Samuel Blythe looks at fat with a sense of humor. He says that before the age of forty wanting to be thin is pure vanity. After 40 it becomes medical. Blythe says loosing weight is hard and there are no guarantees. His light-hearted approach covers up a serious topic that he has struggled with. His opening paragraph reads, oA fat man is a joke; and a fat woman is two jokes--one on herself and the other on her husband. Half the comedy in the world is predicated on the paunch. At that, the human race is divided into but two classes--fat people who are trying to get thin and thin people who are trying to get fat.o"