Gwen Shamblin Lara was an American novelist and the founder of the ‘Remnant Fellowship’ and the Christian diet program’ The Weigh Down Workshop.’
Gwen Shamblin founded Weigh Down Workshop in 1986, a Christian-based weight-loss program that effectively invites participants to replace food with God.
The training quickly gained traction, with other churches delivering it across the country and even internationally.
Gwen eventually established the Remnant Fellowship Church in Tennessee in 1999. However, the Church, as well as Gwen herself, have been embroiled in debates over their approach throughout the years.
‘The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin,’ an HBO docuseries directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Marina Zenovich, examines the Church’s practises.
Before dying in a plane crash in May 2021, Gwen amassed a sizable fortune through her seminars, books, and other items. So, how about we figure out what her net worth was?
Born: 18 February 1955, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Died: 29 May 2021, Smyrna, Tennessee, United States
Children: 2
Education: University of Tennessee; Memphis State University
Spouse: Joe Lara (m. 2018–2021), David Shamblin (m. 1978–2018)
What Was Gwen Shamblin Lara’s Source of Income?
Gwen Shamblin Lara grew up in a devout household. Gwen earned her master’s in food and nutrition at Memphis State University in Tennessee after graduating with a degree in dietetics from the University of Tennessee.
She came up with the concept for the Weigh Down Diet while working there. She was convinced at the time that heredity, metabolism, and other behavioural factors were not the main reasons why some people were overweight, and others were not.
Gwen Shamblin is a character in the film Gwen Shamblin Prayer, faith, and the Bible scriptures were all part of Lara’s eating plan.
She believed that if people just ate when they were hungry and quit when they were full, as God intended, they would not become obese.
“Dieting is putting a Band-Aid on a much deeper problem,” Gwen once said. When you lift a bird from the water and release it into the air, it will begin to breathe again.
That’s what we do: we reintroduce people to the medium in which they were created, which is their relationship with God.”
Calorie counting and portion management aren’t important on the Weigh Down Diet.
It does not specify a particular diet or form of exercise. “People are sick of the battle; they feel hopeless,” said the Tennessee dietician.
It’s astonishing how liberated you’ll feel if you focus your attention on God and prayer rather of the magnetic draw of the refrigerator.”
The Weigh Down Workshops were a component of thousands of churches across the country in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with many members claiming to have seen results.
In addition to all the property, Gwen Shamblin also owned the Cessna Citation business jet that crashed. The court also just gave her heirs permission to sell a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter — together easily totaling over $1 million. pic.twitter.com/AgrXHZSuns
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) October 28, 2021
In 1997, Gwen published ‘The Weigh Down Diet,’ followed by a series of other books over the next few years. In 1999, she established the Remnant Fellowship Church.
However, the Church and Gwen have been in the press for different disputes over the years. She once asserted that genetics had no bearing on how persons lost weight by citing the starvation of Jews in Nazi concentration camps.
“How did you have all these folks getting down real slim in the Holocaust?” she asked in an interview. They ate fewer calories.”
There were concerns about her Church’s and business’s for-profit character, as well as how she could afford to live lavishly.
Gwen allegedly asked her employees to believe in her beliefs, according to the lawsuits. Two church members were found guilty in 2003 of murdering their 8-year-old son by beating him to death.
Gwen backed them up, and the Church condoned corporal punishment in its teachings.
On May 29, 2021, Gwen, her husband (Tarzan actor Joe Lara), and numerous other Church leaders died in a plane crash in Smyrna, Tennessee. At the time, she was 66 years old.
Gwen Shamblin Net Worth
Gwen Shamblin Lara’s estimated net worth was around $1 million to $5 million at the time of her death, based on her successful writing career, the popularity of the workshop, the Church, and her television appearances throughout the years.