This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World -- and Me

by Marisa Meltzer

Overview

From a contributor to The Cut, one of Vogue's most anticipated books "bravely and honestly" (Busy Philipps) talks about weight loss and sheds a light on Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch: "a triumphant chronicle" (New York Times).

Marisa Meltzer began her first diet at the age of five. Growing up an indoors-loving child in Northern California, she learned from an early age that weight was the one part of her life she could neither change nor even really understand.

Fast forward nearly four decades. Marisa, also a contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Times, comes across an obituary for Jean Nidetch, the Queens, New York housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963. Weaving Jean's incredible story as weight loss maven and pathbreaking entrepreneur with Marisa's own journey through Weight Watchers, she chronicles the deep parallels, and enduring frustrations, in each woman's decades-long efforts to lose weight and keep it off. The result is funny, unexpected, and unforgettable: a testament to how transformation goes far beyond a number on the scale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316413992
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	NOOK Book
Sales rank:	228,153
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in New York who has contributed to the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York,The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. She was born in Northern California and is the author of two previous books, How Sassy Changed My Life and Girl Power.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Prologue ix

Introduction 3

1 I Was Even a Fat Child 11

2 Is There a Typical Fat Girl? 23

3 Fat Is Just Who I Am 41

4 Sharing Is on a Voluntary Basis 53

5 We All Want Miracles 67

6 When I Fall, I Fall Hard 77

7 What Is Her Secret? 93

8 What Does Being Thin Even Mean? 103

9 The Message Is, I'm One of You 119

10 She'd Had Enough After One Bite 129

11 Thin Power 147

12 You're Visiting the Dark Side 169

13 I'm a Pusher 177

14 They'll All Be Gone by Valentine's Day 185

15 Living Off the Fat of the Land 193

16 He Broke the Social Contract 201

17 Eat, Eat-But Not Too Much 211

18 Healthy Busywork 219

19 Yes, She's Still Thin 233

20 An Inherent Distrust of Gurus 241

21 But I'm in Control of the Fork 255

22 This Tastes Sad 265

23 Losing Weight Can Be Magic 275

24 That's Progress for Me 281

Acknowledgments 289

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2020

Journalist Meltzer (Girl Power) delivers an insightful look at the business of weight loss, illustrated by her own attempts at it, and by those of late Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch. Meltzer begins by describing her relationship to the ubiquitous weight loss company, which, she once felt, existed only to torment her—Meltzer was a Weight Watchers dropout by the age of nine. After coming across Nidetch’s obituary in 2015, however, Meltzer was surprised to find her longtime bête noir both relatable and inspirational—a woman who lost 70 pounds, and kept it off, and confronted 1960s sexism to found a now-global company. Meltzer explores how Nidetch and Weight Watchers changed with the times, in the ’70s moving into creating exercise plans, nutrition educational campaigns, and other offerings outside of its originally single-minded focus on dieting. One especially intriguing point Meltzer raises is the innate narcissism in dieting—both her own and that of the celebrities she regularly interviews for magazine profiles. The result is a thoughtful exploration of how to make diet choices on one’s own terms, rather than in “fear of the final weigh in.” Agent: Jen Aevitas Marshall, Creative Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Named a Best Book of the Year by 
Glamour 
Esquire 
Real Simple 
 

"Her life changed dramatically as she realized you can live a big life at any size."—People

"A triumphant chronicle... Meltzer has created singular companionate text for those who know the agony of frustration surrounding weight as an issue, both personal and political. Acerbic, culturally astute and genuine, [Meltzer] makes exquisite company in the struggle."—New York Times

"Meltzer writes movingly of her own struggles with having a body, but her experiment isn't the exclusive focus of the book:
It also chronicles the life of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch, whose vaudevillian comic timing, retrograde ideas about fat and happiness, and unconcealed desire for fame and connection make her a fascinating subject."—Vox

"Marisa
Meltzer's new Weight Watchers biography feels surprisingly in sync with the emotional arc of isolation eating."—Wall Street Journal Magazine

"If you've ever been critical of diets, diet companies, and diet culture in the past, you're going to love what Meltzer has to offer here."—Bustle

"Not a memoir of radical self-acceptance or saccharine inspiration, but a candid - at times dark - look at what it means to be an overweight woman in
2020."—Los Angeles Times

"This heartfelt, incisive book layers the story of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch with the author's own lifelong journey through various fad diets. What emerges is a surprising portrait of a remarkable but little-known life in business, as well as a thoughtful critique of America's obsession with thinness."—Esquire

"This is Big...[finds] in Nidetch both a genuine pioneer - a woman who built a massive culture-defining business as a time when women couldn't even have their own credit cards - and a representative of many ideas about weight and health that are as destructive as they are enduring."—Vanity Fair

"Meltzer looks at her own pursuit of weight loss and uses it to illuminate our culture's relentless focus on thinness."—Washington Post

"[This] brilliant book tells the story of thinness obsession through the lives of two women-Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers, and Meltzer herself."—Glamour

"One writer describes her lifelong journey with Weight Watchers and exploration of its founder's life, finding the latter more relatable and moving than she expected."—Vogue

