Thin Within is a Christian-based weight loss program established in 1975 with groups nationwide. It is based in Louisville, Ky.

Read a Jan. 4, 2013, article about the obesity epidemic in American churches.

Read a Nov. 10, 2011, article from the Huffington Post about the results of a study that showed a correlation between religious involvement and weight gain.

Read a March 25, 2011, article from NBC News about the link between attending religious events and obesity in young adults.

Visit the website of the Material History of American Religion Project to read a paper by Daniel Sack on the meanings behind the church potluck supper. See also an interview with Sack about his book, Whitebread Protestants.

Read a series of articles on obesity published by The New York Times in 2000.

A 2009 survey found that medical costs associated with obesity were $147 billion–up from $75 billion in 2003.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains a website charting overweight and obesity trends in the United States among adults and children from 1985 to the present.

Theodore C. Bergstrom holds the Aaron and Cherie Raznick Chair of Economics in the economics department at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Calif., and is the author of On the Economics of Polygyny (University of Michigan, 1994), which is available online.