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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Justice O'Connor Retires; Choose To Lose; My Big Fat Greek Diet; Faith-Based Diets

Aired July 01, 2005 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Lou, thanks so much for that.
And hi, everybody. A special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360 starts in just a few minutes. But there is a major story out of Washington tonight and we want to cover all the angles here.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring. In a knock-down, drag-out political fight over the future of the court, and even the future of the country, may be just around the corner. Before we get to that, though, Bruce Morton looks to the life and legacy of the first woman ever named to the highest court in the land.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): She was born in Texas, raised on an Arizona ranch 25 miles from the nearest town. She has the toughness ranch life can breed.

MARCI HAMILTON, FORMER O'CONNOR CLERK: Her early life was very hard. Her parents died. Her grandmother died. She was shuttled back and forth between the ranch and relatives in Texas to go to school. And she just became very self sufficient.

MORTON: She went to Stanford Law School in the same class as William Rehnquist. He was first in the class, she third. But no law firm would hire her. So she eventually started her own with her husband. And later became a powerful state law maker, then judge in Arizona. Ronald Reagan nominated her to be the first woman on the Supreme Court in 1981.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She is truly a person for all seasons, possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity and devotion to the public good.

MORTON: Did the fact that she was a woman matter? She talked with Judy Woodruff in 2003.

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: We all bring with us to the court or to any task we undertake our own lifetime of experiences and background. My perceptions might be different than some of my colleagues'. But at the end of the day, we ought to all be able to agree on some sensible solution to the problem.

JAMES FORMAN, FORMER O'CONNOR CLERK: I don't think there's any decision that you can say, she reached this result because she's a woman.

MORTON: One thing she did do because she was a woman, open a class of yoga and calisthenics for women, not just court employees, in the Supreme Court building.

O'CONNOR: I went to the YWCA and asked if they could find me an instructor who would be willing to come up here and start a class. So we did.

MORTON: She was tough. Survived a 1988 bought with breast cancer with a dose of dry, western whit.

O'CONNOR: The worst was my public visibility, frankly. There was constant media coverage. How dose she look? When is she going to step down and give the president another vacancy on the court? You know, she looks pale to me, I don't give her six months.

MORTON: She was tough. Who's the calmest person on the stage when the curtain crashes down at a July 4th ceremony in Philadelphia? She had a reputation for being the swing vote, the deciding vote in lots of cases.

O'CONNOR: I think that's something the media has devised as a means of writing about the court. And I don't think that has a lot of validity.

MORTON: Some criticized her as a fence sitter waiting to see which way the wind would blow.

HAMILTON: Those would be the people who have never met her. Anybody who's met her knows that she makes up her own mind and she's not at all concerned about where anybody else is on the spectrum.

MORTON: Legacy? She voted against a moment of silence in schools as encouraging religion, but for a city-sponsored nativity scene which she thought did not endorse religion. She held that states could place no undue burden on the right to an abortion.

Why retire now? I'm 75 years old, she said in a statement, and I need to spend time with my husband. He is suffering from Alzheimer's. And as the first woman on the court, she leaves having made a statement.

O'CONNOR: Let me tell you one reason why I think it's important. And that is, for the public generally to see and respect the fact that in positions of power and authority, that women are well-represented. That it is not an all-male governance as it once was.

MORTON: She saw to that. She did indeed.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The White House says President Bush did not learn of Justice O'Connor's decision until this morning. After talking with her on the phone, the president met with reports. He praised O'Connor as a discerning and contentious judge. Then, without naming names, he promised to nominate a replacement in a "timely manner."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning.

The nation deserves and I will select a Supreme Court justice that Americans can be proud of. The nation also deserves a dignified process of confirmation in the United States Senate, characterized by fair treatment, a fair hearing and a fair vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: There hasn't been a Supreme Court vacancy since 1994. And the president knows that this nomination will be a crucial battle.

White House Correspondent Dana Bash joining us now to talk a little bit more strategy.

Dana, hello to you.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

COLLINS: Was the president there -- we just mentioned he was maybe kind of caught off guard by this announcement?

BASH: Well certainly, Heidi, there was a lot of speculation that there could be a vacancy on Monday, the last day of the Supreme Court term. That didn't happen. But everybody was definitely on edge here at the White House. And it was yesterday, actually, that a cryptic call came that the White House would get a letter. They didn't know who it would be from but they did get a tip-off that there would be a vacancy. And it wasn't until today, this morning, that the letter actually came and President Bush had a pretty emotional phone call, we're told, with Justice O'Connor.

