Every time I drive around to Los Angeles, especially around the holidays, I’m inundated with billboards advertising lap band surgery. I guess the home of the Hollywood culture of thin chic is the perfect market for that sort of thing. But whenever I see the billboards, I think of my friend Sony, who had the […]

Filed under: Health, WLS | 40 Comments »

If you’ve never heard of Happy News, it’s a website devoted to news and lifestyle stories that are meant to be “always positive.” But an anonymous tipster wrote in and pointed out that often on the site, weight loss is equated to “happy,” and fatness is equated to “unhappy.” Curious, I did a couple of […]

Filed under: Diet Talk Warning, Fatism, Media, Weight Loss, WLS | 7 Comments »

Our own Jenfu is featured in this article at MSNBC, along with Pasta Queen and a tiny little piece of my hair in Jen’s “before” photo. (Here’s the original photo.) Although it shares a theme with Kate Harding’s The Fantasy of Weight Loss, be aware that the article discusses diets and WLS and has some […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Diet Talk Warning, Jenfu, Meta, Personal, Weight Loss, WLS | 7 Comments »

I just want to shake Carnie Wilson when I read articles like this. She had weight loss surgery a while back and since then has regained some of the weight she lost. And she’s still flagellating herself for it. The Wilson Phillips singer, who currently weighs 212 lbs. despite undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 1999, […]

Filed under: Biggest Loser, Carnie Wilson, Celebrities, Gabby Sidibe, Kids, Magazines, TV, WLS | 13 Comments »

Originally uploaded by _saturnine Ah, the 1-800-GET-THIN billboards. Although I’m sure they’re all over the place, I seem to only see them all over Los Angeles. I can’t help but imagine a sinister undercurrent. Dear Aspiring Actress Who Just Moved To Hollywood… Have lap band surgery, which is a total breeze, obviously, and be transformed […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Courtney Love, Gossip, Kids, Music, WLS | 8 Comments »

Thanks to @lilowen, who apparently has a long memory, for the heads up on this item! We first wrote about Sara Rue all the way back in aught six, when she lost a bunch of weight and it was speculated (by gossipy people) that she’d had weight loss surgery and had to have it reversed. […]

Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Gossip, Reese Witherspoon, Sara Rue, Weight Loss, WLS | 30 Comments »

Kelly Osbourne has recently written an autobiography (who knew?) and has also lost weight. According to the Sydney Morning Herald: Kelly Osbourne, a one-time champion for curves, is also proud of her recent weight-loss of seven kilograms. This was achieved by a revolutionary diet where Osbourne swapped her usual fare of chips and soft drink […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Gossip, International, Kelly Osbourne, Media, Star Jones, WLS | 11 Comments »

fat boxerOriginally uploaded by mo pie Show History has a fascinating compilation of names and pictures and brief biographies of fat people who worked as attractions in carnival sideshows. (They were also known as “freaks.”) A little background: Professional Fat Folk of an earlier age lived to astound a public for whom not having enough […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Fashion, Food, Old Timey, Theater, Video, WLS | 4 Comments »

I ran across this hilarious article in the always-reliable and utterly trustworthy very serious newspaper, the Daily Mail: a woman in London decided that she wanted to lose weight, and that weight-loss surgery was too risky, but that she would pay a hypnotherapist to trick her into believing she had! At Joh’s first session with […]

Filed under: Diet Talk Warning, Humor, International, Media, Science, Weight Loss, WLS | 21 Comments »

Hooray, Star Jones news! It’s been almost a year since we even mentioned her. But Star was on Oprah on Wednesday, facing the music about her gastric bypass and the fact that she hid it from the general public–whether on purpose or just by omission. In the clip I saw on Jezebel, Star apologizes to […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Media, Oprah, Star Jones, TV, Video, Weight Loss, WLS | 31 Comments »

BFDiva Michaela posted a link to this video on Facebook; in poking around, I also found a story to go along with it. The surgery is “deep brain stimulation” in the parts of the brain believed to control feelings of hunger and satisfaction. Here are the words of the woman, Carol Poe, who is getting […]

Filed under: Health, Video, WLS | 14 Comments »

I received this letter from Sara, and immediately asked if I could post it here and get your feedback. Hello Ms. Pie, I am having a bit of a dilemma. I am about to lose my virginity (at 22) to a man who I really love. That’s not the problem. The problem is that I […]

Filed under: Fat Positive, Humor, NSFW, Question, Sex & Romance, Video, WLS | 48 Comments »

I have not seen the commercial that Corinna rants about in this entry, but just reading about it made me want to start throwing things at the television, and I’m not even near a television. First, the rant (bolding mine): Last night I saw that Realize-Band ad again. The one where an attractive but fat […]

Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Fat Positive, Fatism, Weight Loss, WLS | 32 Comments »

I’m addicted to SecretTweet, the Twitter version of Post Secret, where people submit their secrets and they’re posted anonymously. Often there are weight-related ones that come up, and I think of you guys. So I thought I would collect a few here. Some of them are hopeful: My boyfriend weighs three times what I do, […]

Filed under: Fat Positive, Fatism, Feel Good Friday, Media, Meta, Sex & Romance, Tidbit, Weight Loss, WLS | 7 Comments »

Ricky Gervais—creator of my favorite television show of all time and another show that makes me enjoy, of all people, Chris Martin from Coldplay—must you keep making me sad? I feel like we’ve talked about this before—his description of himself as a “fatty,” his standup routine where he mocks Dawn French’s weight, his self-loathing, and […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Fatism, Humor, International, NSFW, Ricky Gervais, The Office, TV, Video, WLS | 15 Comments »

I was interested in this New York Times article about a new, “less invasive” weight loss surgery, currently in the experimental stage, in which surgeons go down the patient’s throat and staple the stomach from the inside. In Mexico and Europe over the past two to three years, 98 patients have had the new weight-loss […]

Filed under: Health, Science, Weight Loss, WLS | 22 Comments »

Ooh boy. One researcher from Britain says that, since diets don’t work, the best answer is to start performing weight loss surgery as a “preventative” measure, even on those whose BMI is less than 35. “Surgery is currently the only effective treatment for obesity … It not only helps people lose weight by physically decreasing […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Cold Hard Cash, Health, International, WLS | 29 Comments »

There’s a company that is offering insurance when you buy a pair of jeans. It took me a few reads to even comprehend how it works. Basically, you buy jeans, send this company a percentage of the price, wait to lose weight so your jeans don’t fit, find a box, go to the post office, […]

Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Fashion, Weight Loss, WLS | 17 Comments »

We wrote about Deborah Voight all the way back in 2006. You might remember her as the opera singer who was fired for being too fat, and who had gastric bypass surgery. She was recently rehired to sing the same role that she was fired for, back in the day. The New York Times has […]

Filed under: Art, Celebrities, International, Music, Theater, Video, WLS | 22 Comments »

Has there been more uproar lately about celebrities gaining and losing weight, or have I just noticed it more? Three posts I ran across today in quick succession: 1. “Carnie Wilson’s War” (with video from the Tyra Banks show, of course) is Carnie’s battle with her weight after her highly publicized weight loss surgery. 2. […]

Filed under: Britney Spears, Carnie Wilson, Celebrities, Feminism, Guest Post, International, Oprah, Tyra Banks, Victoria Beckham, WLS | 18 Comments »

Jennette Fulda, better known as PastaQueen, may have lost a couple hundred or so pounds, but she’s been a commenter on and visitor to Big Fat Deal for a long time. On a blog tour for her memoir, Half of Me, she offered to stop by and answer the toughest questions I could come up […]

Filed under: Beth Ditto, Books, Exercise, Meta, Question, Weight Loss, WLS | 173 Comments »

The Star Jones divorce news reminded me that the divorce rate is supposedly much higher for weight-loss surgery patients. I was idly pondering this and ran across this post at A Smaller Target, where Espy says the divorce rate is 60-80% and speculates on some of the reasons for this. Part of the reason is […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Sex & Romance, Star Jones, WLS | 22 Comments »

There’s a conversation going on in the comments about whether some people look better when they’re heavier. The discussion started with Rhonwyn’s comment right here: [w]hile I’m on the subject of Queen Latifah and losing weight: do any of you think some people just look better when they’re heavier? I hardly recognized Star Jones after […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Goldilocks Paradox, Gossip, Meta, Queen Latifah, Question, Renee Zelwegger, Star Jones, Weight Loss, WLS | 18 Comments »

Ezinearticles.com just made a list of the “Top 40 BBWs of all time.” Sounds good, right? Sure, until you get to the list, and you realize that some of the women on it are not all what most people would consider “BBW”s. Mo’nique, Camryn Manheim, Mama Cass, Rosie O’Donnell… sure. But Jamie Lee Curtis? Sophia […]

Filed under: America Ferrera, Celebrities, Fat Positive, Kate Winslet, Marilyn's Law, Queen Latifah, Question, Rosie O'Donnell, WLS | 35 Comments »

There is a rumor going around that Mo’Nique, author of Skinny Women Are Evil, is having weight loss surgery. Even though it’s just a rumor, I think the responses to this news are really interesting. Once again at this point it’s just a rumor, but if proven to be true it will amount to yet […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Gossip, Mo'Nique, Queen Latifah, Question, WLS | 81 Comments »