. tonight on "nightline," bods for god, in a family against obesity of a biblical proportions, a diet inspired by the bible belt. tonight how one faithful flock lost a seven tons forr for jeersus. mam bo king, now william levy has cha cha'd his way into america's hearts. tonight he opens up about fame rkt fatherhood and life outside the studio. plus one world trade center rises from the ashes, today reaching wurn 100 stories.

an exclusive look from atop the freedom tower. >> good evening. i'm terry moran. tonight it's the weight loss movement that's all about getting help from on high. a bible-based diet that extolls the virtues of fewer loaves, lots of fish. it's a new front in the fight against obesity. improving your health using the power of christ and using the good book over any cook book. >> step on the scale. >> one by one they step up for the weigh-in. michelle, and karen. >> 165.4. >> reporter: and mike. and alice. >> ate too much dinner.

>> reporter: on and on just like in a weight watcher's meeting. >> right on the nose. >> reporter: but this is different. >> it will be lower next time. >> reporter: this is church, sort of. >> let's have a prayer. >> reporter: definitely on sunday mornings it's church. they sing and pray and the pastor meets his flock. on sunday nights it's sort of a combo. >> welcome to losing to live. >> reporter: a church and a pastor. >> a biblical program and a weight-loss celebration. show us how to do it! >> reporter: it's pulling in the crowds, and the crowds are dropping the pounds. it's called bod for god. he's created a weight-loss system built around faith in jesus, or as he likes to say -- >> it's based on the bible. i believe the bible is the greatest health book in all the world. >> reporter: the faith-based

weight loss program where motivation comes from knowing god wants you to take care of the body he gave you. it's catching on all over. karate for christ, body and soul fitness and holy yoga, and then steve reynolds bod for good. it's a book. there are videos too. while non-believers may want to laugh as they did recently on snl. >> he urges people to lose weight for jesus, because it's getting harder for jesus to carry on the beach. >> today i lost about 68, 70 pounds. >> i lost 80 pounds already. >> congratulations. that's so hard. >> it is hard. >> since the program started, we lost 13,000 pounds in this one church. >> reporter: it seems to be needed. statistically, american christians are more overweight than any other religious group.

among baptists, one out of three believers is obese. one of them was pastor reynolds himself. because while he was always big as a kid. >> i weighed over a hundred pounds in first grade. >> reporter: he was not obese as long as he exercised. he looked great during his college football days. then he graduated and became a pastor. >> i started a church. it got bigger. the bad news is, i got bigger and got up to 340 pounds, digging my grave with with a fork and an ice cream spoon. >> reporter: he had a slow-motion flash of lightning that he had to do something about it. >> i wanted to look up the word body. it's in there 179 times. >> you started at genesis and worked your way through? >> i did. >> what did you learn? >> there's a verse in the bible that says whether we eat or

drink, through all the glory of god. >> i used to weigh 340 pounds. >> reporter: now he's a guy who stands up there with a 100-pound-plus weight loss. he says i know what you're going through. >> there are secular versions of this. but you've tried those things. they didn't work. so why does this work? >> there's a verse that says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me. i tried to lose weight on my own, but i always gained it back. this time i feel like i have god on my side. >> just a pinch in the middle, and there you go. >> reporter: this is gale makes. who is a leader in the program. showing me the kind of food she prepares at home since she joined. >> pour this over the fish. >> reporter: versus how her health habits were before she joined. >> this was me three years ago. >> her daughter recalls.

>> she never did any exercise, eating unhealthy. and just really didn't care about a healthy lifestyle. >> now i have several belts, because i would never want anything to see i had a waistline. >> reporter: she lost 65 pounds using god as a motivational coach. >> when i was starting the program, i was weak and i didn't think i could make it, i would start writing in a journal for god to give me strength. >> reporter: what would you say? >> god, please givey moo the strength to eat these foods so i can lower my blood pressure and my diabetes. >> reporter: like a prayer. >> exactly. >> reporter: the program is in most ways not different from many other systems. it's about nutrition and exercise. and it's about the company of other people fighting the same battle. >> amen!

>> how are you, good morning. >> reporter: he says, you don't even need to be christian to take part in this. >> we've had ath yift come before. >> did he still go away an ath yift? >> as far as i know, he did. >> reporter: they've been looking for a sign and the pastor gave them one. seems to work for them, so far, seven tons' worth. >> good luck to them. just ahead, he's the fiery salsa sensation on "dancing with the stars." we get to know the real william levy. sarah... will you marry me? i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪

