Designated Fat Girl: A Memoir

A brutally honest memoir of life as an obese woman—
the pain, humiliation . . . and hope

Jennifer Joyner was slowly killing herself with food. She didn’t know what to fear more: dying, or knowing that she was causing her own death. She was powerless to stop. She weighed 336 pounds. She had uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure. She’d lost jobs and friendships, and her marriage was hanging by a thread. She disgusted herself. She couldn’t even attempt a sex life. She’d never felt so desperate or alone.

Designated Fat Girl tells her story. It is a painfully honest account of Joyner’s experiences as an obese woman—of always having to buy new clothes that fit, pretending to order for two people at drive-through fast-food joints, the constant cycle of binge and regret, not fitting into her wedding dress, the cruel comments. It’s a story about her decision to have gastric bypass surgery and the resulting complications. In the end, it is also a story of recovery and survival.