COLLINS: Is the White House, do you think, Dana, prepared, though, for this possible, very contentious battle that could lie ahead?

BASH: Heidi, they've been preparing for this since day one of this administration. Four and a half years ago they started. In terms of the legal office, they started preparing writings, rulings of any potential candidates. Lately it's gotten a lot more narrow and top senior advisors, they have been looking, even interviewing potential candidates who could be on the president's short list.

And we are told there is a short list at this time. One senior official put it this way. That it's a little bit like picking the pope. It's quite secret, but there's a small group of advisors whom the president very much trusts.

COLLINS: Also, the president has a heavy travel schedule next week and we've got the holiday weekend. When are we going to know? BASH: Well, we do know that we don't know until at least a week from today. The president will not make any decision until he comes back from his trip to Europe. And it is on that trip, we are told, the president will start really looking into the dossier, if you will, of the potential candidates that his advisors have given him.

COLLINS: All right. Dana Bash from the White House tonight.

Dana, thank you.

Up on Capitol Hill today, senators from both the left and the right weighing in on what kind of nominee the president should pick. Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry rounds up all the advice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The Democratic strategy, immediately try to limit the president's choice to a moderate.

TED KENNEDY: Mainstream conservative.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Mainstream supreme court justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Voice of reason and moderation.

HENRY: So they showered Sandra Day O'Connor with praise to make the case that her seat should stay centrist.

SCHUMER: We would expect the president to maintain the critical balance of the court that Justice O'Connor fought so long and hard for by nominating a consensus, mainstream nominee.

HENRY: Senate Republicans seem slightly less aggressive, preferring to just hail O'Connor and leave the confirmation battle for another day.

SEN. BILL FRIST, (R) MAJORITY LEADER: As the Senate moves forward to confirm a new nominee for the high court, it's important that we remember her legacy. America needs judges who are fair, independent, unbiased and committed to equal justice.

HENRY: While the fight to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist would have been bitter, the battle for O'Connor's swing seat will be even fiercer because it can provide the tipping point on issues like abortion and gay marriage.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, CHAIRMAN, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: This is a very polarized country when it comes to the issues which will come to the Supreme Court of the United States. And I would expect people to want their choice. And everybody can't have their own way. That's why we have a president and that's why we have a Senate.

HENRY: Arlen Specter said he expects to provide that balance with measured confirmation hearings in his judiciary committee. But the real power may rest in the hands of the so called gang of 14, who recently averted a nuclear showdown over filibusters against the president's lower court nominees and are now urging the president to come to the middle on his first high-court choice.

SEN. JOHN WARNER, (R) VIRGINIA: This nomination of the first Supreme Court justice by this distinguished president gives him an opportunity to be a uniter, not a divider.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Looking quickly now at the top stories this hour.

For the third time in a week, there has been a shark attack off Florida's Gulf Coast. A 19-year-old from Austria was bitten on the ankle while he was swimming in chest-deep water. And doctors say his prognosis is good.

I'm Heidi Collins, a special edition of ANDERSON -- oh, we're looking at Luther Vandross. We have news about him tonight. The Grammy-winning rhythm and blues artist Luther Vandross has died at age 54. He suffered a stroke back in 2003.

I'm Heidi Collins, everybody. A special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, "Choose to Lose," starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper.

A fat America, trying to get thin and failing. We're going to look at what's going wrong and what you can do to get it right and keep the pounds off. A special edition of "360" starts now.

Are you having trouble sticking to your diet? The top-five diet blunders you shouldn't make if you want to lose weight once and for all.

A boarding school for obese children. Tonight, a radical program to help kids overcome their weight issues. Could it work for your child?

And can you lose weight by turning to God? Why so many are trying to shed pounds by gaining faith. It worked for this woman. Could it work for you?

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: Welcome to "Choose to Lose," a special edition of 360. An entire hour devoted to diet success stories. We'll also show you some of the mistakes that so many of us make when trying to change our ways and eat healthy.

We begin tonight with a truly inspirational story. Imagine being roughly as tall as you are wide. Well, that was the scenario facing a San Diego physician who once described himself as a big, fat Greek. This doctor was slowly killing himself by pretty much eating everything in sight. But his love of life and of baseball changed all that. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): This is the Nick Yphantides, who loved baseball and food. But not necessarily in that order. He called himself a big, fat Greek. Dr. Nick, a family practitioner, who knew he should be an example to his patients, wasn't even sure how much he weighed because his scale didn't go high enough. But after stepping on two scales, he found out he weighted nearly a quarter ton.

