FT. WALTON BEACH, Fla. — Their day begins at 6 a.m. and ends with lights-out at 9 p.m. They cannot drive cars or watch television in their rooms. Instead, they spend hours pacing the white beaches here, their world limited by the edge of the aquamarine water and the yellow lines on the paved parking lot outside their hotel.

They are captives in paradise, this group of obese men and women who dwell in this small resort town.

They have come from across the country, gone into self-exile and willingly put their lives in the hands of an unlikely keeper-caretaker: Dick Gregory, the comedian and activist who has been dogged by controversy for decades.

He has campaigned for civil rights, bitterly opposed the Vietnam War and played the club- and lecture-circuit, spinning conspiracy theories about everything from drugs to the Kennedy assassination. He has participated in periodic fasts and ultra-marathons and studied nutrition on his own, even developing his own Slim-Safe Bahamian liquid diet formula.

But he's been on another mission in recent years, taking on the Herculean task of trying to save America's health by freeing our addictions to smoking, drugs, alcohol and food.

To prove it can be done, he has brought his "fat folks," as he calls them, to this Florida town, some weighing more than 500 pounds and on the brink of self-destruction when they began his program.

Agree to Be Trotted Out

Most are here on scholarship, with Gregory picking up the tab for them to participate in his weight-loss program. It's a trade-off: They lose weight, following his rules, and agree to be trotted out for television appearances and interviews with reporters.

In time, his clients have become media darlings, appearing on "Donahue" and showing up in the tabloids' pages. Camera crews visit regularly to chronicle their weight loss. Strangers on the beach even greet them by name.

The program is far from perfect; Gregory and the clients readily admit that. It lacks traditional medical expertise, with no doctor on staff, only a local physician on call. And until recently, the program employed a psychotherapist only part time to help what clearly are troubled people.

But his clients are willing to overlook these shortcomings. Most figure if they hadn't met Gregory when they did, they'd be dead by now.