers Academy – www.
In this ongoing membership program author Teresa Shield Parker helps you to understand why you overeat and how to break the habits and mindsets that lead to overeating and food addiction. Well known for her books on overcoming sugar-addiction Teresa has lost 250lbs and kept it off since 2013, so she speaks from her own personal experience.
P.S. if you are tired of circling the same mountain over and over and want a Christ-centered approach to lasting weight loss without feeling guilty, deprived, or overwhelmed, be sure to sign up for our Christian weight loss newsletter and receive a free copy of my book – ‘3 Steps to Overcoming Emotional Eating‘ right away at cathymorenzie.com
I am so tired if circling that same D mountain I could cry
This is a great list. My company is a weight loss coaching program that gets to the internal struggle over food. We tell our clients that the firs rule God us was about food. But it was how we heard it that hurt us not what I believe he said. We believe that we were told that of all of the trees of the garden and other plants we could freely eat including the tree of life. However there was one tree that leads to death. If you can avoid it you will have access to the other trees and… Read more »
Try Thin Within
The Eden Diet – http://www.theedendiet.com didn’t work…sucks
I was keen into looking for a weight loss program suitable for me, which makes me stumbling across this list is really timely! I haven’t really thought of a weight loss program that includes faith based principles but it is really something to look into. Thank you for compiling such a useful list!