This program opens with a litany of insurance statistics relating to problems from being overweight. Dr. Harry F. Klinefelter, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, explains charts showing the mechanical, metabolic, degenerative, and psychological complications of obesity as well as the issues of decreased life expectancy, malignant disease (cancer), and cirrhosis of the liver. He points out that the basic problem is overeating, or taking in more calories than the body requires for energy. However, since the basal metabolism and average daily metabolism varies by person, two people of similar build may have quite different food requirements. Dr. Klinefelter compares people to cars of similar size that get different mileage due to variations in their engine construction and design. He displays average height and weight tables, which don't consider body build and bone structure, and thus are merely guidelines. Dr. Eugene Meyer, psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, discusses the psychological factors in weight reduction. Compulsive eating begins when one habitually seeks comfort and satisfaction through eating, creating the cycle described by Dr. Hilde Bruch. This pattern may also begin by filling a sense of loss or emptiness with food or by mothers habitually consoling a child with food. Dr. Klinefelter explains that for weight reduction fat must be metabolically burned. Massage and strenuous exercise are both ineffectual in doing this. Since losing more than two pounds per week is dangerous, Dr. Klinefelter recommends a long-term balanced diet, limiting high calorie foods such as bread, potatoes, butter, and cereal and eliminating sweets. He also suggests eating three small meals each day, drinking 6-8 glasses of water per day, using the normal amount of salt, eating a well-balanced diet, and weighing only every two weeks on the same scale and the same time of day.