For those not familiar with The Fat Man Walking, he is Steve Vaught, an obese man who recently spent 13 months walking across the US in order to lose weight. He made himself into a media celebrity and signed a $250,000 book deal along the way.
Steve claims of his starting weight range from 400 to 420 pounds, depending on what interview you read. Around the time of the photo of him standing by the tent, he reported that he had already shed 30 pounds. Or 40. Sometimes it was reported as 50 or 60.
At the end of the trip, he claimed to have lost “over 110 pounds”. Many people commenting online opined that he actually looked fatter at the end than the start. News stories in the weeks following the end of his journey began reporting lower and lower weight loss figures. It went from “over 110 pounds” to “about 110 pounds” to “over 100 pounds” to “about 100 pounds”. A recent article about Vaught in the San Diego Union Tribute stated that the loss was 90 pounds.
Does anyone (besides Steve of course) know for sure what the facts are here regarding thefatmanwalking’s weight loss claims?
His FAQ says 102, but it is outdated by about 6 months. http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/page/65947/#B
“As of 02 17 2006 I weigh 308 lbs and I started this walk at approximately 410 lbs so the answer is obviously 102 lbs. Now for the hard part, so what!”
Something is just a little odd here with these numbers. You’d think he would have had an offical, public weighing at least at the start of the much media-hyped trip. Stepping on the scale at the end and showing a 100 lb (or whatever it was) would seem to be the thing to do. And I gotta say, he does actually look larger in the “after” pic than before. What an odd story.
On his site he mentions that he cut his walk short to take on the book deal and now he is planning on walking again to do it right this time. I don’t know how much weight he lost, but maybe he should have purchased a treadmill and talked to a shrink rather than walking across the country since there doesnt seem to be a noticable difference in his size and still has the same problems he had before he started.
From that article from San Diego it sounds like it wasn’t any kind of media thing when he started. he was just trying to walk away from his demons. Then he started getting big coverage when he was in the middle of the trip. I don’t think he did a lot of planning…
He must have been stuffing himself along the way only to have lost 25% of his bodyweight (if that’s true). Or walked really slowly. I managed to lose 30lbs during just ten days of hillwalking in Nepal, without even trying.
Fat, depressed guy decides to walk across America. He’s going forth on the journey of a life time. Leaving his demons behind. Doing a complete 180 in lifestyle. People start to connect with him because how can this NOT be a hope-filled story of redemption?
Instead, he winds up more broke than before he left, divorced. Seemingly just as fat. He blew his book deal money and now owes the publisher money. He’s living in a hotel room. He kind of says he has peace of mind, but can’t really articulate it.
They should write more stories like this.
That article said that they shot film for a documentary. Man, I hope that gets made.
I just found his yahoo group. What a weird place. From what I can gather, it is populated mostly by a group of super-obese women who almost seem like fat-enablers. Currently they are angrily attacking a member who questioned why Steve is eating nothing but fast food. They say he has “no choice” but to eat Mickie D’s 3 times a day…
I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy. He created an opportunity (unintentionally, it seems) but he couldn’t handle it and he squandered it – I’m okay with that, and don’t fault him for it.
But now:
Shit-fire, man, i]I* want to travel the world too. I love to write and I love to walk around downtown, and I don’t get to do as much as I’d like of either because I have a job that I need to keep to earn money so that I don’t live in a 9 x 9 room in a flophouse with a hallway that smells of urine. If you have to get a job, then it was all for nothing? Then it was all for nothing, my friend.
I don’t diminish his accomplishment, but damn. Things didn’t work out. Pull yourself together and move on. If there are psychological reasons you can’t, then get help, so you can live a productive life. But the idea that your remarkable accomplishment exempts you from having to support yourself is ridiculous.
It’s steak fried the way fried chicken is, and I believe served with wonderfully fatty gravy. I’ve always longed to try it but am trying to eat more healthfully. Woot! Vermont is on the less obese end (no thanks to me).
Steve has made no excuses, at least so far, of any “metabolism/thyroid” problems. He has readily admitted that his obesity is solely the result of his own bad bahaviors, i.e. massivly overeating and not exercising.
If you have never tried it, you are missing out! Most Dennys type places serve it (IHOP, Waffle House) and it is best with two fried eggs, toast with butter and you can even throw in a couple pieces of sausage and bacon!
