Editor's note: Southeast Missourian staff writer Heidi Nieland has volunteered to go through a diet plan new to the Cape Girardeau area. She will share her successes and failures in a seven-story, weekly series beginning today.

There are pictures to prove I once was thin, maybe even a little emaciated. Really.

It's hard to imagine now, but in high school I was my current 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed only 165 pounds. Most of my clothes were a size 12 or 14.

I was in 11th grade, and on the first of many diets. It was supposed to be Weight Watchers, only cheaper because a relative was supplying me with the diet plan for free.

Instead of working the program, I ate a few bites of breakfast, threw my packed lunch away and ate the low-fat dinner Mom prepared.

As long as I lived at home, the weight stayed down. My willpower disappeared my first year out on my own. By the time I moved back two years later, I was 210.

Under Mom's guidance again my weight went back to 187 and hovered below the 200 mark for years.

Going on "The Pill" took care of that. The nurse told me I'd gain 10 pounds. Try 30 pounds. A year of on-again, off-again pill usage messed up my hormones until I was gaining about 5 pounds a month.

I tried Slim Fast -- who hasn't? -- and lost some water weight. But who can live off that stuff? The pounds came back and brought a few friends. In my depression, I abandoned my diet: fast food for breakfast, fast food for lunch and then snacks at home for dinner. Occasional exercise couldn't make up for all the eating.

The last straw was earlier this year, when I went to the doctor's office and checked in at a whopping 295 pounds, my all-time high. Responding to the crisis with my typical finesse, I started bawling. The doctor prescribed a logical combination for the crying, fat patient he saw in his examining room: Phentermine, an appetite suppressant, and Zoloft, an anti-depressant.

What he didn't know is that I wasn't depressed until I stepped on that blasted scale.

The drugs worked: I lost four pounds one week and nine the next, but felt really lousy doing it. When the Phentermine kicked in, I was nervous and broke out in a sweat. When the Zoloft kicked in, I zoned out. People commented on how my personality changed, so I quit taking the pills after about a month.

Now I'm at 283, and my body bears the scars from my lifelong game of "musical weights." The clothes in my closet range from a size 12 skirt to a size 26 pair of jeans. I'm about 100 pounds overweight, which is equal to carrying around an extra person.

That's where Biometrics comes in. Offered by Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center, it is a relatively new program that emphasizes losing fat instead of just losing weight.

The idea is that the average dieter loses lean muscle mass with the fat. Biometrics participants are supposed to gain muscle mass while losing fat. The scale may show less total weight has been lost, but a body fat test will show less fat and more muscle.

St. Francis Medical Center made me an offer I couldn't refuse: Go through the program and write about it. I'll be given a menu plan for six weeks and assigned a personal trainer to work out with three times a week. Bill Logan, the wellness coordinator, has all my statistics and information and is charged with the overwhelming task of keeping me on the straight and narrow.

A series of six stories about Biometrics and my progress will follow. If I cheat -- which I won't, of course -- you'll read about it. If I pass out while weightlifting, you'll read about it. If I slim down and run off with Mel Gibson . . .

Wish me luck.

SOME STATISTICS

Heidi Neiland's Biometric statistics at the start:

HEIGHT

6 feet, 3 inches

WEIGHT

283-1/2 lbs.

BODY FAT

43.1 percent

CIRCUMFERENCES

Right Arm: 15-1/2 inches

Chest: 44-3/4 inches

Mid Abdomen: 46-1/4 inches

Hips: 53-1/2 inches

Right Mid Thigh: 27-3/4

GOALS

To lose weight and reduce body fat.