What I Learned From “The Big Guy” Frank Payne (1962–2012)
Frank’s brave documentary shows it’s impossible for weight gain/loss to be tied to calories alone
I taught college English for two decades. Students usually came into these required classes with low motivation. I could have given traditional assignments and fought student apathy with tests and strict requirements. Instead, I chose to interest students by selecting readings and units that could directly benefit them — from career development to health.
One of the first units we worked on that increased motivation and interest in independent learning was food. We read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and viewed Super-Size Me, Morgan Spurlock’s entertaining and interesting documentary about eating only McDonald’s for 30 days.
In the course of her research, a nursing student found a new documentary for the list: My Big Fat Body (2009) starring comedian Frank Payne, aka “The Big Guy.”
Everyone was immediately interested in the story of this funny, humane, nice guy who stepped out of his comfort zone to get a full physical exam. Even before the exam, Frank filmed his large body in exercise shorts: in 360°. Right up front, Frank said he was morbidly obese, which he defined by being more than 100 pounds overweight.
Frank’s physical showed that he was in serious health trouble, with heart disease and joint problems.
Frank also showed his eating habits and described his relationship with food. The documentary filmed his pre-physical eating habits for 24 hours. Frank visited fast food drive-thrus and ordered enough food for ten people. He ordered delivery food and described a party of a dozen people who’d be consuming two pizzas, two bottles of soda, and several side dishes.
All together, Frank consumed over 20,000 calories in a single day: 100% of it junk or fast food.
We’ve all heard that a pound of “fat” is comprised of approximately 3,500 calories. Frank’s daily calorie consumption was so large that I started wondering: how could he eat so much and even continue to live? Even with a larger body, he couldn’t possibly have been burning 20,000 calories a day. Although Frank was morbidly obese, he wasn’t gaining weight at a rate of 4 to 5 pounds a day.
At the rate Frank ate, if it was just “calories in — calories out,” any human would weigh more than 1,500 pounds within just one year.
It wasn’t just me: several students noticed this phenomenon. “He must not be digesting most of that food,” said several students. That’s likely the truth. With such massive consumption, a lot of food probably was passing straight through Frank without any digestion.
“Food was my friend,” Frank said, as the film showed him eating two pizzas, drinking two large bottles of soda, spooning up a giant dish of ice cream, and consuming the extra sandwiches he’d ordered: alone in his apartment.
Students speculated that Frank seemed like a nice guy but his life was very limited. It seemed like it was taken up by food and his work as a comedian and actor and there was little time left over. Yet Frank spoke movingly of being his parents’ only child, and talked about how much he loved them.
He wanted to discover how he could become healthier: he said he wanted to live longer because of his parents.
The rest of the documentary focused on Frank’s work with nutrition and sports medicine experts as he embarked on a medically-directed and scientifically documented weight loss journey.
By the end, Frank was much healthier, had lost weight, and appeared to be on a positive, upward health journey.
I didn’t tell students, but I realized that Frank and I were about the same age. He died at age 50.
I empathized completely with Frank. He was honest, courageous, and straightforward in working with the physicians, physical trainers, and medical researchers shown in the film.
Yet at the same time, due to our culture’s cruel and wrong messaging, I couldn’t help myself from thinking that Frank was a man I’d never date even as kind, caring, and funny as he seemed.
I felt even worse about thinking this way, because we learned that by the time we were watching this documentary, Frank had died. The film was made in 2009, and Frank died of a massive heart attack in 2012.
I don’t know if Frank’s food addiction returned following his health journey or not. It’s more than possible that he had already damaged his heart too much. Even losing weight and improving his health was unable to save him.
From what I’ve been able to learn about Frank Payne, he was almost universally liked and loved in the comedy community. He joked endlessly about being “The Big Guy” and that alone is sad enough, that his humor had to relate only to his size. The documentary about his weight loss is fascinating and educational. And, he is so honest and straightforward about his disordered eating and food addiction, as well as everything he feels and experiences.
It’s one of the best short documentaries I’ve ever seen.
And now that I know what I do about how highly-processed food poisons us, and addicts so many of us, I am so sorry that Frank lost his life to these foods.
Frank taught me that it’s impossible for the “calories in-calories out” concept of eating to be true. And he showed me that fat phobia and fat prejudice is incredibly wrong and bad. He was a great man and gone too soon.
You can watch Frank Payne’s documentary My Big Fat Body here: