Last year, over 20,000 people joined the body electric study to change their sedentary screen-filled lives.

And guess what?

We saw amazing effects.

Now you can try NPR's body electric challenge yourself. Listen to updated and new

episodes wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley and my guest today is Ian Carmel, stand-up comedian and former

co-head writer of the Late Late Show with James Corden. He's written a new book about his life as part of the T-shirt Swim Club. The criteria

for this club, being a fat person in a skinny world. Growing up in Oregon, Ian describes

being a chubby kid in elementary school, weighing 300 pounds by middle school, and weighing over 420 pounds by the time he was 30.

For years, much of Ian's stand-up comedy centered around his body size.

Here's a clip from the 2018 Netflix special, The Comedy Line Up.

I matched with a woman on Tinder, and we were messaging back and forth it was very flirty and fun I was

excited about it and then she sent me the following message she said you're cute

you're like a chubby Jack Black. Jack Black is a fat person.

She told me I was cute like the chubier version of an already fat person.

And the worst funny is she's 100% right. I do look like a fatterjack black.

That's what I look. Like if you saw me on the cover of Us Weekly you'd be like oh Jack

get it together man come on

that was our guest today Ian Carmel performing in Netflix's The Comedy lineup. Since then, Ian

has lost over 200 pounds. But being a smaller body size is a new identity he's

still trying to get used to because so much of who he was is tied to his experiences as a fat guy.

A humiliating experience as a kid, navigating gym classes, airplane seats, and a relentless barrage of fat jokes from friends and

strangers and pop culture, all of which fueled his comedy.

...