Get off the scales and get on with life

How did thinness come to be the most important goal in so many people’s lives? Margaret Steele’s new philosophy course at UCC explores the dangerous ‘Operation Transformation worldview’ predominating today: if you are fat, you must have given in.

In 1863, William Baning’s weight loss was the talk of London. His pamphlet, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, in which he described how he had lost over three stone, was devoured by readers.

So what was his secret? What crazy, olde-worlde methods were used to shed pounds in 1863?