"Meltzer looks at her own pursuit of weight loss and uses it to illuminate our culture's relentless focus on thinness."—The Daily Beast

"Inventive...Meltzer's own experience with weight loss."—Bitch

"This book is an honest, open exploration of one woman's relationship with her body as it exists in the world."—Here Magazine

"[Meltzer] writes with a voice that feels like you're chatting with one of your best friends, cracking jokes and digging into all the emotions you'd usually hide from others who aren't as close to you."—First for Women

"Journalist
Marisa Meltzer interweaves her personal dieting history with a compelling biography of Jean Nidetch, the woman who founded Weight Watchers. As the author chronicles her own journey through the popular program, she describes how
Nidetch-despite getting and staying thin-struggled at home and at work. In the end, Meltzer learns and grows in unexpected ways."—Real Simple

"The cleverly told story of both Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight Watchers,
and Meltzer's own lifelong battle with her body and her weight."—Kim France, Girls of a Certain Age

"Meltzer did a deep dive into Jean Nidetch, the
Queens, NY, housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963, for a book that is part biography, part memoir of her own lifelong journey with dieting."—New York Post

"Her story will resonate with readers who have struggled with weight and body image issues. A straightforward memoir of struggling with obesity and finding inspiration from the founder of
Weight Watchers."—Kirkus

"Meltzer's engaging history of Weight Watchers and candid account of her own dieting journey is a frank and affirming portrait of the ways women, in particular, have always coped with health and self image."
—Booklist

"Insightful...a thoughtful exploration of how to make diet choices on one's own terms."—Publishers Weekly

"This is Big is a brave, bold, funny, honest, riveting book that made me have every kind of feeling in the world."—Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up

"For anyone who has ever felt defeated by food, betrayed by their own body,
embarrassed for not only lacking the willpower to change their habits but also embarrassed by the desire to change their own body, Marisa Meltzer sees you,
has written this book for you because she is you. While simultaneously delving into the history of the woman who started Weight Watchers and bravely and honestly examining her own complicated relationship with food and weight,
Marisa has written a book that perfectly captures our country's obsession with THIN and the struggle with obesity at this moment in history."—Busy Philipps, author of This Will Only Hurt A Little

"Marisa Meltzer is an ingenious writer. This Is Big expertly weaves together two engaging tales: the charming, funny, and often heartbreaking account of Meltzer's lifelong attempts at bodily transformation, and the little-known story of a largely forgotten American icon Jean Nidetch, the irrepressible, pathbreaking entrepreneur who founded the now billion-dollar company Weight Watchers in her modest living room in 1963."—Nancy Jo Sales, author of American Girls and The Bling Ring

"This book was so good that I devoured it (with no guilt)! Meltzer shows us, through honesty, rawness and deep vulnerability, the complexities of living in a body that doesn't adhere to society's narrow beauty standards in an era that holds up body positivity as gospel."—Mara Altman, author of Gross Anatomy

"A witty and meaningful look at our obsession with weight and dieting; blending the story of the founder of Weight Watchers with her own saga, Marisa Meltzer crafts an amusing story with universal insights.''—SheilaWeller, author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -and the Journey of a Generation and Carrie Fisher; A Life On The Edge

"This book is an incredible hybrid: both a detailed study of an extraordinary American life, and a candid and revealing memoir. Meltzer is the biographer Jean Nidetech deserves, crafting a portrait of the woman and the world in which she lived. She's also a bracing memoirist, a warm and honest voice unafraid to offer readers the stuff of her own life to help us better understand the culture we now share. It's a remarkable feat."—Rumaan Alam, author of That Kind of Mother and Rich and Pretty

From the Publisher

2019-12-15
Parallel stories of a woman on Weight Watchers and the life of the woman who created the diet program.

When New Yorker and New York Times contributor Meltzer (Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music, 2010, etc.) came across the obituary for Jean Nidetch (1923-2015), the housewife who invented Weight Watchers, she decided she wanted to join the program and to learn more about Nidetch. As the author writes, she has struggled with her weight since she was a small child, and she was intrigued to learn how Nidetch overcame her own issues and created the internationally known diet program. Meltzer interweaves her story of weight gain and loss with that of Nidetch. The combination creates an informative picture of what life is like for obese women who constantly obsess about food. Nidetch's biggest downfall was eating boxes of chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies in the bathroom where no one could see her. It took an incident at the grocery store, when she was mistakenly identified as pregnant, to set her on the track to creating Weight Watchers. "To say that it was a moment that she would never forget," writes Meltzer, "that would define and transform the rest of her life, is an understatement." The author followed the program for a year and offers details about each month. She tried out various meetings but quickly got bored with her meals and eating only her allocated points for the day. Meltzer also discusses other diet plans, her struggles with finding men in her life who accepted her without judgment, and the frustrations she felt that her weight often defined her in other people's eyes before they got to know her. Her story will resonate with readers who have struggled with weight and body image issues.

A straightforward memoir of struggling with obesity and finding inspiration from the founder of Weight Watchers.

Kirkus Reviews

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