DR NICK YPHANTIDES, AUTHOR, "MY BIG FAT GREEK DIET": When I realized I weighed 467, you could have just told me my mother died. I was balling. I was just so humiliated.

TUCHMAN: He also became motivated. This is Dr. Nick today, 6'2", around 200 pounds. A bout with testicular cancer convinced him his life had to change.

YPHANTIDES: And it hit me like a ton of bricks, how ridiculous it was having dodged the cancer bullet but, on the other side of life, I was literally killing myself. I'm convinced now that I was committing a slow form of suicide by eating myself to death.

TUCHMAN: So Dr. Nick planned a very ambitious diet. On the night before it was to begin, though, one last monster dinner, a double portion of porter house steak, several appetizers, cheesecake and a banana cream pie.

YPHANTIDES: We went to the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse here in San Diego and I let it all hang out. Thirty-five years of bad habits culminated in one evening of food decadence. The next day I went on the liquid fast that would last for eight months.

TUCHMAN: Under medical supervision, he only drank protein shakes, exercised regularly and went off in this RV on what he called a radical sabbatical, a journey to each of the 30 Major League Baseball stadiums, including the home of his beloved San Diego Padres.

Do you think you could have lost all this weight without the distraction of something like baseball?

YPHANTIDES: I'm not sure I could have.

TUCHMAN: He went to 110 games. At Chicago's Wrigley Field, he successfully performed CPR on a fan having a heart attack.

YPHANTIDES: When I got back to my seat, you know, in true baseball hospitality fashion people were like, whoa, how did you do that? Well, I'm a doctor. Well, Doc, can I buy you a beer? And I'm like, well, I don't drink. Can I buy you a hot dog? I don't eat.

TUCHMAN: Dr. Nick spent five months going to all the Major League Baseball cities. Despite the temptation of kielbasa, hot dogs and pizza, not to mentions peanuts and Cracker Jacks, he lost 188 pounds. He hadn't seen his mother for months. Home video caught her reaction when he returned to his home in Escondido.

BERNICE YPHANTIDES, NICK'S MOTHER: He had lost so much weight and also got a hair cut and just looked so different. I was just shocked at the door.

TUCHMAN: And he was your own flesh and blood and you didn't even recognize him.

BERNICE YPHANTIDES: No. It was a miraculous, joyful moment.

TUCHMAN: Nick lost an additional 82 pounds, for a total of 270. His first solid food was eaten with flair on Thanksgiving and also captured on home video. In the three years since his diet, Dr. Nick fell in love and got married. Debbie Yphantides gave birth to their daughter, Nicki (ph) in April. And Dr. Nick wrote a book appropriately named "My Big Fat Greek Diet," in which he tells his story and gives his medial viewpoint about how others can lose weight and keep it off.

He writes that a liquid diet is certainly not for everybody and should only be done under a doctor's care. He preaches about working out, something he tries to do seven days a week at his home YMCA. The Greek food is sill plentiful at family gathers in Escondido, but Nick says the vivid memories of his past give him plenty of incentive to eat in moderation.

YPHANTIDES: These clothes used to be tight on me.

TUCHMAN: And what are the size of these?

YPHANTIDES: This is a size 60 pant, five feet around.

TUCHMAN: And baseball remains an important diversion. Cheering on the Padres with his wife and daughter serve as a reminder of what his life was once like and how fortunate he is now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Dr. Nick is once again practicing medicine. He says, when he went back to work after his radical sabbatical, many of this patients weren't even aware he was the same guy. In fact, in many ways, he's not. He has a new body, a new life and he's a much happier person. Interestingly, even though he eats regular foods now, he still drinks those protein shakes. Hasn't gotten sick of them yet.

Anderson.

COOPER: And that is quite an accomplishment.

Gary, thanks very much.

Gary Tuchman.

Coming up on 360, our special program, "Choose to Lose" continues. Keeping the faith. We're going to meet one woman who lost 100 pounds by turning her attention from food to God.

And later tonight, Durham, North Carolina, it's considered the diet capital of the world. Who's going there and what do they gain from losing? We'll investigate.

Also, if you want to take off the pounds once and for all, we'll have the top five diet mistakes you want to try to avoid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to 360.

In our special look at weight loss, we're calling it "Choose to Lose." You know a study from Purdue University found that religious Americans are more likely to be overweight than their nonreligious peers, which perhaps may explain why faith-based diet books are flying off the shelves. It made us wonder, can turning to God really help someone shed the pounds? CNN's Heidi Collins investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A call to worship. Millions of Americans turning to God to feed their faith and nourish their souls. Now, a growing number of people are looking to God to fill more than their hearts. They're looking to the almighty for weight loss.

From the looks of the bagels and cream cheese piled next to the holy water and rosary beads, you'd never know this was a diet meeting. Jackie Halgash is a registered nurse, a 51-year old mother of three and meets weekly with her sisters and other nurses to do "The Light Weigh," a faith-based weight loss program. They read Bible passages . . .

JACKIE HALGASH, LOST 100 LBS.: A broken and contrite heart, oh, God, thou will not despise. Short and sweet. I just think that I came to this program because I was broken. I felt I had nowhere to go. And I felt like I couldn't do it by myself.

COLLINS: And forget about Atkins and South Beach. Instead of counting carbs, these dieters count their blessings.

JOAN CAHILL, LOST 55 LBS.: When I came to this program, I was a desperate program. I had no place to go but up. And "The Light Weigh" just showed me a promise of deeper faith, a thinner body. And it was a light shining in the darkness for me.

COLLINS: For Jackie, that darkness was 245 pounds. She tried every diet she knew and couldn't keep the weight off.

HALGASH: I was in the grocery store and I was shopping and it hit me that there isn't anything in this whole grocery store I could fill my cart with all my favorite foods and I wouldn't be satisfied. So what am I trying to satisfy?

COLLINS: Despite losing 60 pounds, she still felt fat. HALGASH: I looked at myself from behind and I thought, oh, my God, you're such a pig. You're such pig. You haven't changed at all.

COLLINS: Three years later, Jackie has change. She lost 100 pounds. She credits "The Light Way" and its philosophy of not eating when your sad or lonely or bored, only when you're hungry. It's a message reinforced by the program's videos.

SUZANNE FOWLER, FOUNDER, "THE LIGHT WEIGH": We have a need to be fed in other ways than food. God's word is nourishment to us.

COLLINS: Suzanne Fowler is the founder of "The Light Weigh." She went on her first diet in third grade and watched her weight balloon after the birth of her sixth child.

FOWLER: The world's dieting has put me into a shortage mentality, which is what all dieting does to people. Food is either good or bad. They're either being good or bad. And so when this happens, it begins to control you.

Here we are with a restaurant portion. Wow! This could feed an entire family.

COLLINS: Fowler has no medical credentials but dishes out advice. Her key point, eat only fist-sized portions at meal times. Go ahead, have donuts, but in moderation. There are no forbidden foods.

BONNIE TAUB-DIX, REGISTERED DIETITIAN: The problem with this unstructured eating could lead to frivolous eating where you're not really understanding what it is that you do physically need and then you might wind up eating foods that are really not going to fuel your body the way that you should.

COLLINS: A charge Fowler answers by saying, when dieters are at peace with God, they don't need the junk food to fill the void.

FOWLER: God has designed the human body to crave what it needs. And that's how he's gotten us to get our nutrients.

COLLINS: Jackie and her sisters are among hundreds of thousands of Americans following faith-based diets. They've found success. But does every one? Other religious dieters may be destined to fail if they go looking for weight-loss miracles.

MARIE GRIFFITH, AUTHOR, "BORN AGAIN BODIES": Failure really is about failing God. I mean, it can really be about not have the faith, not have the discipline, not being obedient enough to God. Are you going to hell if you can't lose the weight and keep it off?

COLLINS: Marie Griffith is a religion professor at Princeton University who has studied Bible-based diets. She worries some followers may think they're more lovable to God as a size six than 16. But when Jackie gets on the scale now, she's happy. She has kept few reminders of her fat days. Just some old cotton pajamas.

Three x?

HALGASH: Yes, it's a 3X.

COLLINS: That's like extra, extra, extra large.

HALGASH: Extra, extra, extra large. Yes. And the people in the know, know that's like a 24 to a 26.

COLLINS: The real difference for her, Jackie says, is what she's achieved through prayer and sacrifice.

You've lost 100 pounds?

HALGASH: Yes. Yes, I have. Yes, I've lost 100 pounds. Praise God. Thank you.

Will I struggle? Yes. Never like before, but I'll struggle. But he'll keep me close because my heart is open and my mind's open. And I'm a different person than I was on the inside. That's why I'm never going to gain weight again.

COLLINS: Heidi Collins, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: This special edition of 360, "Choose to Lose," continues.

Also tonight, why is it so tough to just eat right? We're going to tell you about the top five diet blunders and how to get that diet back on track.

And a little bit later, diet school for teens that makes weight reduction as fundamental as reading, writing and arithmetic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight on "Choose to Lose," a special edition of 360, we're looking at diet success stories.

I'm sure in school, we all remember bullies, kids who tried to give themselves a leg up by putting others down. Perhaps their easiest targets were kids who were overweight. But overweight kids are often traumatized still by their peers. Now there is a school where they learn the ABCs of weight control. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When getting to this isolated location in California's San Joaquin Valley, it's easy to lose your way. But once there, the time has come to find your way.

(on camera): How much did you weigh when you came?

JARED FITZPATRICK, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS STUDENT: Two hundred and twenty.

MAL MAHEDY, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS STUDENT: I weighed 322 pounds.

TERRY HENRY, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS STUDENT: I weighed 591 pounds at my peak.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): These are teenagers who in a sense have become weight loss pioneers in a brand new program.

RYAN CRAIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS: Academy of the Sierras is the first year-round treatment program for obese and overweight adolescents, and we do it in a boarding school environment.

TUCHMAN: Jared Fitzpatrick (ph) is 13, from Illinois. He is the boy who used to weigh 220.

(on camera): How much do you weigh right now?

FITZPATRICK: One hundred and thirty-eight.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Mal Mahedy is 17 from Florida. She's the one who weighed 322. She's lost 130 pounds, coming here after a debilitating sophomore year of high school.

MAHEDY: It was the most traumatic experience I have ever had. I -- it got to the point where I was being made fun of every day, and I just eventually quit school, and I had to be privately tutored.

TUCHMAN: And 16-year-old Terry Henry from New Hampshire is the teen who weighed 591. His life has been very difficult. But he's now lost 254 pounds.

(on camera): How were you able to even know how much you weighed? The scales don't go that high?

HENRY: I got on a cattle scale.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They do their reading, writing and arithmetic here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're like giving us the wrong answer.

TUCHMAN: But the reason their families are paying a steep $5,500 a month is because nothing else has worked in their efforts to lose weight.

(on camera): In a typical day, when you weighed 591 pounds, how much food did you eat?

HENRY: About 60,000 calories a day.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): About 2,000 calories a day is what the students here average, while eating three meals and two snacks. They're allowed no more than 12 daily fat grams.

They keep journals of what they eat and how they feel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still hungry, and it's after dinner. I wanted some more soft serve.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cooking something does require coming up with a plan for it.

TUCHMAN: They learn how to prepare healthy foods with other kids who understand what they're going through.

(on camera): Did you know about nutritious foods before you took this class?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not really. Like, I knew how to make macaroni and cheese.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They're required to exercise every day. All students wear pedometers. Five miles of walking, 10,000 steps are required.

(on camera): Do you carry a pedometer with you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN: And how many steps have you taken today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five thousand ninety.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Privileges are taken away from anyone who ignores exercise and other requirements.

Fourteen-year-old Shari Lininger is challenging me to a one-on- one.

(on camera): Nice shot. You are the winner.

(voice-over): And challenging herself to lose more than the 82 pounds she has already shed, so she can pursue a singing career.

SHARI LININGER, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS STUDENT: I have a passion for that, and I knew that my weight would potentially keep me from doing that and keep me from being successful in that area of my life.

TUCHMAN (on camera): This class of 36 has lost a combined total of more than 2,400 pounds. Almost all of the kids say they have zooming confidence levels.

But what happens when they get back in the real world where there are lots of fast food restaurants and menacing high school classmates?

(voice-over): Those types of questions are addressed in behavioral classes here, which may be the most important lessons of all.

MOLLY CARMEL, DEP. CLINICAL DIRECTOR, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS: It would be nearly impossible for them to do anything if they didn't change the behaviors that they came in with.

TUCHMAN: Terry says he has become disciplined and motivated.

HENRY: If it definitely wasn't for this place, I would probably be dead right now. Seriously. I mean, I was one of the biggest human beings in the world. I'd like to get my weight around 200 pounds.

TUCHMAN (on camera): So that means you still have about another 137 to go, right?

HENRY: Yep.

TUCHMAN: You think you'll make it?

HENRY: I know I'll make it.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Experts not affiliated with the school say the families are a key to these teenagers succeeding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things have to change at home. So while the child's away, the family really needs to implement some major changes as well.

TUCHMAN: The school says it is training the parents, as its first group of eight students goes home for good this week. And while we are there, a goodbye ceremony for those leaving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, and everybody, I love you all. And I'll miss you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm ready to use the skills which I have been taught for the past nine months. I'm ready to start my life again and to succeed this time.

