TV is Obsessed with Fat People: “My Big Fat Body” Review

Show: My Big Fat Body 

Station/ Time: Discovery Health/ Check your local listing orhealth.discovery.com for times

Premise (from show website):  In this one-hour special, actor and comedian Frank Payne, aka “The Big Guy”, lends his extra-large body to science where state-of the art imaging technology gives us a first ever look at what morbid obesity does to the human body, from the inside out.

Reaction: While watching, Frank said so many things I could relate to. Examples:

• “Dive thru’s give you a little bit of anonymity… I don’t like sitting down at restaurants because you don’t want to be the fat guy there, you don’t want to be the biggest guy in the restaurant.”
• “I like to order big enough so they think I’m ordering for a family. That way they don’t think ‘oh that big fat guy just ordered all that for himself’”
• “I know what you are thinking by now, ‘how do you eat like that?!?!’ That is why I eat in secret.”

While he was a comedian and could keep it lighthearted there were moments of pain and sadness that even the best timed jokes could not cover.

The main purpose of the show was the usage of state-of the art imaging to show the actual impact of caring so much weight. People, it was FACINATING! They talked about how fat surrounding lungs keeps one from breathing deeply and using oxygen efficiently and then showed split screen between a non obese person’s lungs and an obese person’s and you could see where the fat was located and how it compressed the lungs on the obese individual. They also showed the way excess fat effects posture and movement and how that wears down our joints and leads to arthritis through high tech imaging. Due to this fat mass on his torso and inner thigh his skeleton could not “rest easily” according to an expert.

He considered and went in for a consult for bariatric surgery but in the end opted to try good old diet and exercise.  He lost 60 lbs, 10% of his body fat percentage. His stride length increased, width decreased, and he had less side to side rotation while walking (aka- healthier posture).

Does it impart useful information?: Yes. The imaging and description of how carrying extra weight affects your organs and skeletal system was amazing.

 Is it inspirational?: Yes. This show gave a look at why losing weight is important besides just for cosmetic reasons.

Rating: Fantabulous!

Available Online?: Not on Discovery Health’s website. Might want to check YouTube.

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Check out my previous “TV is Obsessed with Fat People” post covering DietTribe and Ruby!