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Book: Fat Boy Thin Man by Michael Prager

categories: Book, Obesity, Dieting, Overweight, Support, Mutual Support, Weight Loss, Food, Diet, Fat, Overeating, Compulsive Eating, Food Addiction

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Michael Prager

about this book: The burden of being a fat kid is usually heavier than the weight itself — the scorn, or even bullying, of classmates, the shame, and the sadness of missed opportunities. For some kids, the problem is poor habits, or they are reacting to a specific trauma — of loss, or abuse, of loneliness.

Spurred by a goal or helped by therapy, many kids can simply grow out of it. But for kids with genetic tendency toward addiction, unhealthy uses of food can lead to food addiction, from which there is no return, although there is recovery.

In his book, "Fat Boy Thin Man," author Michael Prager uses memoir techniques to explain and demonstrate the existence and experience of food addiction. Food addiction is increasingly underscored by scientific research but is not yet accepted by mainstream medicine or understood in popular culture, leaving potentially tens of millions of people undiagnosed and therefore untreated.

The author was a fat kid whose obese adolescence lasted into his mid-30s, but has now been enjoying an enriched life in a normal-sized body for 20 years and counting. After years of losing weight and immediately regaining it, the key change was accepting that he could be a food addict, and exploring the ideas, attitudes, and treatments that have been helping addicts recover for decades.

This book shares the process, and the journey.

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Video 1: Michael Prager was interviewed for a national network news story on food addiction
Video 2: Author Michael Prager shares some of the ideas and perspectives from his popular book