TUCHMAN: Terry is not leaving yet. He has more weight to lose, but he received an award for being so inspirational.

As for Shari, who is going home, her voice elegantly conveys her feelings about her classmates.

LININGER (singing): And I will remember you. Will you remember me? Don't let your life pass you by, weep not for the memory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: The goodbye was a very emotional time for these kids for a number of reasons. There is a feeling of elation that they have lost so much weight and gained so much confidence, but also a feeling of anxiety as they leave the cocoon of friends who have been in the same boat and teachers who understand what their lives have been like. Some insurance policies will cover a portion of this very expensive program, but usually no more than a third. The school hopes to convince the companies to cover more -- Anderson.

COOPER: Gary Tuchman, thanks for that. Coming up on 360, "Choose to Lose" continues. It's the number one destination for people desperate to shed some pounds. We're going to take you to Durham, North Carolina, the diet capital of the world.

Also tonight, yo-yo dieting. Why do millions of Americans fail to reach their weight loss goals? We're going to look at the top dieting mistakes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHOI: Hello, I'm Sophia Choi, and here's a look at your headlines. The first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court is resigning. Sandra Day O'Connor's departure creates the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years. President Bush is vowing to announce a nominee to replace the conservative moderate in, quote, "a timely manner."

The White House says there is no evidence so far the Iranian president-elect was involved in the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis. They're still instigating, though. One official says the U.S. has found serious discrepancies between the photographs of one hostage-taker and those of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several former hostages claim he was a main participant in the crisis.

Grammy-winning R&B singer Luther Vandross has died. The 54-year- old crooner stopped making public appearances after suffering a stroke in 2003.

And just a remember, check out CNN.com's new video link where you can watch some of the days most popular stories 24/7 all for free.

Well, that's the news for now. See you back here in a few minutes. I'm Sophia Choi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Tonight on 360, a special look at diet success stories. We're calling it "Choose to Lose." As aspiring actors go to Hollywood, some desperate dieters go to Durham. The North Carolina city is a top destination for people who want to take control on their weight problem. CNN's Gary Tuchman met one woman who went there for just that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: This is what Teresa looked like last year. This is what she looks like this year. The 31-year-old Texan gives some of the credit to a place called...

TERESA KHIRALLAH, DURHAM DIETER: Durham, North Carolina.

TUCHMAN: You've heard of Durham. It's the home of Duke University. And the home of the famous Durham Bulls minor league baseball team.

But there's something you may not know about this town. KHIRALLAH: Durham is, is certainly -- yeah, I would venture to say, it's the diet capital of the world.

TUCHMAN: Durham is an international destination for people looking to lose a lot of weight. The city of 200,000 has three-world- renowned diet clinics: the Rice Program, the Duke Diet and Fitness Center and the Structure House. It's founder is Dr. Gerard Musante.

DR. GERARD MUSANTE, FOUNDER, STRUCTURE HOUSE: This is a very unique town. This is truly a mecca. I look at it as a one-stop place. You have a problem with obesity, you're going to inevitably find a solution to it here.

TUCHMAN: Teresa came to Structure House last summer in what turned out to be a life-changing four weeks in dieting, exercise and behavioral modification.

(on camera): At your peak, how much did you weigh?

KHIRALLAH: 392 pounds, the most I've weighed.

TUCHMAN: And what have you gotten down to?

KHIRALLAH: About 195.

TUCHMAN: So you've lost about 200 pounds, which is more than half of you?

KHIRALLAH: Yes. Yes.

TUCHMAN: How did that make you feel?

KHIRALLAH: Oh, I wake up every day knowing I'm the luckiest person in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

KHIRALLAH: How are you guys?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good, good.

KHIRALLAH: Good. Good. Good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You look great.

KHIRALLAH: Thank you

TUCHMAN (voice-over): And now, Teresa is back here at Structure House. She's here to recharge herself, living in the on campus apartments for a two-week stay.

KHIRALLAH: A lot of people make pilgrimages to the holy lands. And I guess Structure House has become a holy land for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the easiest change you can make at home? That's what we want to focus on. TUCHMAN: It's very pricey. Structure House is more than $9,000 for a four-week session. The key here is learning to keep a structured lifestyle. Regular low calorie meals are important. So is avoiding snacks.

MUSANTE: The basic philosophy is that we develop a relationship with food. All of us develop a relationship to some extent. And sometimes, some of the relationships can be dysfunctional.

