Learning the vocabulary of your facial expressions

The Weigh Down Workshop is the brainchild of Gwen Shamblin, a registered dietician based in Nashville, Tennessee. There are no diet sheets or low-fat recipes. Instead, would-be slimmers are told to eat only when they are hungry and stop when they are full.

The idea is that all food is good because God made it, but God also gave our bodies the ability to know when they are hungry and when they are not. Shamblin exhorts her followers to run to God instead of the refrigerator with the fervour of an evangelical preacher. She believes that overeating is like praying to a false god and urges people to chew on the Bible instead of reaching for a chocolate bar. She says she is aiming to teach people how to worship the Creator and stop worshipping the created.

This simple concept has already spawned a multi-million dollar corporation in the US. Now the Weigh Down Workshop is helping thousands of Christians to shed the pounds in Britain.

Many Christians say it is the inclusion of God in the diet that makes the difference between success and failure. Instead of thinking about snacking, dieters are urged to fill their mind with thoughts about God. Shamblin, whose first book, The Weigh Down Diet, sold more than a million copies, admits that the success of the diet has taken her by surprise.

In her distinctive drawl she says: "It wasn't something that I asked for and I certainly never asked for 100 employees. I see it as a war and myself as a soldier of Christ. I see myself as a nobody and at best a signpost to God."

She confesses that in the past she herself was overweight. "I was born an American and I was greedy. Now I tell people they are not the boss of their body; they are not even a manager; at best they are an employee." Shamblin knows that while people are happy losing pounds in weight, there may be criticism that she is also leaving their wallets pounds lighter. Her audio tapes, books and videos are not cheap, but she says she does not deserve a "bad rap".

"People who don't know what my motives are have every right to be sceptical," she says, "but I have actually never asked for donations. Though people send them in, I send them straight back.

"I realise that the concept has taken off in the UK and I am hoping to visit in the summer."

One of Shamblin's most devoted fans is Marian Cox, who has lost more than 5st in the past year, without counting a single calorie or denying herself any kind of food. Cox, from Bexleyheath in Kent, is a self-confessed veteran of every single diet on the market. She stumbled across Weigh Down while watching a television programme in December 1998. At 17st 4lb, she was fed up with her shape.

She says: "I spent 40 years shifting the weight and putting it all back on. You name it, I'd tried it - the cabbage diet, the grapefruit diet, combination diet, WeightWatchers, Rosemary Conley and Jane Fonda." After her mother died in 1982, Cox, 58, put on a lot of weight and had problems with her thyroid. Eventually she went on a strict diet, only eating 800 calories a day and taking a drug to help with the thyroid problems. In three and a half months she had lost 5st. Two years later she had put back 6st.

"My permanent lifestyle was feeling like somebody who has just eaten a big Christmas dinner," she admits.

In January 1999, her New Year resolution was to do something about her weight so she tracked down the Weigh Down Workshop to Nashville, Tennessee. Cox later suggested the 12-week diet programme to her 130-strong church, the Oak Community Church in Orpington, who agreed to let her co-ordinate a workshop. "I had never done anything like this in the church before," she admits. "I prayed to God to let me have a good loss quickly."

When she ran the first workshop Cox was able to interest another five church members. The second one she ran attracted 20. Geraldene Keighan, from Bridgend, Mid-Glamorgan, is another follower of the Weigh Down Diet, and has recently given birth to a son.

She says: "Before my daughter was born, I was so obsessed about keeping my weight down with exercise that I was swimming 40 lengths every day of my pregnancy, and I did an aqua aerobics class on the day she was born.

"I was using one obsession to control another. After her birth, I was in a mess. I was living in Guildford, in Surrey -miles away from my home and family network. I looked to food to fill the gap. I had post-natal depression and eventually my husband and I decided to move to Wales so I could be nearer my family. "I heard about the Weigh Down Diet through some Americans who went to the Brackla Baptist Church in Bridgend. For me, the idea that all food was OK and nothing was forbidden was a revelation. Being able to partake of these foods and not feel any guilt has given me a new lease of life."

Keighan says she has now learned to recognise her 'head' hunger from her 'stomach' hunger. In fact she lost weight during her latest pregnancy.

At only 5ft 2in, she had gone from 8st at her thinnest to 11st 4lb at her heaviest. Now she no longer weighs herself, preferring instead to feel from the fit of her clothes how well she is doing. In what she admits has been a difficult year, Keighan says she has successfully resisted the temptation to pile on the pounds.

She says: "My best friend's daughter was killed in a motor accident and I could have turned to food for comfort.

"I could have used my pregnancy and the eating for two argument to reach for the biscuit tin, too."

She says she now realises that overeating is a serious form of abuse.

"We are told that our bodies are a temple, so why do we do it to ourselves?"

For more information on the Weigh Down Workshop call 0800 0287785. Actor Michael Douglas is famous for his dimpled one, while other men cover it up with a beard - but what exactly is the point of chins?

Humans are the only animals to have them and they appear to serve no useful purpose.

It is just one of the questions posed in a new book called The Face, which sets out to unravel the mysteries of what most of us consider to be the most familiar part of our body.

Author Daniel McNeill says we know very little about our faces, probably because most of us take them for granted, save for worrying about the odd spot or that our eyebrows need grooming. McNeill, an American writer based in Los Angeles, is by contrast fascinated by all aspects of the human face. His book draws on evolutionary and psychological evidence to try to provide with some credible answers.

Some memorable facts emerge along the way. Did you know that chimpanzees are the only animals apart from humans to embrace one another when they meet? "I am fascinated by certain kinds of mysteries," says McNeill. "For example, why do we have a chin? It does absolutely nothing, but it has become bigger in humans over the centuries so it must be important.

"The most likely theory is that when people have a grievance they tend to thrust their chin in the air, an action that suggests strength.

"It may have grown because it suggested defiance, and because women may have found it attractive." Similarly, humans are alone among animals in having flat faces rather than a pronounced mouth. McNeill says this is because centuries ago they were intelligent enough to develop weapons to fight with, instead of using their mouths to bite and wound. Over time the shape of their faces changed to reflect this.

Evolution is not his prime focus - McNeill has always been fascinated by the different expressions on people's faces.

"Scientists have identified basic expressions that range from happiness to sadness, disgust, anger, fear and surprise. People all over the world recognises them from a young age. They are the fundamental vocabulary of the face." Faces may reveal what someone is thinking, but they can just as easily conceal emotions such as lying. Many people think they are good at recognising a lie, but frequent studies have shown that people are only 45 to 60 per cent accurate in telling when someone is being deceitful.

There is no single way of being able to tell, but one giveaway is when someone exaggerates their gestures. McNeill explains: "A false smile tends to last longer. True smiles last between two-thirds of a second and four seconds, depending on intensity. But false smiles linger.

"In fact, any expression more than ten seconds long, and most over five, is probably fake. Intense displays such as rage, ecstasy or depression are exceptions, but even they often appear as a series of briefer displays." People may be uniformly bad about telling when someone is lying, but they also tend to be impressed by good looks.

The same features tend to be viewed as attractive - wide cheekbones, narrow cheeks, a broad smile and wide eyes.

Overall, the lower part of the face is more childlike and, according to McNeill, there was, in the past, a good reason to be attracted to youthful features.

"We have been programmed to like these things because it was important for us to mate with individuals who were young."

Good-looking people - not unexpectedly - tend to receive advantages in life. Studies have shown that they are even paid more and tend to land the more prestigious jobs. A survey of Canadians showed that good-looking people earned 75 per cent more than those who were unattractive.

The Face , published by Penguin, £7.99.

Story date: Saturday 05 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.