chapter 6

When Britt saw Kelly's belly come in the door FIRST, she was almost tempted to gloat. But she didn't. She knew how sensitive Kelly was and the LAST thing she wanted to do was motivate her roommate to lose weight. Which was why she said NOTHING! Of course, Kelly looked upset so Britt, being the good roommate that she was, tried to comfort her cute little piglet.

That's when she told Kelly about HER weight gain, going from a frightfully thin, 90 pound stick figure to the 250 pound porker she was today. She even dragged out old photographs for Kelly to look at so she would get a good idea of just HOW much weight Britt had put on.

Over the course of the evening, the two girls chatted like they were old friends. Britt even told Kelly that she would do ANYTHING to help her lose weight. At this, Kelly's eyes lit up. She could hardly believe her ears. Wasn't this the SAME girl who did everything in her power to fatten me up? But she was very vulnerable and quickly latched onto whatever help might come her way.

Britt told Kelly about her friend Joanne. Jo had been a fat girl her entire life. By the time she graduated from high school she had eaten her way up to 260 pounds, very large for a girl who only stood five foot five. She had tried diets and from time to time had actually started an exercise program, against her better judgment by the way. But nothing worked.

In desperation, Jo went on a three day fast. She thought that by, in effect, detoxifying her body that she could then start to seriously diet. Against all odds, the fasting enable Jo to start a 1,000 calorie a day diet that lasted a full year, helping her to lose 125 pounds. Britt suggest to Kelly that if such a regimen could work for her friend Jo, she was SURE it would work for her! And so it was that Kelly initiated her 72 hour fast.

At first, the fast was spectacularly successful. Within in week Kelly had dropped a total of eight pounds and could even fit into some of the old clothes Britt had lent her.. Alas, all good things come to an end. As hard as she tried, Kelly couldn't stick to a 1,000 calorie a day diet. Here and there she'd sneak a snack that Britt had "obliviously" left around the apartment. By the second week, Kelly's weight loss had already reached a plateau and by the third week she actually GAINED four pounds. With the nine pounds she put on during the fourth week, Kelly was, in point of fact bigger than she'd ever been.

Yes, things were going according to plan. Plan, you might ask? Oh yes, the fasting story had been part of Britt's plan all along. While Kelly had never had to diet a day in her life, Britt had spent nearly two years trying to get rid of the added sixty or so pounds she had put on during her freshman year. She tried every diet under the sun, INCLUDING fasting, only to find out that the only thing fasting REDUCED was her metabolism. Oh, the Jo story was true. She did lose 125 pounds that way. But Britt also knew that Jo had a will of iron. When she finally decided to get serious about losing weight, NOTHING would stand in her way, which was why Jo was a 112 pound stick figure to this very day. But Britt had seen that Kelly wasn't nearly so determined, that she tended to give up the fight when it looked as if she was going to lose. Britt panicked a bit that first week when Kelly dropped eight pounds but when she plateaued, Britt knew she had her hooked. It was only a matter of time before she reeled her in. And when she was reeled it, it would be as a genuine FAT girl, very nearly bordering on the obese.

Little did Britt know how successful her plan was going to be!