NPR

He Was 460 Pounds. What Confronting His Weight Taught Him About Obesity In America

"Losing weight is figuring out something you can live with," says Tommy Tomlinson, author of the new memoir The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America.
"It feels like confessing a crime," Tommy Tomlinson says about revealing his weight in his new book, <em>The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America</em>.

For as long as he can remember, Tommy Tomlinson has understood his identity as inseparable from his body.

"I weigh 460 pounds," Tomlinson begins in an essay published this month in , and adapted from his upcoming book, . "Those are the hardest words I've ever had to write. Nobody knows that number — not my wife, not my doctor, not my closest friends. It feels like confessing a crime. The average American male weighs about 195 pounds; I'm two of those guys, with a 10-year-old left over. I'm the biggest human being most people who know me have ever met, or

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR6 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
Supreme Court Examines Whether Government Can Combat Disinformation Online
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Missouri, Louisiana and five individuals who were either banned from social media during the pandemic or whose posts, they say, were not prominently featured.
NPR7 min read
Q&A: Author of 'Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African' on Coke's surprising history
How did the soda giant from America come to be seen as "local" in Africa? And what has the impact been on the continent for worse and for better?
NPR3 min readInternational Relations
Who Is Mohammad Mustafa, The New Prime Minister Of The Palestinian Authority?
Mustafa was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a move seen as an attempt to appease U.S. demands for reform.

Related Books & Audiobooks