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. he's been called the latin brad pitt, the hunk whose passionate performances on "dancing with the stars" have made him a top contender this season and earned him millions of adoring female fans, but his road to international stardom hasn't been an easy one. now he opens up about his life offstage to abc's juju chang. >> reporter: it's those abs. and that latin flair that have catapulted him to a new level of stardom on "dancing with the stars." but there is more to william levy than meets the eye. >> i never did. >> really? >> reporter: yet it's his reputation as a ladykiller

that's made headlines before. ♪ >> reporter: during this j.lo video. there were all these rumors that you were having an affair. >> yeah. >> reporter: why do you think the rumors follow you around? >> i don't know. i have no idea why. >> reporter: levy says he's misunderstood. perhaps it's because he's always type-cast as the latin lover. he's the king of the tele novellas, spanish language soap operas with a massive global audience. >> in life i'm not really good. i'm really bad. >>r. >> reporter: what makes you bad? offscreen he's dad to two kids seen here on spanish people magazine with their mother, elizabeth gutierrez. the former model's personal life has been fodder for magazines, but he crossed over to

mainstream american popularity with his dynamic performances on dancing. >> reporter: do you want to be more than just a pretty face? >> i don't think i'm a pretty face. >> reporter: we'll agree to disagree on that one. >> the way you think and see life, and grow up in cuba, you think about so many different things, so many other things than just being pretty or cute. >> reporter: beauty may only be skin deep, but for levy, character is much deeper. his was molded by a childhood of deprivation. do you remember being hungry? >> yes. during whole days, we would eat only at night. all day in the morning, you eat bread and then you wait till the evening. >> reporter: he said each family in cuba was rationed so severely, he dreamt as a teenager of escaping on a raft. >> you can't just stay there and let people step all over you.

>> reporter: you were ready to risk your life to come to the states? >> i was. >> reporter: when his family was granted political asylum and moved to miami he remembers being thunder struck on his first trip to a grocery store. >> never saw an apple before in my life or strawberry. my uncle said, get the cart and get whatever you want. so i'm going through the market, getting everything i wanted, but one piece. i open the box of strawberries and get one. he started crying, and laughing at me. very good experience. >> reporter: you're laughing and smiling, you have tears in your eyes. >> yes, when you think about it. >>r. >> reporter: what did it teach you? >> appreciate everything i have. every time i eat, imagine life in cuba. >> reporter: life is sweet now. >> it's incredible. >> reporter: a lot has changed since he was a skinny little boy

from cuba who got bullied when he amptd arrived at the age of 15. >> the first time he didn't have a perfect face. i gave him a lesson. >> reporter: he grew muscles and it may have helped his career as an underwear model. >> reporter: recently racy photos came out and a lot was made of it. >> yeah. i was a modelling for a living. >> reporter: what happens when your daughter googles those images? >> hopefully she doesn't. you don't need to do this. i mean, come on, that's my property. if she's going to be a model, that's what she has to do. >> reporter: so you tell her not to be a model. >> i don't tell her not to do nothing. i hope she not going to be a model. but i support her whatever she

wants to do. >> reporter: ironically, he said his muscles don't help his fluidity on the dance floor, but the audience may feel differently. just ask his dance partner. >> he really wants to show case his danceabilities, not so much what it looks like underneath the clothes. >> reporter: although the audience is interested in the 12 pack. >> yes. >> reporter: how does that happen? >> well, not 12. maybe eight. >> reporter: levy is clearly having the time of his life. >> there you go. >> okay. don't tell my husband i just did that with him. >> reporter: and yes, his past is helping him savor every moment of it. >> an american success story there. thanks to juju. up next, ten years after 9/11, the world trade center reclaims

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it is still a work in progress, the freedom tower at the world trade center, 500 feet shy of its full height. but today for the first time since 9/11, it surpassed the empire state building as the highest in new york city. a victory not of concrete and steel, but of perserverance and

hope. we have an exclusive look from the top of the tower. >> reporter: one world trade center is now, once again, the tallest building in new york. filling the hole that ten years ago the terror of 9/11 ripped into the heart of the city and the nation. and gma was there broadcasting from this perch. >> i am loving my job this morning, robin. it is absolutely awesome up here on the hundredth floor of one world trade center. this view is magnificent. >> reporter: once complete expected at the end of 2013, the symbol of hope and resilience will reach a patriotic height of 1,776 feet. but it was a long way getting here. over ten years in the making. slab of concrete or steel girter, a small part of the healing for a nation broken

hearted by the loss of life on 9/11. it was born of promise made first hours after the attack. >> we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before. >> i can hear you. the rest of the world hears you. >> reporter: but it would take three years for the mangled steel from the old towers to be removed, so this, the very first beam of one world trade center could be set in place beginning the climb out of the rubble. 40,000 tons of steel and 200,000 cubic yards upon of concrete hold it together on hop top of a fortified foundation that is being called the safest and most secure office building in the world. port authorities showed us around today. >> this was a sight of business and commerce and job creation, and the economy when it was

destroyed over ten years ago. one world trade center is a sign of the site's return to that. >> reporter: when you were talking to me and describing it, i'm getting goose bumps and i'm not a new yorker. >> i am a new yorker and i get goose bumps. the murder of 3,000 people ten years ago was just horrific. >> reporter: a reminder that it isn't just a construction site. this is hallowed ground, and as this building touches the guy, what remains on ground level here, is perhaps what's most important. >> bruce doug loss balm. >> the 9/11 memorial to those who lost their lives. >> freedom tower still rising. thanks for that and thank you for watching abc news. we hope you check in for "good morning america." they'll have mark zuckerberg to talk about