[MUSIC PLAYING]
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): I'm Meghan Crumpler, 42,
and I'm from Stockbridge, Georgia.
The only two good things about being fat
is one, you can't get kidnapped, and two,
you age good because the fat fills in your wrinkles.
But there are so many things negative about being fat.
Oh, god, I'm going to pee.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): Being this large
makes it hard to get to the restroom on time.
So I've been improvising with a pee pad on the floor.
I just had to kind of say [BLEEP]
it and go with the flow, ca--
literally flow.
[LAUGHS] Sorry.
But when I was little, my mom actually
worried I was too skinny.
I started having trouble with my weight around 16 or 17.
And then I got into a bad marriage that was abusive,
and I think I ate my problems away.
I was about 27 years old when I left my husband.
Here you go, baby.
Some coffee.
Thank you.
I figure this might make you feel a little bit better.
I met Jon about 10 years ago playing video games online.
And he was living in California.
I love you.
I love you too, sweetie.
I love Meghan to the world and back.
Everything that she does.
She's such a wonderful person.
She has such a kind, sweet heart.
Almost get tripped up.
Baby, I need help.
I'm trapped.
Babe?
JON: Ooh.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): Being the size that I am,
my lungs just can't keep up.
So now I wear oxygen 24/7.
I always get tangled up there.
There you go.
Thank you.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): I've got a 50-foot cord.
I call it my ball and chain.
Oh, God help me.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): On top of that,
I have fibromyalgia, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes.
I fear for my life daily because of my weight.
There are nights that I lay in bed and pray,
God, please don't let this be it.
Because you feel a pain and you're like,
am I going to have a heart attack?
About a month ago, everything changed.
My daddy passed away from kidney failure.
On my dad's deathbed, he wanted nothing
more than for me to get better.
I made a commitment to my father that I
would live life to its fullest.
My next step is to have bariatric surgery.
And I'm going to do it.
[PANTING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh.
I'm here to meet my friend.
All right.
Just two?
MEGHAN: Yeah.
I brought a stool with me.
Is that OK?
HOSTESS: Yeah, that's fine.
I feel a little safer.
I don't go to restaurants on a normal basis
because of my size.
HOSTESS: You could put your stool right here.
That'll work. Thank you.
HOSTESS: You're welcome.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): Everywhere I go, I
have to bring a stool along and feel like I can get in it
and not have to worry on whether or not
it's going to collapse on me.
Love you.
Love you, too.
MEGHAN (VOICEOVER): Now that I've
decided to have bariatric surgery,
I really can't wait to share the news
with my best friend Vannessa.
I'm going to try to convince her to have it,
too, because both of us are pretty big people.
Oh, god.
MEGHAN: I'm ready to change my life,
and I don't want to leave Vannessa behind.
Hey, how you doing?
HOSTESS: Hi, I'm great. How are you?
Doing good. Meeting a friend.
HOSTESS: OK, right this way, please.
Well hey, darling.
Where's my hug?
[GRUNTING]
[LAUGHTER]
I love you, girl, how you been?
It's been forever.
I'm Vannessa and I am 41.
I met Meghan in junior high.
This girl has been with me ride or die through it.
And if anybody says anything to me, she got my back.
I used to threaten them with other things.
Now I just say, I'm going to sit on your ass.
Leave her alone.
I have not been in a restaurant in forever.
See, I haven't been able to go to a restaurant
because I'm embarrassed of the tables, the chairs.
That's why-- I know.
That, and people watch you eat.
Somebody the other day--
I pulled up at the gas station, was pumping gas,
and from across the parking lot, called me a fat B-I--
from across a parking lot.
I sat in my car and cried for 10 minutes.
Somebody never met me and didn't know me.
People are extremely judgmental of people my size.
They think that we're just nasty people.
We sit on our butts, we eat, we don't bathe,
we don't take care of ourselves.
And it's not true.
I'm the same as a woman that weighs 150 pounds.
Just because I've got extra skin doesn't make me any different.
My heart still works, my brain still works,
and I still have emotions.
You're like me.
We are so beautiful.
Yeah, we big, we got a little-- but we pretty.
I feel I'm a really strong woman in the sense
that mentally and physically, I have been through a lot.
Growing up through poverty, I remember
being four or five years old, living
in the car with my mother.
I was big because my mother comforted me with food.
Any time I cried, I was happy, anything, she gave me a cookie,
gave me a cookie.
School growing up for me was rough.
I was actually being bullied and picked on real bad.
Meghan came along and became my best friend.
She went to the person and she was like,
excuse me, what are you doing?
No, we don't need to pick on anybody.
I mean, she went off.
She was cussing them out, you know?
I had you as my friend to carry me through.
And Meghan, there's been so many times
that you were the only reason that I woke up the next day.
Please don't make me cry.
Because you gave me hope.
You gave me strength.
Meghan's an amazing person.
Shucks.
It took me a while to get OK with being big.
I'm still not OK with it.
I'm not OK with it in the sense it's like, I don't feel
comfortable in my own skin.
I'm afraid to pee on myself.
Oh, I do that all day.
I'm not-- I'm not worried about that.
I mean, you know I cough, you're like mm!
Oh goodness.
Yeah.
I pee on myself 15 times a day.
PRODUCER: Do you wear a diaper?
No, because--
They don't make them to fit us.
Got, like, three pair of pants in my car
so I can change pants.
We can make cloth diapers.
We should go into business.
Oh, I could make some things for big women
because I'm going to tell you, we need a piece of cloth--
We could make cloth diapers for big girls.
--that goes up under right here and goes in between--
Under your drawers.
--your vagina rolls--
or ball rolls.
If you're a dude, you got balls, and you
still got a roll down there.
But they have to be sexy.
I don't want the guy to touch my butt and feel a diaper.
[IMITATING CRINKLING NOISE] That little noise when you war--
I am not--
I'm talking about cloth diapers.
Like you re-wash them.
VANNESSA: Are we going to eat, or are we going to talk?
What are you going to get? - I'll let--
You want to go first or you want me to go--
I'll let you go first.
OK.
I want to get your sampler platter.
All right, and let me get the three tacos and a flan.
WAITRESS: OK.
Please.
What you getting, love?
Can you order taco salads without the shell?
WAITRESS: Of course.
What kind of meat would you like?
MEGHAN: Grilled chicken.
And I'm going to stick with the water.
WAITRESS: OK.
Why are you not eating?
That's not food, that's a bird.
MEGHAN: That's what I want to talk to you about.
I'm not happy being like this.
VANNESSA: Oh no.
I'm miserable.
And it's not about vanity.
It's about not living.
Like, I'm sitting on the sidelines,
looking at people's pictures going on vacations,
running down the beach, having kids, and living life.
And I'm sitting at home on a stool and can't breathe.
I found this doctor.
He does weight loss surgeries.
And I think Dr. Procter, he could save your life.
I don't want to.
I mean, let him do it for you.
But I can walk.
I can drive.
I get around.
I do ev-- MEGHAN: But for how long?
I mean, I take care of my kids by myself.
But for how long?
Do you not want to see your gr-- kids have kids?
I do.
MEGHAN: And watch them grow up?
But I feel that I will because I'm healthy.
I mean, now I'm diabetic.
You're not-- you're not healthy, Vannessa.
I mean, I just got diagnosed with diabetes a month ago.
That is crazy.
Yeah, my health is pretty messed up.
But I don't see me changing my eating.
I don't see me changing what I want to do
and how I want to do it.
This is my life, my lifestyle, and how I'm going to live it.
Why I want to add surgery or losing weight?
I'm good.
It took me years to get used to this fat, big body
that I've got, and I think I'm the most beautiful woman alive.
I am Beyonce, just white.
I don't want to lose you.
I just lost my daddy.
And I don't want to lose you.
And the way that we're going right now,
it could happen any day.
But you know that, right?
Did you know that you can die having surgery?
MEGHAN: I have more of a chance of dying without surgery.
Look at me.
I'm chained to this.
I can't-- I can't even go to the restroom
without being out of breath.
[CRYING]
VANNESSA: It's going to be all right, baby girl.
It is.
But let me tell you something.
I love you.
I love you very much.
And I love me, but I'm not doing surgery.
I'm not going to have surgery.
Ooh, wonderful.
Yes.
WAITRESS: Bring you some chips and salsa, your appetizer.
MEGHAN: Vannessa puts on a front.
Vannessa says she's OK with being overweight.
But truly, deep down inside, I know Vannessa is not happy.
I want this to be a journey, a lifestyle change for the both
of us.
It's about not dying.