Diet Detective' Charles Stuart Platkin relentlessly pushes clients

If nothing else works, Charles Stuart Platkin, the Miami Beach, Fla.-based "Diet Detective," will badger you into losing weight.

There was Jennifer Cadle, 276 pounds. He bought her a huge chocolate cake — her weakness — and had her cut a big slice and put it in a box. "You'd have to walk 2 <0x00BD> hours to work that off," he told her.

Then he made her walk the 2 <0x00BD> hours carrying the boxed slice of cake.

"At least let me eat the cake," she pleaded.

"You're not eating that cake," he barked.

At 399-pound Micah Molinari's house, Platkin purged the refrigerator of fattening foods and poured a gallon of rum down the drain.

"That hurt," Molinari recalls. "I do enjoy my cocktails."

Both interventions were public — featured on Platkin's WE-TV cable network program "I Want to Save Your Life," a reality show for the overweight that airs at 10 p.m. Saturdays.

He makes no apology.

"These people have really reached the last straw. They're looking for help."

His diet plans seem pretty standard — avoid red meat, eat chicken, fish and vegetables, egg whites, oatmeal, skim milk and such. His exercise plans seem unremarkable, too — walking, core training, yoga, Pilates.

Motivation is the key for Platkin, an associate professor of public health at Florida International University and the author of five books, including "The Diet Detective's Count Down" and "The Diet Detective's Calorie Bargain Bible," both published by Simon and Schuster. He also writes a newspaper nutrition column and dispenses advice at his Web site, www.dietdetective.com.

Platkin pries into his clients' lives to see what's important to them, then persuades them they're going to lose it if they don't take off pounds.

It worked on Molinari: "I have a 5-year-old daughter, Sydney. She's my life. I need to be healthy so I'm there when she needs me."

He lost 100 pounds in 17 weeks.

LONG QUESTIONNAIRE

In preparing for the TV show, which debuted in April, Platkin requires diet clients to fill out a 40-page questionnaire. They also must give him permission to interrogate family and friends and to show up without warning and videotape at any time.