Fat - What No One Is Telling You

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Fat - What No One Is Telling You

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Amazon Price: $16.20

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(2 reviews)

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5 of 5 found this review helpful:

Most informative, accurate and personally moving account of obesity, 2007-12-30
I happened upon this movie on PBS when I was on a business trip, and it essentially helped to kick-start my journey into a healthier lifestyle, where I have lost 40lbs already in a 150lb long term goal.

I remember being deeply and personally moved by the stories, but it was also a game-changing flood of information about the latest biological research that did the trick for me. It allowed me to see the issue not in terms of will power and laziness (as is all too common in popular culture as well as years of medical haranguing) but in terms of physical compulsion akin to and even surpassing opiate addiction.

Why was this new information so critical in my current success, where previously I had tried and failed? It is definitely that it shatters the myth that weight loss is as simple as consuming less than you expend, a glib and harmful misstatement of the problem as profound as saying that beating heroin addiction is as simple as going cold turkey. You'd think that learning exactly how hard it is, really, to lose weight would be discouraging, but it was exactly the opposite. After years of people, including my doctor and nutritionist, breezily tossing off advice and plans of action, I finally learned what I was up against. Then I declared war on it.

I strongly recommend this for anyone who is obese or has an obese person in their life. It's a real eye-opener!

11 of 12 found this review helpful:

Very Fat-Friendly, 2007-07-17
Many media discussions of obesity conclude by saying we fat people are stupid if we don't devote all our energy toward losing weight. This documentary was sympathetic to fat people. It said research on how to lose weight and keep it off is scarce. It says there are numerous causes for obesity and there won't be a one-size-fits-all explanation, no pun intended. It even included a woman who seemed to be a part of the fat acceptance movement. She asks, "Why am I fat and healthy, but my thin sister has had three forms of cancer?" This work doesn't beat up on people in the slightest. It does mention early death, fertility problems, and blindness due to diabetes: it's not that the sad stuff doesn't come up.

A conspicuous fact of this film is that it focuses upon VERY FAT people. Interviewees looked more like Big Pun than Jim Belushi. They were 350 pounds plus, rather than just in the high 100s or low 200s. Have you ever seen a plus-size model and thought, "Gee, they're not that fat!"? This work features "real" fat people who are big, big, big. I appreciate that they didn't whitewash a group to whom I belong.

The fat interviewees are diverse in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity. It includes an Arab Muslim family that have accents and bravado like many New York City residents. The last segment includes Latinas speaking in Spanish with English subtitles supplied. Though the work includes men and women, you can tell that women are more of their target audience. The chubby wife of a fat man says, "Fat women face more stigmatization than fat men." I'm a fat man and I agree.

The work focuses on the fat subjects, rather than on narration and experts. In fact, I think it only included maybe three researchers. Too often, women are only given the chance to narrate documentaries covering famous women. Here, Meredith Vieira narrates on a somewhat gender-neutral topic. I'm glad she was invited to participate (though she's thin, by the way).

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