As an adult, I’ve never had a very healthy relationship with food (and I’m totally aware what a first world problem it is to be concerned about how to lose weight when so many people have so little). But I’ve been there, sitting in the green chairs, and being a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers (or WW, as it is now known), I was curious to read This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World – and Me by Marisa Meltzer. Thanks to Little Brown & Company and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for my honest review, so I settled in for some distraction from COVID (stress eating!!!) and what I hoped would be an entertaining read.
The author admits she has “…never had a healthy relationship with food. Given the tender age at which I started dieting, I probably never had the chance to form one.” I loved her honesty, as when she admitted that “Maybe I just need to own the fact that every other relationship is easier than the one I have with food.” She joined Weight Watchers more than once, but was astonished to learn by reading the obituaries that there had actually been a real person who had founded the company. She was fascinated by this and began researching the story of Jean Nidetch, who began it all by meeting with a few friends in her living room in Queens. The result of Ms. Meltzer’s work was this book, which chronicles the author’s year-long journey as a member of WW, told in alternating chapters with the story of Ms. Nidetch and the company she founded (and left).
The chapters about Jean are told with humor and admiration. We learn that Jean was the kind of woman who “…put on a muumuu, a dress she considered a fat woman’s boon because it hung nicely over everything and in the pockets she could squirrel away pistachios.” It’s clear the author admires Jean’s work, and that it helped her in her own journey…BUT. I have to admit that she lost me as far of her analysis of the program early on: relating her childhood experience with Weight Watchers (at age 9), she said “it didn’t work. None of the diets ever did.” Sorry, Marisa, this just isn’t true. Well, maybe it IS true, if you consider that most people who lose weight gain it back. Bit IMHO, the problem is people who change their way of eating in order to lose weight, then go back to their old way of eating once they are done with “the diet.” When they regain the weight, they bemoan the fact that the diet didn’t work…sorry. Rant over.
Ms. Meltzer admits she has spent her life with an unhealthy focus on appearance: “My friends often cite my life as being an inspiration to them, and I have quite rigorously assembled something that looks really good from the outside.” She has a great deal of self-awareness, saying she is “…astounded at how much effort it takes for me to make good choices.” When looking at options for eating “healthier” versions of foods she loves (hello, zucchini pasta?), she says that “...healthy compromises just don’t entirely do it for me; there’s still a pleasure center somewhere within that wants some oblivion.”
I appreciated her analysis of our cultural views on the ideal shape and size for women. After spending a year with WW, she says “…the question of how much you’re willing to change yourself to fit in applies to so many of us and even more so when you don’t fit into the beauty ideal. I have had to accept that I might be able to change my fat body faster than this culture will change how it views, treats, and accommodates fat bodies.”
Of interest to WW members, as well as anyone with more than a passing familiarity with anorexia, orthorexia, bulimia (including exercise bulimia), or any disordered eating behavior. Also a good overall history of the weight loss industry in general and Ms. Nidetch in particular, so can be enjoyed on a variety of levels. Four stars.