TUCHMAN (on camera): How has the experience been so far for all of you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been wonderful.

TUCHMAN: This breakfast table is full of people at Structure House for the first time. They regard Teresa who is now train for a marathon as a conquering hero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I get tired driving 27 miles. I don't know how the running is going to go, but...

KHIRALLAH: Durham is the place where I learned to enjoy movies without popcorn. Durham is the place where I went to see theater shows and concentrate on the actual show instead of dinner afterwards. And so, yeah, Durham has a huge place for me.

TUCHMAN: And from all over the world, the diet tourists are coming in every-increasing numbers and spending lots of money.

SHELLY GREER, DURHAM CONVENTION AND VISITOR'S BUREAU: We estimate that the dieters spend about $50 million per year in Durham.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Here in Durham, there are many business that consider it smart business to cater to overweight clientele. This store sells specially designed athletic shoes for people who might have trouble walking. And the seats to try on those shoes, well, they are very wide benches for those who might have anxiety about sitting in smaller chairs.

(voice-over): It's an emotional second visit for Teresa who meets up with an instructor who helped her a great deal.

KHIRALLAH: I see that person who made -- now, I'm going to start crying. And I'm not going to do it. Because you're not supposed to -- it's just saved my life. So, this place saved my life. And I'm not naive in thinking I didn't have a big part it in, too this past year. But it certainly -- yeah, I do. I feel like. And I'm going to make this pilgrimage for the rest of my life back here.

TUCHMAN: And she won't be the only one.

(on camera): Teresa told me she had never worn a swimsuit in public in her life until last year following her stay at Structure House. She is in training for a marathon, but she has already ran a half marathon, telling me with pride that she never walked once the entire 13 miles. Now, of course, you can do well on a diet and not spend so much money and go so far from home. But one of the reasons these types of diets are often so successful is because the dieters fear failure, because of the huge time and financial commitments they have made -- Anderson.

COOPER: Hm. Part of the motivation. Gary Tuchman. Thanks.

Still to come on 360, our special program, "Choose to Lose" continues. Why do nearly all New Year's resolutions to lose weight fall through by spring time? We'll look at the top-five diet dont's.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to "Choose to Lose," the special edition of 360. For some people, dieting is simply a matter of counting calories. We caught up with one man who counted calories not just as way to lose weight, but as a way to stay younger longer. Here's CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KENTON MULLINS, CALORIE RESTRICTION SOCIETY: I'd like a papaya salad.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kenton Mullins (ph) is 5'8" but weighs only 120 pounds.

MULLINS: Yes, it sounds good.

COHEN: That's because he eats only 1,800 calories a day.

MULLINS: Oh, that looks great.

COHEN: Down from 4,000 a day a few years ago. He's hoping it will help him live to 90, 100, or even longer.

MULLINS: It was a very deliberate decision I made to begin calorie restriction. It's backed by very reputable extensive research.

COHEN: Like the research with these monkeys. Skinny monkeys, like the one on the right, live longer, healthier lives.

DR. SUSAN ROBERTS, TUFTS UNIVERSITY: They actually age biologically slower. They're fur's gone grow less quickly.

COHEN: Skinny mice live longer too. On regular diets, mice in one study, lived 36 months. When they ate 235 percent fewer calories, they live 42 months. On 65 percent fewer calories, they lived 55 months. One theory why is that on fewer calories, cells though out body appear to die slowly and repair themselves more easily.

MULLINS: This whole piece of lettuce may have like four or five calories. COHEN: Mullins counts his calories religiously. For dinner this night, he had his papaya salad, steamed vegetables and he ate only about a third of fish, low in calories, but high in nutrients.

MULLINS: It's kind of like I'm living a life of torture. But how many people could have that kind of will power. Could we even keep off 45 pounds like Mullins did?

RICHARD MILLER, AMERICAN FED. FOR AGING RESEARCH: For every 100 people that are able to lose some weight, 95 or 98 of them just gain the weight back.

COHEN: That's why some researchers like Richard Miller, want to come up with a pill that tricks your body into thinking it's on a very low calorie diet, even when it's not. Giving all of the benefits, without any of the sacrifice.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Tonight's special edition of 360, "Choose to Lose," we're looking at the do's and don'ts of dieting, and how many times have you started a diet, then fallen off the wagon. It's a problem facing millions of Americans, but it can also be prevented by avoiding the top five diet mistakes. Earlier, I spoke with Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Let's talk about diet blunder number one, carb deprivation. At the height of the low-carb craze, the Atkins craze, the South Beach diet, I read that 27 million Americans were on some kind of low-carb diet. About half of those have dropped off. That's incredible.

BONNIE TAUB-DIX, REGISTERED DIETITIAN: That's wonderful. I'm really happy about that, because the whole low-carb craze was really pretty ridiculous. Any diet that says no something, you know is already bad news. So the key is really adding carbohydrates to your diet. It's not only important for energy, but carbs actually are the brain's feel-good chemical. Makes you feel good.

COOPER: Serotonin.

TAUB-DIX: Yes, because it raises serotonin levels. So when you add carbohydrates to your diet, you get that "ahh" factor where you feel like you've actually had something that you enjoy.

COOPER: But so you say any diet that says -- that eliminates an entire food group is not going to work?

TAUB-DIX: Right, you know that's bad news, because that has nothing to do with real life. After being on a high-fat, high-protein diet for a while, even a dry cracker looks good. So the important thing is to have balance in your diet. Every nutrient is important. No food should be left out. But you have to watch your portion sizes and balance foods throughout the (INAUDIBLE)...

COOPER: And that's really what it's about, portion size?

TAUB-DIX: Yeah, always. Always comes down to that.

COOPER: Let's talk diet blunder number two. You say pigging out on so-called diet foods, or light foods.

TAUB-DIX: Yes.

COOPER: Why is that a problem?

TAUB-DIX: I'll give you an example. Light olive oil, for example, means lighter color, lighter flavor, same calories as the regular oil.

COOPER: Oh, is that true?

TAUB-DIX: Absolutely.

COOPER: I didn't know that.

TAUB-DIX: So the thickest, richest olive oil you can find, the better off you are, because you can actually taste it.

COOPER: And olive oil has a lot of calories, which I mean, most people think, oh, it's a diet thing, but it's got healthy fats, right?

TAUB-DIX: Right, healthy fats, but that doesn't mean that fat is healthy if you're very overweight. So you have to be careful about the amount of fat you eat as well as the kind of fat you eat.

COOPER: Diet blunder number three, getting on the scale every day. Why is that a problem?

TAUB-DIX: Bad news. Because the scale doesn't only weigh fat, which most people think; it also measures the fluid in your body. So if you eat dinner out, and half of our food dollars goes to restaurants, is salt acts like a magnet to water. So salt increases the fluid in your body, so you can weigh yourself after having two pickles which are only 10 calories each, and be two pounds up.

COOPER: You say you should weigh yourself, what, twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays?

TAUB-DIX: Yes, Fridays and Mondays. Friday because that's before the weekend. If you weigh a little more than you thought, then you may cut back a little over the weekend. And Mondays, because if you lost weight on Friday, you won't fool around too much on the weekend because you know Monday you have to weigh yourself.

COOPER: Diet blunder number four, thinking liquids don't count. Frozen margueritas got, what, 650 calories? A bottle of vitamin water has like 128 or so? TAUB-DIX: It could. It could. You just have to check the labels. Some of these vitamin waters actually have no calories, but many do. And a lot of people think that because you don't chew that it doesn't have any calories, and that's just not true. We have a huge problem with obesity with kids nowadays, and kids drink a lot of fruit juices. So again, just because something is healthy doesn't mean that it's low in calories.

COOPER: All right, what about like things like jamba juice or smoothies? I mean, I have one every day for lunch. Is that a good diet choice?

TAUB-DIX: Well, we'll talk after about your smoothie...

COOPER: Oh, really?

TAUB-DIX: But they could be loaded with calories. So it really depends on what's in it.

COOPER: Diet blunder number five, you say failure to reward yourself. Why is it important to reward yourself?

TAUB-DIX: Well, you know, losing weight is a very dynamic process. You know, when your clothing's getting bigger and people are complimenting you, you actually feel the motivation to keep on, but once you're at the wait that you want to be or you're not losing that much weight anymore, sometimes the motivation falls off. So you have to remember that you need to reward yourself for all that you've done, because studies show now that even just losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight, which could only be 10 to 15 pounds, could dramatically improve blood sugar, blood pressure, high cholesterol levels. So what a lot of people do is they make the mistake by rewarding themselves when they lose weight with food that's high in calories. That usually turns into a punishment, not a reward.

COOPER: Bonnie, thanks very much. Good advice.

TAUB-DIX: You're so welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for joining us on this special edition of 360, "Choose to Lose: Diet Success Stories." We hope they've been inspiring. CNN's prime-time coverage continues now with "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

END

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