MAN FIGHTS A LIFELONG BATTLE WITH THE SCALE

EDITOR'S NOTE: Heidi Nieland has volunteered to go through a diet plan new to the Cape Girardeau area and write about her weekly successes and failures. Today, she talks about another participant in the Biometrics program.

Chuck Henzi can't remember the last time he felt really thin.

Even as a child, he ate out of loneliness and depression. His adulthood was marked by diet after diet.

There was the milkshake diet -- two milkshakes a day and nothing else. He wrapped himself in cellophane at night to sweat off the pounds. His brother made him sign a contract, promising not to gain anymore weight.

"I wasted my life trying to catch that waistline in the sky," Chuck, 49, said.

But his eating habits didn't change permanently. As a camp counselor, he once ate 15 hamburgers with all the trimmings, stopping only because of what other people might think.

While attending Southeast Missouri State University, Chuck signed up for a fitness program. The idea was to swim 13 miles in an indoor pool, then receive a certificate.

"One day I was swimming, and there was this butthead walking by," he said. "For some unknown reason, he called me a fat slob. I never went back.

"People say you can't let one person get you down, but I've lived with people like that all my life."

Finally, in 1981, he tried his first corporate diet plan. It was high-protein food, plus additional protein pills. Chuck lost 100 pounds. At 5 feet, 9 inches, he weighed 206 pounds and had a 38-inch waist.

He went back to college soon afterward. Instead of just gaining the "freshman 15," he gained back the 100 pounds plus more.

Today, Chuck blames the corporate diet for his arthritis, diagnosed in 1984. In researching his joint disease, he said he found people with high-protein diets are more likely to be affected.

His arthritis plus the extra weight rendered him disabled in 1993. Today he works part-time at the Semo Alliance for Disability Independence and relies on disability income for the rest of his livelihood.

Chuck's all-time high weight was 430 pounds, reached in 1995. His doctor suggested he get on a liquid diet plan, which he did for some time before quitting.

"I just couldn't take it any longer," Chuck said. "My doctor knew how hard it was for me, but at the same time, he was saying, `You can't live this way forever. It will kill you.'"

He heard about the Biometrics weight loss and exercise program through St. Francis Medical Center and signed up four weeks ago. He wasn't able to afford the wide variety of food required, but modified his diet as much as possible. He lost 5 pounds in three weeks.

That doesn't sound like much, but it's the exercise portion of Biometrics that most affects Chuck's life. He said that when he started Biometrics, he was having trouble rolling over in bed. His muscles couldn't move his body. Today, he has no trouble at all.

"By the second workout, I could feel my body was stronger," he said. "I've been able to increase my weight load with almost every workout."

Biometrics stresses weightlifting over cardio-vascular work for the first six weeks. The idea is that lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat, so a person who builds muscle will gain a quicker metabolism.

"There are a lot of programs out there that are bad for you," Chuck said. "If you are not eating real food, you might as well can it. If you are eating all that fat-free, chemical-based food and not exercising, you are fooling yourself."

On a scale of one to ten, Chuck said his self-esteem before Biometrics was a zero. Now, even on bad days, it's a five. And he feels confident that he will be able to continue the program on his own after his six weeks of personal training are over.

SOME STATISTICS

Height

6 feet, 3 inches

Weight After Four Weeks

267-1/2 pounds (down 16 pounds)

Goals

To reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass.